[1] Although nothing is known of his early life, at the outbreak of the war, he had recently married and was running a prosperous business in La Puebla de Arganzón (Burgos), employing 26 "servants" to whom, in August 1809, he offered 100 billon reales for each Frenchman they killed and for each firearm they captured.

Shortly thereafter he was able to arm twelve of his men, and now offering 4,000 reales for each mail captured, they started intercepting the French Army's lines of communications.

[1] With the French authorities looking for him, he was forced to flee to La Rioja, where he joined, briefly, the guerrilla bands of Friar Constantino and Francisco Fernández de Castro, Marquis of Barrio Lucio.

[1] He saw action at Sangüesa (8 January 1813) and distinguished himself at Vitoria, being awarded an honorary sabre by the Allied commander-in-chief, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Marquess of Wellington, himself.

[5][6][7] His detailed service records show three actions in 1809; twenty-three in 1810; nineteen in 1811; fourteen in 1812 and seventeen in 1813, with 2,195 French troops killed and 4,024 taken prisoner.