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Francisco de Anchia

Francisco Tomas de Anchia Longa (10 April 1783-1842) was a Spanish rebel.

Biography[]

Francisco de Anchia 2

Anchia was from the town of Longa in Mallabia in the Basque Country, and was a blacksmith by trade. When France invaded Spain in 1808, Anchia took command of 100 Spanish Army soldiers and attacked lines of communications around Pancorbo, Orduna, and Valdeajos.

In 1811 he became a general of the Spanish resistance to the French army and took Vitoria-Gasteiz from the French militia that year. Anchia played a major role in preventing the French from taking over Basque lands during the war, and later took Pamplona (Navarra) and Burgos from the French Army, securing a decent region in the northern theatre of the war and linking his conquests with that of Inigo Mendoza's captures of Zaragoza and Catalonia. 

In 1813, Anchia was appointed General, and in 1825 he was made a Field Marshal of the Spanish Empire. He died at the age of 59 in 1842.

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