Francisco Serrano (17 December 1810 – 25 November 1885) was Captain-General of Cuba from 24 November 1859 to 3 December 1862 (succeeding Jose Gutierrez de la Concha and preceding Domingo Dulce), Prime Minister of Spain from 3 October 1868 to 18 June 1869 (succeeding Pascual Madoz Ibanez and preceding Juan Prim), from 4 January to 24 July 1871 (succeeding Juan Bautista Topete y Carballo and preceding Manuel Ruiz Zorrilla), and from 4 to 13 June 1872 (succeeding Topete and preceding Fernando Fernandez de Cordova), and Regent of Spain from 18 June 1869 to 27 September 1870.
Biography[]
Francisco Serrano was born in Isla de Leon, Spain in 1810, the son of a liberal general. He became a Spanish Army cadet in 1822, and he served under Francisco Espoz y Mina during the First Carlist War, rising from the rank of Captain to Brigadier-General. In 1839, he was elected as a member of the Cortes from Malaga, and he became one of the country's chief military politicians. He also served as Minister of War under Joaquin Maria Lopez y Lopez, and he became a staunch supporter of Leopoldo O'Donnell, who appointed him to serve as Captain-General of Cuba from 1859 to 1862. He advocated for political and financial reforms in the colony, and he also helped to carry out the war in the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo. On 22 June 1866, he helped to quell an insurrection in Madrid, and, after O'Donnell's death, Serrano became the new leader of the Liberal Union of Spain. In 1868, he took part in the Glorious Revolution against Queen Isabella II of Spain, and he went on to serve as Prime Minister from 1868 to 1869. He later accepted Amadeo of Savoy as the new King, forming two governments under his rule (in 1871 and 1872). He opposed the federal republic, which he helped to overthrow in 1873, and he went into exile in France before taking part in an 1874 coup. He went on to give his support for a dynastic left under King Alfonso XII of Spain, and he died in Madrid in 1885.