Jerónimo Girón-Moctezuma, Marquis de las Amarilas
| Jerónimo Girón-Moctezuma, Marquis de las Amarillas | |
|---|---|
| Born |
7 June 1741 Málaga, Spain |
| Died |
17 October 1819 (aged 78) Seville, Spain |
| Allegiance |
 Kingdom of Spain
|
| Rank | Lieutenant General |
| Battles/wars |
|
Jerónimo Morejón Girón-Moctezuma, 3rd Marquis de las Amarillas, born 7 June 1741 at Málaga and died 17 October 1819 at Seville, became a general officer in the army of the Kingdom of Spain and commanded division-sized combat units during the War of the Pyrenees in 1793 and 1794. Though he attained high rank, he displayed limited military talent. Shortly after succeeding to the top command of the Army of Catalonia, he was dismissed for blunders made on the battlefield.
Girón was born into a noble family at Málaga on 7 June 1741. His father was Pedro Morejón Girón y Ahumada and his mother was Bernarda de Moctezuma y Salcedo, a descendant of Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II. On 22 October 1770, he married Isabel de las Casas y Aragorri, who was six years his junior. Upon the death of his father, Jerónimo Morejón Girón became the 3rd Marquis de las Amarillas. His son Pedro Agustín Girón y de las Casas, born in 1778, became the 1st in 1836. Like his father, Pedro attained the rank of general officer in the army of Spain and fought in the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.
In April 1793, the Spanish Army of Catalonia led by Captain General (CG) Antonio Ricardos invaded Roussillon in the eastern Pyrenees during the French Revolutionary Wars. In May, the army opened the Siege of Bellegarde and captured the French fortress on 24 June. In early September 1793, Ricardos made a bid to capture Perpignan, the department capital.
Rather than mount a direct assault on the fortress, Ricardos swung two divisions around the western side of Perpignan to cut its communications with Narbonne. Lieutenant General (LG) Girón's division drove a French force out of Rivesaltes on 8 August. He then established a fortified camp on a hill just south of the village of Peyrestortes and six km northwest of Perpignan. Meanwhile, the division of LG Juan de Courten deployed only two km northwest of Perpignan, near Le Vernet. Ricardos began an artillery bombardment on the south side of the fortress. On the early morning of 17 September, the French Army of the Eastern Pyrenees under the temporary command of General of Division (MG) Eustache Charles d'Aoust attacked both Girón and de Courten in the Battle of Peyrestortes. The French were able to closely approach Girón's camp because he failed to post troops behind a ravine. The battle raged all day and into the evening, when both Spanish divisions withdrew after suffering heavy casualties. Ricardos retrieved the situation by a victory in the Battle of Truillas on 22 September. But Peyrestortes represented the high water mark of the Spanish invasion. After Truillas, Ricardos withdrew to the Tech River valley, where he successfully fended off several French attempts to drive the Spanish army across the border during the remainder of 1793.
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Wikipedia