1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/O'Donnell, Henry Joseph
O’DONNELL, HENRY JOSEPH (1769–1834), count of La Bisbal, Spanish soldier, was descended from the O’Donnells who left Ireland after the battle of the Boyne.[1] Born in Spain, he early entered the Spanish army, and in 1810 became general, receiving a command in Catalonia, where in that year he earned his title and the rank of field-marshal. He afterwards held posts of great responsibility under Ferdinand VII., whom he served on the whole with constancy; the events of 1823 compelled his flight into France, where he was interned at Limoges, and where he died in 1834. His second son Leopold O’Donnell (1809–1867), duke of Tetuan, Spanish general and statesman, was born at Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, on the 12th of January 1809. He fought in the army of Queen Christina, where he attained the rank of general of division; and in 1840 he accompanied the queen into exile. He failed in an attempt to effect a rising in her favour at Pamplona in 1841, but took a more successful part in the movement which led to the overthrow and exile of Espartero in 1843. From 1844 to 1848 he served the new government in Cuba; after his return he entered the senate. In 1854 he became war minister under Espartero, and in 1856 he plotted successfully against his chief, becoming head of the cabinet from the July revolution until October. This rank he again reached in July 1858; and in December 1859 he took command of the expedition to Morocco, and received the title of duke after the surrender of Tetuan. Quitting office in 1863, he again resumed it in June 1865, but was compelled to resign in favour of Narvaez in 1866. He died at Bayonne on the 5th of November 1867.
There is a Life of Leopold O’Donnell in La Corona de laurel, by Manuel Ibo Alfaro (Madrid, 1860).
- ↑ A branch of the family settled in Austria, and General Karl O’Donnell, count of Tyrconnel (1715–1771), held important commands during the Seven Years’ War. The name of a descendant figures in the history of the Italian and Hungarian campaigns of 1848 and 1849.