Description

Title: 1828 DON JUAN VAN HALEN IMPRISONMENT by INQUISITION HIS JORNEY to RUSSIA antique

Description: Halen, Juan van; Gutierrez,
Valentin Llanos (Editor)
Narrative of Don Juan Van Halen's Imprisonment in the Dungeons of the Inquisition at Madrid, and His Escape in 1817 and 1818; to Which are Added His Journey to Russia, His Campaign with the Army of the Caucasus, and His Return to Spain in 1821
New York; 1828
1st American Edition
Hardcover (later re-bound), gilt title to the spine
388 pages
Very good. Toning and foxing
Size 5 3/4 by 9"
Not illustrated
Text in English

A Spaniard of Dutch heritage, Don Juan Van Halen y Sarti (1788-1864) was a military adventurer throughout Europe for the majority of his life.
Van Halen entered the Spanish navy in 1803, sailing to Cuba and Mexico.
In 1808 he became involved in the Peninsula Campaign, first fighting for the Spanish, then briefly joining the French after being taken prisoner, and finally returning to the Spanish side, boldly fooling the French into surrendering three forts by dressing as a French officer and presenting forged documents announcing a treaty (he forged the signature of Marshal Louis-Gabriel Suchet in documents advising the French commanders of various fortresses to surrender because the war was over)
Fooled by the trick, the French garrisons of Lleida, Mequinenza and Monzon marched out and laid down their arms.
A total of 1,900 men surrendered. Only Louis Benoit Robert, commanding at Tortosa, was not fooled by the forged papers. Upon his return to Spain, his activities during the Spanish War of Independence were investigated.
The result was his imprisonment first in Murcia and later in Madrid, because of his connections with a Masonic Lodge in Granada.
He received a promotion for this coup, but in 1817 fell victim to the Inquisition and was (according to his own account) imprisoned and tortured.
Van Halen traveled to Saint Petersburg, Russia, around the beginning of 1819. He spent 18 months in Russia, met various Russian dignitaries including Prince Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky, close advisor to Tsar Alexander I and chief of the general staff from 1815 to 1823.
Supported by Betancourt, who was trusted by other Russian military leaders, Van Halen was appointed colonel of the Caucasus Dragoon Regiment under General Yermolov in Tblisi, Georgia.
His liberal convictions proved his undoing, as the Tsar's secret police informed the Tsar and put him on the Austrian frontier, and prompted his return to Spain the next year.
Despite some likely fictional elements, this account of his adventures is generally regarded as based in truth.
British traveler and scholar John Frederick Baddeley describes it as "one of the best of the early books of travel and adventure in the Caucasus" (Russian Conquest of the Caucasus, p. 123).

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1828 DON JUAN VAN HALEN IMPRISONMENT by INQUISITION HIS JORNEY to RUSSIA antique

Name: 1828 DON JUAN VAN HALEN IMPRISONMENT by INQUISITION HIS JORNEY to RUSSIA antique
SKU: 226452884
Price: 120 USD
Availability: InStock

1828 DON JUAN VAN HALEN IMPRISONMENT by INQUISITION HIS JORNEY to RUSSIA antique

10386

4.5

53313

Ink of Ages: 15th-19th Century Antique Books

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