Joaquin Blake y Joyes (19 August 1759-27 April 1827) was a Spanish army officer who served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Peninsular War.
Biography[]
Of both Irish and Spanish descent, Blake joined the Spanish grenadiers in the Siege of Gibraltar in 1780 and the conquest of Minorca in 1783. In 1793 he served in the French Revolutionary Wars and was wounded at San Lorenzo de la Muga in 1794.
When the Peninsular War broke out in 1808, Blake commanded one of the two Spanish Royal Army regular forces, alongside general Manuel Alberto Freire. Blake won the Battle of Albuera in 1811 and participated in the main war against the French in pitched battles while guerrillas picked off stragglers. He was the one to liberate Granada and Murcia from French rule, before pushing north and becoming the occupying general of already-liberated Madrid, the first Spanish general to enter the city (it had been captured by a brigadier, Climaco Goltz). He was made Chief Engineer of the Spanish Royal Army in 1815.