She was one of the first iron-hulled (hull that was made of wood lined with an iron sheet) warships ever built and one of the first to see action in a naval battle.

Due to diplomatic action by the Republic of Texas she was delivered unarmed as a merchant ship with her guns in her hold.

Lord Aberdeen of the British Foreign Office decided that arms might be placed on the vessels so long as they were not mounted in English ports, and the Guadaloupe sailed in June despite Republic of Texas protests.

[citation needed] The Texas Navy commander Moore hoped to encounter the Guadalupe separate from her escort Montezuma.

[9][10] Austin and Wharton made for the Yucatán coast and encountered the Mexican squadron on 30 April 1843 between Lerma and Campeche.

[14] He described Guadalupe as a good gun platform and felt that they had hit the Texan sloop-of-war Austin about 12 times with 68-pounder shells causing her to withdraw from the action of 16 May 1843.

[15] Guadalupe remained in the Armada de Mexico until 1847, by which time the fate of Yucatán had been decided, when she and Montezuma were sold to raise money for the continuing land hostilities with the United States.

They were sold to Spanish authorities in Cuba by General Antonio López de Santa Anna, in order to raise funds for Mexico's defense from the U.S. invasion in 1846-1848.

[17] In 1849 the Castilla and León were used with two other Spanish steam ships to intervene in Italy along with French forces during the suppressing of the Roman Republic (1849).

The resulting recognition from the Pope, Sardinia, Prussia and Austria strengthened the Spanish government versus its rival Carlist faction.