Juan Prim

{{short description|Spanish Prime minister, general and statesman (1814–1870)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Juan Prim

| honorific_prefix = The Most Excellent

| image = Prim_madrazo.jpeg

| imagesize = 220px

| caption = Portrait by Luis Madrazo

| office = Prime Minister of Spain

| term_start = 18 June 1869

| term_end = 27 December 1870

| monarch = {{Unbulleted list|Vacant|(Francisco Serrano as Regent)|Amadeo I|(Nov–Dec 1870)}}

| predecessor = Francisco Serrano

| successor = Juan Bautista Topete

| office2 = Minister of War of Spain

| termstart2 = 8 October 1868

| termend2 = 27 December 1870

| primeminister2 = Francisco Serrano
Himself

| successor2 = Juan Bautista Topete

| predecessor2 = José Gutiérrez de la Concha

| office3 = Minister of the Navy of Spain

| status3 = Acting

| primeminister3 = Himself

| termstart3 = 6 November 1869

| termend3 = 9 January 1870

| predecessor3 = Juan Bautista Topete

| successor3 = Juan Bautista Topete

| office4 = Governor of Puerto Rico

| monarch4 = Isabella II

| term_start4 = 15 October 1847

| term_end4 = 12 July 1848

| predecessor4 = Rafael Arístegui

| successor4 = Juan de la Pezuela

| birth_name = Anton Joan Pau Maria Prim

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1814|12|6}}[https://arxiuenlinia.ahat.cat/Document/0000011270?c=e6f43cf7d33645513832e11f7b9ca135#imatge-611 Baptism inscription]

| birth_place = Reus, Spain

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1870|12|30|1814|12|6}}

| death_place = Madrid, Spain

| profession = Politician

| party = Progressive

| religion =

| nationality = Spanish

| alma_mater =

| signature = Firma Prim.svg

| allegiance =

| branch = Army

| serviceyears = 1834–1868

| rank = General

| unit =

| commands =

| battles = First Carlist War
Crimean War
First Hispano-Moroccan War
Second French intervention in Mexico
Glorious Revolution

| mawards = Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand (3)
Order of the Medjidie

}}

Juan Prim y Prats, 1st Count of Reus, 1st Marquis of los Castillejos, 1st Viscount of Bruch ({{IPA|es|ˈxwam ˈpɾin i ˈpɾats}}; {{langx|ca|Joan Prim i Prats}} {{IPA|ca|ʒuˈam ˈpɾim i ˈpɾats|}}; 6 December 1814 – 30 December 1870) was a Spanish general and statesman{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Juan-Prim|title=Juan Prim {{!}} Spanish statesman|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=2019-11-14}} who was briefly Prime Minister of Spain until his assassination.

Biography

Image:El general Juan Prim (Museo del Romanticismo de Madrid).jpg]]

Born in Reus on 6 December 1814,{{sfn|Rubio|1869|p=226–227}} Prim was the son of lieutenant colonel Pablo Prim.{{Refn|group=n.|According to W.O. Cavenagh (1898), writing for The Genealogical Magazine, Juan Prim was a descendant of John Prim, of Johnswell, county Kilkenny (d. 1755), an Irish descendant of a family of Dutch settlers originally surnamed Prime, established in England during the reign of Elizabeth I and a branch of which relocated to Ireland during the reign of Charles I. A descendant of Mark (d. 1782)—eldest son of John and his first wife Miss Rodgers—would have migrated to Spain, made a fortune and founded the Spanish branch.{{Cite journal|first=W.O|last=Cavenagh|journal=The Genealogical Magazine|date=July 1898|title=The Prims of Johnswell: An Episode of the Irish Wars|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogicalmaga2189unse/page/n101/mode/2up|pages=91–94}}}} He entered the free corps known as the tiradores de Isabel II and met his baptism of fire on 7 August 1834, during the First Carlist War, facing the Carlist party of Triaxet.{{Sfn|Rubio|1869|pp=227–228}}

Over the course of the war, he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and had two orders of knighthood conferred upon him. After the pacification of 1839, as a progressist opposed to the dictatorship of General Espartero, he was sent into exile. However, in 1843 he was elected deputy for Tarragona, and after defeating Espartero at Bruch he entered Madrid in triumph with General Serrano. The regent Maria Christina promoted him major-general, and made him conde de Reus (Count of Reus) and vizconde del Bruch (Viscount of Bruch).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

General Narváez, the prime minister, failed to understand what constitutional freedom meant, and General Prim, on showing signs of opposition, was sentenced to six years imprisonment in the Philippine Islands. The sentence was not carried out, and Prim remained an exile in England and France until the amnesty of 1847. He then returned to Spain, and was first employed as captain-general of Puerto Rico (Governor of Puerto Rico) and afterwards as military representative with the sultan during the Crimean War. In 1854 he was elected to the Cortes, and gave his support to General O'Donnell, who promoted him lieutenant-general in 1856. In the war with Morocco he did such good service at Castillejos (Fnideq), Cabo Negro, Guad al Gelu and Campamento in 1860 that he was made marqués de los Castillejos (Marquess of los Castillejos) and Grande de España (Grandee of Spain).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Prim commanded the Spanish expeditionary army in Mexico in 1862, when Spain, Great Britain, and France sought forced payment from the liberal government of Benito Juárez for loans. Prim was a sympathizer with the Mexican liberal cause, thus he refused to consent to the ambitious schemes of French emperor Napoleon III, and withdrew Spanish forces following a meeting with Manuel Doblado.Brian Hamnett, Juárez, New York: Longmans 1994, pp. 169, 278. Prim was a staunch supporter of the Union in the American Civil War and on his trip to the United States, where he visited New York and Philadelphia, he met with Lincoln in Washington.{{sfn|Fradera|2000|p=259}}

File:Joan Prim i Prats amb uniforme militar ANC1-59-N-492.jpg

On Prim's return to Spain, he joined the opposition, heading pronunciamentos in Catalonia against generals Narváez and O'Donnell. All his attempts failed until the death of Narváez in April 1868, after which Queen Isabella became increasingly tyrannical until at last even Serrano was exiled. In September 1868 General Serrano and General Prim returned, and Brigadier Topete, commanding the fleet, raised the standard of revolt at Cádiz. In July 1869 General Serrano was elected regent,{{cite book|author=John Da Graça|title=Heads of State and Government|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0YfDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA815|date=13 February 2017|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-349-65771-1|page=815}} and Prim became president of the council and was made a marshal.

On 6 November 1870 Amadeo, Duke of Aosta, was elected king of Spain, but General Prim, on leaving the chamber of the Cortes on 28 December, was shot by unknown assassins and died two days later.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oah7hKfoLNMC&q=Juan+Prim%2C+1st+Count+of+Reus+shor+by+unknown+people&pg=PA752|title=The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature|last=Baynes|first=Thomas Spencer|date=1891|publisher=M. Sommerville|language=en}} The Cortes took his children as wards of the country; three days afterwards King Amadeo I swore in the presence of the corpse to observe the new Spanish constitution.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} This is due to the fact that Prim had searched all the European courts of the time trying to find a monarch who was not opposed to being democratically elected. He is quoted for saying that "looking for a democratic monarch in Europe is like trying to find an atheist in heaven".{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} After France had rejected the almost-elected Leopold of Hohenzollern because of their fear that Prussia might thereby become more powerful, Amadeo of Savoy was the most fitting who consented.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}}

The workshop of metalworker Plácido Zuloaga was commissioned to make a monumental sarcophagus for Prim. Completed in 1875 in Eibar, this now resides in the cemetery at Reus.{{Cite book|last=Lavin|first=James D.|title=The art and tradition of the Zuloagas: Spanish damascene from the Khalili Collection|date=1997|publisher=Khalili Family Trust in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum|isbn=1-874780-10-2|location=Oxford|oclc=37560664|page=58}}

Gallery

File:Catalonia-Reus-Prim-Monument.jpg|Monument to Prim sculpted by Josep Llimona in Reus

File:Léo Taxil-Mystères de la Franc-Maçonnerie-gravure 82.jpg|Assassination of Juan Prim (drawing by Pierre Méjanel)

File:Amadeo I frente al féretro del general Prim de Antonio Gisbert 1870.jpg|"Amadeo I in front of the coffin of General Prim (1870)" by Antonio Gisbert

File:Placa conmemorativa asesinato de Prim.jpg|alt=Commemorative plaque|Commemorative plaque

References

;Informational notes

;Citations

;Bibliography

{{Cite book|url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/71821617.pdf|title=Historia Filosófica de la Revolución Española de 1868|first=Carlos|last=Rubio|location=Madrid|publisher=Imprenta y Librería de M. Guijarro|year=1869}}
{{EB1911|wstitle=Prim, Juan|volume=22|page=323}}
{{cite book |last=Fradera |first=Josep M. |author-link=Josep Maria Fradera |title=Liberales, agitadores y conspiradores. Biografías heterodoxas del siglo XIX |date=2000 |editor1=Isabel Burdiel |editor2=Manuel Pérez Ledesma |publisher=Espasa Calpe |location=Madrid |isbn=84-239-6048-X |chapter=Juan Prim y Prats (1814-1870). Prim conspirador o la pedagogía del sable}}

;Further reading

{{cite book|last=Blairet|first=Louis |title=Le Général Prim et la situation actuelle de l'Espagne|location=Paris |year=1867}}
{{cite book|last=Guillaumot |title=Juan Prim et l'Espagne |location=Paris |year=1870}}
{{cite book|last=Guited|first=Gimenez y |title=Guited, Historia militar y política del General Don Juan Prim|location=Barcelona |year=1860}}
{{cite book|last=Léonardon|first=Henri|title=Prim|url=https://archive.org/details/primprim00leonuoft|location=Paris|year=1901}} (in French, contains a useful bibliography).
{{cite book|last=Schurz |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Schurz |title=Reminiscences |location=New York |publisher=McClure Publ. Co. |year=1907|volume=II |chapter=VI. Spain| pages=293–300}} Schurz was the United States' ambassador to Spain in 1860. In his Reminiscences, he gives a short biography of Prim as well as his recollections of his own talks with Prim and the Spanish court.

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927162640/http://193.146.129.47:7780/Cartografia/cartografi_DetalleImg.jsp?id_registro=BNE20000036751 Map] (1866) of the [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927162648/http://193.146.129.47:7780/Cartografia/cartografi_DetalleTxt.jsp?id_registro=BNE20000036751 approximate route of Prim from Ocaña to Portugal].

{{succession box|title=Governor of Puerto Rico|before=Rafael De Aristegui y Velez|after=Juan De La Pezuela y Cevallos|years=1847-1848}}

{{succession box|title=Prime Minister of Spain|before=Francisco Serrano y Domínguez, Duke de la Torre|after=Juan Bautista Topete y Carballo|years=1868-1869}}

Category:1814 births

Category:1870 deaths

Category:Military personnel from Catalonia

Category:Politicians from Catalonia

Category:Counts of Spain

Category:Deaths by firearm in Spain

Category:Royal governors of Puerto Rico

Category:Grandees of Spain

Category:Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand

Category:Marquesses of Spain