The Story of Majorca and Minorca

by Sir Clements R. Markham

Wellington appreciated the great qualities of this illustrious Majorcan soldier. He recorded his sense of Romana’s services in the following tribute to his memory: ‘In Romana the Spanish army has lost its brightest ornament, his country their most upright patriot, and the world the most strenuous and zealous defender of the cause in which we are engaged. I shall always acknowledge with gratitude the assistance which I received from him, as well by his operations as by his counsel, since he had been joined with this army.’[26] The body of the great Majorcan was conveyed to his native island. The funeral took place with all possible solemnity on June 4, 1811, and a monument was voted by the Cortes.

The monument is on the east wall of one of the northern side-chapels in the cathedral. The recumbent figure of the Marquis of Romana rests on a tomb, all in white marble, and beside it is another figure, pointing upwards, supposed to be the Duke of Wellington. Below there is a bas-relief with Romana and Admiral Keats superintending the embarkation of Spanish troops and baggage at Nyborg, in the island of Funen.

The son of the great general, also named Pedro, succeeded as fourth Marquis of Romana, and married Doña Tomas Alvarez de Toledo y Palafox, Duchess of Montalto. He died in 1848, and was succeeded by Don Pedro Caro, the fifth Marquis, who married a Hungarian lady of rank, Isabel Szechenyi Zichy-Ferraris. She built the castle of Bendinat, as has already been mentioned; but afterwards disposed of all the Caro property in Majorca, and went to Madrid, where her son, the present and sixth Marquis of La Romana, now resides.

Every visitor to Palma should go to the tomb of the illustrious Majorcan, whose splendid career was so closely connected with most interesting episodes in English history. Romana was the intimate friend of Hookham Frere, one of the most distinguished among the diplomatists and men of letters of the last century; and he won the esteem and friendship of the great Duke of Wellington.

At the same time that the corrupt government of Godoy sent the Marquis of Romana and fourteen thousand patriotic soldiers to Denmark, an equally illustrious man was sent a prisoner to Majorca. Jovellanos is connected with the island, not as a native, but as one whose iniquitous imprisonment won for him the warm sympathy of the islanders.

Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos was born at Gijon, the chief seaport of the Asturias, in 1744, and received a liberal education. After a close study of civil and canon law, he became a judge at Seville, and afterwards at Madrid. He was a student of political economy and history, while he also attained eminence as a poet. His prose writings proved him to be a philosophical statesman as well as a very able man of letters. His liberal views were not acceptable to the favourite of Charles IV., and Jovellanos was sent into exile in his native province of Asturias. In 1797 he was recalled and became Minister of Justice. But Godoy still hated his enlightened opinions, and in the following year he was again banished to the Asturias.

The wretched favourite of Charles IV. was not yet satisfied. In 1801, in violation of law and decency, the illustrious statesman was seized in his bed, hurried across Spain like a common criminal, and sent a prisoner to Majorca. At first he was confined in the Cartuja at Valdemosa, but after a year he was removed to a prison in the castle of Belver. He was treated with such rigour that almost all communication with the outer world was cut off.

Latterly he was allowed to receive papers, and was even enabled to make researches in the archives. We are indebted to Jovellanos for an excellent account of the building of the cathedral and for learned pamphlets on the ‘Lonja’ and on the castle of Belver.

At last came the fall of the favourite and the abdication of Charles IV. This at once led to the liberation of Jovellanos, who was welcomed back and received the admiration of his countrymen for his great services and for the calm patience with which he had endured his unjust sufferings. He represented Asturias in the Central Junta at Seville, and on its dissolution he returned to his home in the hope that he would be allowed to end his days in peace. He was at Gijon, his native town, when the French made the sudden incursion into the Asturias in the hope of capturing the Marquis of Romana. He sought safety on board a small vessel, which landed him at the little port of Vega. There he died on November 27, 1811, at the age of fifty-seven. Ticknor, who was well acquainted with the writings of Jovellanos, wrote of him that ‘he left behind him few men, in any country, of a greater elevation of mind, and fewer still of a purer or more irreproachable character.’[27]

The old castle of Belver continued to be misused during the dark times of recent Spanish history for the imprisonment of Carlist and other political victims. But the interesting building is now declared to be ‘patrimonio real,’ is inhabited by courteous and intelligent guardians, and is pen to the public.