Toribio Montes
Born	7 May 1749 (baptised) San Mamés de Polaciones, Spain.
Died	31 December 1828[1] Murcia, Spain

Toribio Montes y Pérez (baptised 7 May 1749^[1] – 31 December 1830) was a soldier and Spanish colonial governor. He governed Puerto Rico between 1804 and 1809 and presided over the Royal Audience of Quito from 1811 to 1817.

Early years

Toribio Montes was born in the Cantabrian village of San Mamés, into a military family of rural hidalgos. His father, Pedro Montes-Caloca, was a lieutenant councilor and trustee for the entire Polaciones valley.

Career

In 1766,^[1] he joined the Prince's Infantry Regiment as a captain.^[1] He spent over four years garrisoned at Oran, where he was wounded at the Invasion of Algiers of 1775.^[1] He then transferred to the America Regiment, with which he participated in the siege of Gibraltar in 1779 and in the reconquest of Menorca.^[1]

In 1792 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and returned to the Prince's Infantry Regiment, seeing action in the War of the Pyrenees, at the Peyrestortes and Truillas.^[1]

At the beginning of 1794 he was promoted to brigadier and given command of the Murcia Regiment.^[1] The following May he was wounded and lost the use of three fingers of one hand. At the head of 3,200 troops covering the right flank of the Spanish forces, he was forced to withdraw to Rosas, where he embarked with one of his battaions to Girona. The other two had been taken prisoner by the French.^[1] On his arrival, he was appointed governor of Montjuic castle.^[1]

In 1802, after participating in the War of the Oranges, he was promoted to field marshal.^[1]

In 1804, he was appointed to occupy the Captaincy General of Puerto Rico, where he stayed for almost five years, distinguishing himself by his good government.^[2]

In November 1811, he was appointed president of the Royal Audience of Quito and commander-in-chief of the army in the province. In 1812 he was promoted to lieutenant general.^[1]

The resistance of the insurgents of the Confederated Cities of Valle del Cauca in the north of the governorate of Popayán forced Montes to appoint Lieutenant Colonel Vidaurrázaga for the occupation of Popayán on December 29, 1814. However, the Valle del Cauca and New Granada insurgents won the Battle of the Palo River on July 5, 1815, and the city fell into the hands of the Republican army on July 9. Montes understood that he required the services of Sámano, who was in Quito awaiting legal proceedings for his defeats in Palacé (1811) and Calibío (1814). He called Sámano back to service and offered Camilo Torres Tenorio, in charge of the Federal Executive branch of the United Provinces of New Granada, an honorable surrender that was energetically rejected.

Around those days, the military expedition of General Pablo Morillo arrived from Spain, made up almost entirely of ex-combatants from the war against the French on the peninsula. Morillo surrounded and took Cartagena de Indias and occupied Cachirí, while Sámano, who had left Pasto with 1,400 men, was fortified a few leagues from Popayán. in Cuchilla del Tambo in 1816, he defeated the insurgents under the orders of Lieutenant Colonel Liborio Mejía. Among those executed after that battle was Carlos Montúfar, former royal commissioner for Quito for the Regency Council.

Montes had to undo the orders executed during the Cadiz constitutional period, after the repeal of the Cádiz Constitution, in 1817 days after finishing his term as president of the Royal Court.

He left Quito on July 26, 1817, although he did not arrive in Spain until two years later, when he arrived in Cádiz on April 29, 1819. After appearing before the Minister of War in Madrid, he was appointed member of the orders of Isabella I of Castile and San Fernando, and later a member of the Military Junta of the Indies.

At age seventy-two, after sixty-three years in the army, Montes requested to retire to the city of Murcia. A few months later, the invasion of the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis took place, as a result of which the liberal authorities fled from Murcia province. After reestablishing absolutism, Montes was placed in command of the province until he was replaced on December 31, 1827. In April 1828 he asked the king to move to Madrid, to escape the poor quality of the water in Murcia that he says was not good for his health. His health may have deteriorated because he did travel to Madrid, dying in Murcia on January 1, 1829, at age seventy-nine.^[3]

References