Salvador José de Muro y Salazar, 2nd Marquis of Someruelos, in Spanish: Marqués de Someruelos, (Madrid, 6 October 1755 – 12 December 1813), was a Spanish military officer who served as a lieutenant general of infantry and a field marshal in the Spanish Army, as captain general of Cuba and governor of Havana, and as president of the Real Audiencia of Puerto Príncipe.
Someruelos worked to continue the progressive policies of the former captain general of Cuba, Luis de Las Casas. He supported the introduction in 1803 of a smallpox vaccination program, and promoted public works such as the building of a theatre to encourage the arts, and of the Espada cemetery to improve sanitation. He encouraged social and cultural improvements in the country, and in 1800 and 1804 he was visited by the scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland.
Governor Someruelos, mindful of his duty to defend the Spanish colonies in the region of the Gulf of Mexico, rejected overtures by an expansionist United States to begin diplomatic negotiations when, during the height of the economic crisis in Cuba caused by the embargo of 1807, Thomas Jefferson sent Gen. James Wilkinson as an envoy to the Spanish authorities. Someruelos refused to meet him when he finally reached Havana in March 1809.
Although he was appointed to his office by the Spanish Crown, Someruelos took the side of the criollo planters in Cuban politics, whose interests were often opposed to those of the administrative authorities in Metropolitan Spain. He brutally suppressed revolts by enslaved blacks on the island, and in 1812 ordered the hanging of the political activist José Antonio Aponte and fellow conspirators, as well as the public display of their decapitated heads.
Early life
Someruelos was born in Madrid on 6 October 1755, the son of Pedro Salvador de Muro y Alonso, from an old hidalgo family in La Rioja, and Teresa de Salazar y Morales, a native of Medinaceli. Although the thirdborn of eight brothers, he inherited the title of Marquis of Someruelos in 1777 (his father died in 1774) because the two eldest sons had consecrated themselves to the Church. His parents had previously determined that he should inherit the family patrimony, and to prepare for him a career suited to his position, they made generous contributions to the leadership of the Toro regiment's provincial militias.
The young Someruelos was educated by the Jesuits at the Seminary of Nobles of Madrid (Seminario de Nobles de Madrid) and the cadet school of Avila (Colegio Militar de Avila). On 30 December 1769, at age fifteen, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Córdoba infantry regiment.
Military career
Someruelos had attained the rank of captain of infantry when he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Provincial Militia Regiment of Toro on 23 September 1783. He became a full colonel of militias on 22 September 1788. He married María de la Concepción de Vidaurreta y Llano, a native of Logroño, on 18 August 1791, and the couple moved into the Casa de los Chapiteles, a palace belonging to her family.
During the War of the Pyrenees (1793–1795), which was effectively the Pyrenean front of the First Coalition's war against the First French Republic, Someruelos was sent to the front lines at Guipúzcoa as commander of arms in the first battalion. On 10 October, he was promoted to colonel of infantry. Leading over 1,000 grenadiers, he was one of the officers in charge of reconnaissance during the Spanish campaign of 1794, in which he commanded two divisions of advance troops, often under enemy fire. He was made a brevet brigadier by April 1795.
After the Peace of Basel, signed on 22 July 1795, ended the War of the Pyrenees, Someruelos was promoted from colonel of militias to field marshal and assigned to the general staff of the Spanish Army at Navarre, enabling him to reside at his home in Logroño. His son Joaquín José, who became the 3rd Marquis of Someruelos, was born on 27 October 1797. In 1798, Someruelos was one of the officers in charge of organizing the campos volantes (flying camps) of Galicia, a mobile force ready to march against the British at any time.