Ramón Cabrera

Ramon Cabrera y Griñó (27 December 1806 – 24 May 1877) was a Carlist general of Spain. Count of Morella (Carlist title) and Marquis of Ter (Bórbon title).

He was born at Tortosa, province of Tarragona, Spain. As his family had in their gift two chaplaincies, young Cabrera was sent to the seminary of Tortosa, where he made himself conspicuous as an unruly pupil, ever mixed up in disturbances and careless in his studies. After he had taken minor orders, the bishop refused to ordain him as a priest, telling him that the Church was not his vocation, and that everything in him showed that he ought to be a soldier. Cabrera followed this advice and took part in Carlist conspiracies on the death of Ferdinand VII. The authorities exiled him and he absconded to Morella to join the forces of the pretender Don Carlos.

In this First Carlist War (1833–1839) he rose in a very short time by sheer daring, fanaticism and ferocity to the front rank among the Carlist chiefs who led the bands of Don Carlos in Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia. He raised his own army travelling from village to village. As a raider he was often successful, and he was many times wounded in the brilliant fights in which he again and again defeated the generals of Queen Isabella, such as at the Battle of Maella.

He sullied his victories by acts of cruelty, shooting prisoners of war whose lives he had promised to spare and not respecting the lives and property of non-combatants. The queen's generals seized his mother as a hostage, whereupon Cabrera shot several mayors and officers. General Agustín Nogueras unfortunately caused the mother of Cabrera to be shot also by firing squad as a reprisal. Cabrera vowed 'rivers of blood will flow in Catalonia' after her execution; and the Carlist leader then started upon a policy of reprisals so merciless that the people nicknamed him The Tiger of the Maestrazgo. He shot 1110 prisoners of war, 100 officers and many civilians, including the wives of four leading Isabelinos (Liberals), to avenge his executed mother.

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