Empecinado

Empecinado, DON JUAN MARTIN DIAZ, EL, one of the leaders of the Spanish revolution of 1820, was born in 1775, and entered the Spanish army in 1792. He carried on a guerilla warfare against the French during the Peninsular struggle, and acquired great distinction. In 1814 he was appointed colonel in the regular army, and the king himself created him field-marshal; but in consequence of petitioning Ferdinand, in 1815, to reinstitute the Cortes, he was banished to Valladolid. On the outbreak of the insurrection in 1820 he took a prominent part on the side of the constitutionalists; after the triumph of the absolutists in 1823 he was arrested, exposed in an iron cage to the contumely of the passers-by, and finally, while struggling with his executioners, stabbed by one of the soldiers.