His father was an Irishman who settled in Spain[7][8] and joined the infantry of the Royal Spanish Army,[9] attaining the positions of Brigadier and military governor of Zamora.
[12] In 1807, the Bourbon monarchs of Spain sent an expeditionary force from the regular Spanish Army to northern Europe to serve with the French La Grande Armée.
[13] The Spanish expeditionary force participated in the siege of the Swedish fortress of Stralsund in late 1807, and was then broken up and stationed in different parts of Denmark.
In the autumn of 1808 Napoleon considered the possibility of using Spanish regiments to serve with French troops in the Peninsular War; these would later become part of King Joseph Bonaparte’s army.
General de Kindelan, second in command of the former Spanish expeditionary force, had not participated in the escape plot and swore allegiance to Joseph Bonaparte,[15] brother of Napoleon and reluctant pretender to the throne of Spain.