José de Palafox y Melzi, Duke of Saragossa

José Rebolledo de Palafox y Melzi, Duke of Saragossa (es: José Rebolledo de Palafox y Melci, duque de Zaragoza; 1780 – 15 February 1847) was a Spanish general who fought in the Peninsular War.

He was born in Zaragoza, Aragon, into an old Aragonese family.

Brought up at the Spanish court, he entered the guards at an early age, and in 1808 as a sub-lieutenant accompanied King Ferdinand VII of Spain to Bayonne; but after vainly attempting, in company with others, to secure Ferdinand's escape, he fled to Spain, and after a short period of retirement placed himself at the head of the patriot movement in Aragon. He was proclaimed by the populace governor of Zaragoza and captain-general of Aragon (25 May 1808). Despite the want of money and of regular troops, he lost no time in declaring war against the French, who had already overrun the neighboring provinces of Catalonia and Navarre, and soon afterward the attack he had provoked began. Zaragoza as a fortress was both antiquated in design and scantily provided with munitions and supplies, and the defenses resisted but a short time. But it was at that point that the real resistance began. A week's street fighting made the assailants masters of half the town, but Palafox's brother succeeded in forcing a passage into the city with 3000 troops. Stimulated by the appeals of Palafox and of the fierce and resolute demagogues who ruled the mob, the inhabitants resolved to contest possession of the remaining quarters of Zaragoza inch by inch, and if necessary to retire to the suburb across the Ebro, destroying the bridge. The struggle, which was prolonged for nine days longer, resulted in the withdrawal of the French (14 August), after a siege which had lasted 61 days in all.

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