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Luis Daoiz y Torres

Luis Daoiz y Torres (10 February 1767-2 May 1808) was a Spanish Army artillery captain who was one of the leaders of the 1808 Dos de Mayo uprising.

Biography[]

Luis Daoiz y Torres was born in Seville, Spain on 10 February 1767, descended from Navarrese gentry with soldiering associations dating back to the era of the Reconquista in the Middle Ages. He was trained at the Royal School of Artillery in Segovia, and he fought against Moors in North Africa before being promoted to Lieutenant in the Spanish Army. In 1794, he was captured by the French Army during the "War of the Roussillon" of the French Revolutionary Wars, and he was imprisoned after refusing to serve in the army of France. He was released after Spain and France made peace in 1796, and he fought against the United Kingdom. In 1808, he returned to Madrid after taking part in the invasion of Portugal, only to find that the French Army had invaded Spain. Daoiz y Torres and Pedro Velarde y Santillan took part in the Dos de Mayo uprising of 2 May 1808, and he died fighting to defend the Monteleon barracks from the French, becoming a national hero.

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