Diego Fernández de Velasco

Diego Fernández de Velasco (8 November 1754 – 11 February 1811), was a Spanish noble, soldier and politician who supported the French during the Peninsular War, and who was therefore known as an Afrancesado.

Declared a traitor in 1808, his huge fortune was confiscated and he died, ruined and highly indebted, in Paris, where he is buried.

[1] He was born Diego López-Pacheco Téllez-Girón y Gómez de Sandoval, changing his name to Diego Fernández de Velasco López-Pacheco Téllez- Girón Toledo y Portugal Guzmán Tovar Enríquez Ayala Carrillo Cárdenas Monroy y Córdoba when he came into the title of Duke of Frías in 1776.

[1] Fernández de Velasco was appointed colonel of the Leon Infantry Regiment, unit that he himself had raised, in 1793, brigadier in 1794 and field marshal in 1795, seeing action against France during the War of the Pyrenees until the Peace of Basel (1795).

[1] When the French invaded Spain in 1808, he chose their side and taking on important duties in the government of Joseph Bonaparte.