From a comfortable and distinguished family, José Mariano Michelena attended the University of Mexico, graduating as a lawyer.

In the encampment at Jalapa (Veracruz), he became friends with Ignacio Allende, Juan Aldama and other New Spanish military officers who later joined the insurgency against Spain.

[1] Impelled by the news of the French occupation of Spain, the conspirators intended an armed revolution in Celaya, San Miguel el Grande, and Zamora.

Archbishop Francisco Javier de Lizana y Beaumont, who was viceroy of New Spain at the time, ordered them brought to Mexico City so that he could speak to them.

Their defense was that they were faithful patriots whose only intention was to preserve the country for King Ferdinand VII, who had been forced to abdicate by Napoleon.

They proposed to the viceroy (as related by Michelena) to form a junta to govern New Spain in the name of Ferdinand and to take all possible measures to extend the reign of this "august" sovereign.

Lizana found no criminal offense in the conspirators, and ordered them set free, to the great disgust of the pro-Spanish party.

After Iturbide's abdication, the Congress chose a triumvirate consisting of Generals Pedro Celestino Negrete, Nicolás Bravo and Guadalupe Victoria to exercise executive power until presidential elections could be held.