1814: Mariano Matamoros, Mexican revolutionary
Add comment February 3rd, 2014 Headsman
Two hundred years ago today, the Mexican revolutionary Mariano Matamoros was shot by the Spanish at Valladolid.
A Catholic priest (defrocked for the occasion of his execution) who had previously gone to prison for his nationalist sympathies, Matamoros joined the revolutionary army of fellow-clergyman Jose Maria Morelos as the Mexican War of Independence blossomed.
Matamoros proved to have the knack for martial leadership and was a lieutenant general and Morelos’s second-in-command within months.
The Spanish captured him in early January 1814 after the revolutionaries’ failed attempt to take Valladolid. His foes could not be moved to exchange him on any terms.
Though Morelos too would suffer this fate in time, their cause eventually prevailed. Post-independence, the martyred Matamoros became a Mexican national hero. He’s interred today at Mexico City’s iconic El Angel monumental column.
He’s the namesake of several locations, including the border city of Matamoros. (Longtime readers of this site might recall the 1913 Mexican Revolution execution in Matamoros that we’ve previously profiled.) One of Mexico City’s airports also bears the Matamoros name.
On this day..
- 1860: James Stephens - 2020
- 1685: James Algie and John Park, Paisley Covenanters - 2019
- 1977: Marta Taboada and Gladys Porcel, Argentina revolutionaries - 2018
- 1903: Amelia Sach and Annie Walters, the Finchley baby farmers - 2017
- 2016: Brandon Astor Jones - 2016
- 1891: Michel Eyraud, bailiff-strangler - 2015
- 1578: Blessed John Nelson, martyr - 2013
- 1537: "Silken Thomas" FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare - 2012
- 1945: Not Fabian von Schlabrendorff, saved by a bomb - 2011
- 1967: Ronald Ryan, the last hanged in Australia - 2010
- 1915: Veljko Cubrilovic, Danilo Ilic and Misko Jovanovic, Archduke Ferdinand's assassins - 2009
- 1998: Karla Faye Tucker, for an axe murder and a Republican presidency - 2008
Entry Filed under: 19th Century,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,History,Martyrs,Mexico,Occupation and Colonialism,Power,Religious Figures,Revolutionaries,Shot,Soldiers,Spain,Treason,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1810s, 1814, february 3, jose maria morelos, mariano matamoros, matamoros, mexican war of independence, valladolid
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