Alava, DON MIGUEL RICARDO DE,

Alava, DON MIGUEL RICARDO DE, a Spanish general, born of a noble family at Vittoria in 1771. At first a supporter of Joseph Bonaparte, he deserted to the winning side in 1811, and soon attracted the favourable notice of Wellington, who made him a general of brigade. Soon after the restoration of Ferdinand VII., Alava was appointed ambassador to the Hague. He returned to Spain in 1820 after the revolution, was sent as a deputy to the Cortes, and soon became a leader in the party of the Exaltados, voting for the suspension of the royal authority. The re-establishment of absolute monarchy in the Peninsula drove him a political refugee to Brussels and England, till, at Ferdinand's death (1833), he was recalled by the regent Maria Christina, and sent on missions to London and Paris. He refused to swear to the revived constitution of 1812, declaring that he was tired of constantly taking new oaths; accordingly in 1837 he gave in his resignation, and retired to France, where he died at Barèges in 1843.