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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Jovellar y Soler, Joaquin

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21907081911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 15 — Jovellar y Soler, Joaquin

JOVELLAR Y SOLER, JOAQUIN (1819–1892), captain-general of Spain, was born at Palma de Mallorca, on the 28th of December 1819. At the close of his studies at the military academy he was appointed sub-lieutenant, went to Cuba as captain in 1842, returned to the War Office in 1851, was promoted major in 1853, and went to Morocco as private secretary to Marshal O’Donnell, who made him colonel in 1860 after Jovellar had been wounded at the battle of Wad el Ras. In 1863 Jovellar became a brigadier-general, in 1864 under-secretary for war; he was severely wounded in fighting the insurgents in the streets of Madrid, and rose to the rank of general of division in 1866. Jovellar adhered to the revolution, and King Amadeus made him a lieutenant-general in 1872. He absented himself from Spain when the federal republic was proclaimed, and returned in the autumn of 1873, when Castelár sent him to Cuba as governor-general. In 1874 Jovellar came back to the Peninsula, and was in command of the Army of the Centre against the Carlists when Marshal Campos went to Sagunto to proclaim Alfonso XII. General Jovellar became war minister in the first cabinet of the restoration under Canovas, who sent him to Cuba again as governor-general, where he remained until the 18th of June 1878, when the ten years’ insurrection closed with the peace of Zaujon. Alfonso XII. made him a captain-general, president of the council, life-senator, and governor-general of the Philippines. Jovellar died in Madrid on the 17th of April 1892.