Liniers y Bremond, Santiago de (1753–1810)

Santiago de Liniers y Bremond (b. 25 July 1753; d. 26 August 1810), viceroy of Río de la Plata (1807–1809). Born in Niort, France, Liniers was the son of a French naval officer from the Poitou region. At age twelve, he joined the Order of Malta as page to the grand master. He entered the service of the Spanish king in 1774 as an army officer in the Moroccan campaigns. Liniers first arrived in the Río de la Plata with the Cevallos expedition (1776) and returned in 1788. Married to María Martina de Sarratea, daughter of Martín de Sarratea, a prominent Spanish-born merchant, Liniers served as the head of the naval squadron charged with the protection of Montevideo, and then as interim governor of Misiones.

Present at the time of the second British invasion (1806–1807), Liniers was instrumental in reorganizing the militia that defeated the British invaders. Awaiting the arrival of a new viceroy to replace the discredited Sobremonte, who had fled during the invasions, Liniers was named interim viceroy and given the title of count of Buenos Aires. He was instrumental in putting down the Álzaga rebellion of January 1809 and ruled until replaced by the newly arrived Viceroy Cisneros in August 1809. He then retired to Alta Gracia, Córdoba.

Upon hearing of the dramatic action of the cabildo abierto (open town council meeting) of Buenos Aires, Liniers helped organize the royalist opposition to the Buenos Aires revolutionary troops. He was captured and executed as a traitor to the revolutionary cause.

See alsoRío de la Plata .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Paul Groussac, Santiago de Liniers (1943).

Enrique Udaondo, Diccionario biográfico colonial argentino (1945), pp. 502-505.

Additional Bibliography

Aguirre, Gisela. Santiago de Liniers. Buenos Aires: Editorial Planeta Argentina, 2000.

Lozier Almazán, Bernardo P. Liniers y su tiempo. Buenos Aires: Emecé Editores, 1990.

                                      Susan M. Socolow