Charles Oman (1902) stated that: Throughout the two years during which he held high command in the field, Gregorio de la Cuesta consistently displayed an arrogance and an incapacity far exceeding that of any other Spanish general.

)[1]Born in La Lastra, Cantabria, to a family of petty nobles, Cuesta entered military service in 1758 as a member of the Spanish Royal Guards Regiment.

He was at first reluctant to lead the insurgents who rose up in Valladolid but agreed after a gallows was erected outside his house and the indignant populace threatened to hang him.

[1] His army was ramshackle, ill-trained and underequipped and his hastily recruited force of 5,000 militia stood little chance against the Grande Armée of Napoleon.

Paralyzed by disunity of command, the pair were defeated on 14 July at the Battle of Medina de Rioseco when Cuesta failed to close the gap between his troops and Blake's.

In the absence of a military and political command structure, strategy and coordination with other Spanish forces proved impossible.

[citation needed] Following the loss of Madrid to Napoleon at the Battle of Somosierra the situation in Spain became more desperate and Cuesta was allowed to reconstitute the Army of Extremadura in order to defend the southern frontier.

Shortly afterwards, in Badajoz, he suffered a stroke that caused hemiplegia and for medical reasons he was evacuated to Seville and Malaga, and then, due to the approach of the French, to Mallorca .