Francisco Xavier de Negrete y Adorno, 1st Duke of Cotadilla (1763–1827), was a Captain General of New Castile and, briefly, Viceroy of Navarre.
[1] He was, nevertheless, due to his high rank, a major political and military figure during that period in Spain, playing a role for which he was heavily criticised, and was one of the many leading military and political figures, such as the Duke of Frías, the Count of Montarco, O'Farrill, Azanza, Cabarrús, Mazarredo, Urquijo, and Negrete's father,[2] the Duke of Campo de Alange, who were declared traitors and outlawed by the Supreme Central Junta in May 1809,[1] exactly a year after the Second of May Uprising.
[1] Promoted to colonel of the Valencia Regiment in 1784, during the War of the Pyrenees he participate actively in the invasion of Roussillon, leading General Ricardos' vanguard into Saint-Laurent-de-Cerdans, the first Spanish unit to enter French soil.
[1] Following the Second of May Uprising,[note 1] during which Negrete gave the order, in full accordance with the Junta and the minister of War, O'Farrill's instructions, for Spain's troops to be confined to barracks, an order which, according to Juan Pérez de Guzmán y Gallo, Secretary of the Real Academia de la Historia from 1913 to 1921, and author of what is considered the most important study of the events around that uprising,[1] stated "cannot but be considered prudent, despite all the criticism", given the overwhelming superiority of the French forces.
[1] Following the Allied Anglo-Portuguese victory at the Battle of Salamanca, at Arapiles (July 1812), over twenty thousand afrancesados, including Negrete and his family, left Madrid for Valencia.