He fought against the United States in the Mexican–American War of 1846 to 1848 and was a prominent supporter of conservative General Antonio López de Santa Anna in the revolutionary movement of 1849.

[1] Márquez pursued guerrilla warfare in the Sierra Gorda after the defeat of the conservatives on the battlefield; he is blamed for the murders of the prominent liberals Melchor Ocampo and General Leandro Valle.

[4] In March 1867, Maximilian sent him to Mexico City to form a cabinet and raise troops for the relief of Querétaro, which was then under siege.

Finding that to be impossible, he conceived the plan of setting up an independent government of his own in the southern states, with the city of Puebla as its capital, in order to continue the conservative cause which seemingly, along with the French, looked to be collapsing.

However, it was too late and the emperor was captured on 21 June 1867, and Márquez, after remaining in concealment for several months, made his way to Vera Cruz and then to Havana, while Maximilian and dedicated conservative generals Miguel Miramón and Tomás Mejía were executed by firing squad in Querétaro.