BERWICK, JAMES FITZ-JAMES (JIMMY), DUKE OF: French marshal, bastard son of King James of England. Educated in France, where he rose in the social hierarchy thanks to his merits and despite his illegitimacy. The winner of the Battle of Almansa, he stormed Barcelona in 1714, having taken over from the duke of Pópuli. Died in 1734 in mysterious circumstances, during the siege of Philippsburg, in Germany.
BUSQUETS, JAUME: Miquelet leader. His only mention in the histories is by Castellví, according to whom he tried in vain to take the town of Bourbon-controlled Mataró.
CASANOVA, RAFAEL: Catalan lawyer. In 1713 he took over political control of the besieged city of Barcelona. Wounded on September 11, 1714. Survived the period of Bourbon repression and resumed the practice of law.
CASTELLVÍ, FRANCESC DE: Minor Catalan noble who fought in Barcelona at the rank of captain. After 1714 he had to seek exile in Vienna, throwing himself upon the clemency of Emperor Charles. Lived a precarious life, devoting himself to writing the great chronicle of the War of Succession and the siege of Barcelona, his monumental Narraciones históricas (Historical narratives). He died without having managed to secure their publication. The original was not recovered until the nineteenth century.
CHARLES III: Austrian pretender to the Spanish throne. From 1705 to 1709, while engaged in his fight for the Spanish crown, he kept his court at Barcelona. In 1711, upon the death of his brother, he left for Vienna to be crowned emperor of the Germanic Holy Roman Empire, abandoning Catalonia to her fate.
CIGALET: Official executioner of the city of Barcelona. During the siege, he was caught looting one of the bombed houses and immediately condemned to death. As it happened, the sentence was carried out by his assistant and future son-in-law, who would take over his position.
COSTA, FRANCESC: Catalan artillery officer whose competence in arms was praised even by his adversaries. Had under his command a large group of Mallorcans, considered the best artillery soldiers of their day. Following the fall of Barcelona, Marshal Berwick offered Costa a position in the French army at a very high salary. Costa fled.
DALMAU, SEBASTIÀ: Member of an affluent Barcelona family who put himself at the service of the Generalitat after the Allies left the peninsula. The Dalmau family depleted their fortune in defense of the city, paying out of their own coffers for the maintenance of an entire regiment. Sebastià took part in the defense, suffered from the repression, and ended his days in Austria, serving Emperor Charles at the rank of lieutenant colonel.
DESVALLS, MANUEL: Governor of Cardona. After September 11, he went into exile in Vienna, like so many other notable pro-Austrians. Desvalls would live to a hundred. The fight in the interior of Catalonia was led by his brother Antoni.
DIAGO, FRANCISCO: Miner of Aragonés origin, a member of the brigade who managed to find the principal Bourbon mine that stretched beneath the walls of Barcelona.
DUCROIX, ARMAND: Fictional character.
DUCROIX, ZENO: Fictional character.
DUPUY: Cousin to Sébastien Vauban, who, like him, devoted himself to military engineering. Dupuy took part in the final stages of the siege of Barcelona and was seriously wounded at the battle of the bastion of Santa Clara. Over the course of his military career, he received as many as sixteen wounds in combat.
DUVERGER: Senior French officer killed in the fighting at the siege of Barcelona.
FERRER, EMMANUEL: Minor Catalan noble who distinguished himself as a councilor in the management of the city of Barcelona. During the 1713 debates, he was the spokesman for those in favor of resisting the Bourbon troops.
FORGOTTEN, MONSIEUR: Although Zuviría refers to Forgotten as “a cousin of the Duc d’Orléans,” historians have not been able to agree on which historical figure this might refer to. Some studies of the Zuvirian work have put forward the theory that Forgotten did not really exist but was a synthesis of a number of different characters. Thus Zuviría dramatizes all the contempt he felt for the aristocratic commanders who waged war without any technical knowledge and for their own personal gain.
FIVALLER, CARLES DE: Old Catalan deputy who embodied Catalonia’s parliamentary tradition. During the 1713 debates, and contrary to every prediction, he declared himself an ardent supporter of the proposal to attempt a defense of the city, which swayed a large proportion of the votes.
GALWAY, HENRY MASSUE DE RUVIGNY, COUNT OF: English soldier and nobleman of French origin, sent in 1704 to Portugal to command the Allied armies. Defeated by Berwick in 1707 at the decisive Battle of Almansa.
IN-A-TRICE: See Stanhope, James.
JIMMY: See Berwick.
JOSEPH I: Austrian emperor, brother to the pretender, Charles III of Spain. Upon Joseph’s death in 1711, Charles left Spain to declare himself the new emperor, which provoked a switch in alliances that led to Catalonia’s abandonment by the Allies.
LA MOTTE: French lieutenant colonel injured in the battle for Santa Clara. La Motte was the officer who finally succeeded in persuading Berwick to suspend the attack, even if this was a humiliation for the Army of the Two Crowns.
LITTLE PHILIP: See Philip V.
LOUIS XIV: King of France, nicknamed the Sun King. As the king of France, he launched an imperialist policy that would lead to the Spanish War of Succession. Despite the creation of Versailles and the magnificence of his court, by the end of his kingdom, the country had fallen into ruin. In 1714 the fall of Barcelona was celebrated with a Te Deum in Paris.
MARLBOROUGH: English soldier and aristocrat who, during the War of Succession, managed to defeat the French troops at Blenheim, Schellenberg, and Malplaquet, successively. However, he was accused of embezzling public funds and prolonging the war unnecessarily for his own personal gain, and in 1711 was stripped of his positions. Marlborough was a relative of Berwick, with whom he maintained a private correspondence despite the fact that they were fighting on opposing sides throughout the war.
MASSUE DE RUVIGNY, HENRY: See Galway.
MATEU, JOSEP: Barcelonan miner who was a member of the brigade that managed to find the Bourbon mine stretching beneath the walls of Barcelona just before it was set to explode.
MINAS, MARQUIS DAS: Portuguese general who led his country’s troops that took part in the Battle of Almansa. Das Minas was a veteran commander, aged over sixty. Although the role played by the Portuguese battalions at Almansa was subsequently heavily criticized by their English allies, there is no evidence to support their accusations.
MOLINA, FRANCESC: Barcelonan of Italian origin who led Barcelona’s mining brigades. During the siege, he led the anti-mine work and found the principal Bourbon mine just as it was about to be blown.
MORAGUES, JOSEP: Catalan leader who fought the Bourbons outside the besieged city of Barcelona. At the end of the war, he was captured and executed. His skull was kept on display for over a decade on one of the gates into the city, as a warning against future rebellions. In the nineteenth century, the character of Moragues was retrieved by the Spanish romantic movement, who converted him into a mythic figure in the story of Catalan liberties.
NAN: Fictional character.