She took part in the mulitnational intervention in Mexico in 1861–1862, several actions during the Chincha Islands War of 1865–1866, and the Spanish-Moro conflict in the early 1870s and was the first Spanish Navy ship to transit the Suez Canal.

She was laid down at the Reales Astilleros de Esteiro in Ferrol, Spain, on either 16 October 1854[3] or 4 April 1855[4] (sources disagree) as a wooden-hulled screw frigate with mixed sail and steam propulsion.

[1] Villa de Madrid became the flagship of the squadron's commander, Vicealmirante (Vice Admiral) José Manuel Pareja, whose predecessor Luis Hernández-Pinzón Álvarez had seized the Chincha Islands from Peru in April 1864.

On 27 January 1865 Pareja and a Peruvian government representative, Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco, signed the Preliminary Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Spain and Peru, known informally as the Vivanco–Pareja Treaty, aboard Villa de Madrid in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to settle claims between the two countries that instead sparked the outbreak of the Peruvian Civil War of 1865.

When the Chilean Navy corvettes Esmeralda and Maipú departed Valparaíso, Pareja reassigned Berenguela to join Reina Blanca in blockading Caldera.

News of the defeat prompted Pareja to commit suicide aboard Villa de Madrid off Valparaíso, shooting himself in his cabin on 28 November 1865 while lying on his bed wearing his dress uniform.

[12] Arriving from Callao, Peru, the armoured frigate Numancia rendezvoused with Berenguela and Villa de Madrid at Caldera, Chile, on 12 December 1865.

[13][14] Learning of Pareja's death, Numancia′s commanding officer, Contralmirante (Counter Admiral) Casto Méndez Núñez took charge of the Pacific Squadron that day and transferred to Villa de Madrid.

[14] After bringing aboard supplies from a newly arrived Spanish frigate, Méndez Núñez′s squadron began operations to find and recapture Virgen de Covadonga.

[13] The foreign ships remained passive observers and, facing no opposition, Reina Blanca, Villa de Madrid, the screw frigate Resolución, and the screw corvette Vencedora opened fire at 09:00 and conducted a three-hour bombardment of Valparaíso while Berenguela and the sidewheel paddle steamer Paquete de Maule stood by offshore to guard against any attempt at escape by Chilean merchant ships.

[19] Several days of negotiations began on 26 April, during which Méndez Núñez granted neutral countries a four-day delay in his attack to give them time to salvage their interests in Callao.

[19] The Spanish ships used the delay to prepare for the attack: The frigates all lowered their topmasts and main yards and altered their rigging to reduce the likelihood of damage to their masts, set up on-board field hospitals, and painted over the white stripes on their hulls with black paint to reduce the ships' visibility and give Peruvian gunners less of an aiming point.

Berenguela suffered heavy damage: A 500-millimetre (19.7 in) 300-pound (136 kg) Blakely shell penetrated her side, passed through her battery, and exited below the waterline on her opposite side, killing 13 men and opening a 5-square-metre (54 sq ft) hole in her hull,[1][20] and another shell seriously damaged her deck and started a fire in her coal bunker near her gunpowder store.

Mendez Núñez's squadron got underway from San Lorenzo Island on 10 May 1866[1] and Berenguela and Numancia′s division parted company with the other ships to make its voyage to the Philippines.

[24] Planning to take advantage of the opening of the Suez Canal scheduled for November 1869 to shorten her voyage, she departed Cartagena, Spain, on 27 October 1869 under the command of Capitán de navío (Ship-of-the-Line Captain) Alejandro Arias Salgado Téllez.

[1] Bereguela reached Manila in 1870, and joined the Spanish Navy squadron there, which was commanded by Contraalmirante (Counter Admiral) Manuel Mac-Crohon y Blake.

[1] During the ongoing Spanish-Moro conflict between the Spanish Empire and the Moro people, which had begun in the 16th century, she conducted several operations against the Jolo pirates, including bombardments of Parang and Maimbung.

[1] As Mac-Crohon's flagship, she got underway from Cavite on Luzon on 23 December 1871 as part of a squadron that also included Vencedora and the screw corvettes Santa Lucia and Wad-Ras for an expedition against the pirates at Parang and Jolo.