Torre Tagle y Portocarrero, José Bernardo de (1779–1825)

José Bernardo de Torre Tagle y Portocarrero (fourth marqués of Torre Tagle; b. 1779; d. 1825), president of Peru in 1823. He inherited several royal positions, including a seat on the Lima city council. Elected alcalde of Lima (1811–1812), he became a deputy to the Spanish Cortes in 1813. In late 1820, as governor of Trujillo, he announced in favor of José de San Martín, who was advocating a monarchy for independent Peru. When Peru's first president, José de la Riva Agüero, began acting independently of Congress, that body moved to replace him with the very conservative Torre Tagle (1823). Peru was then left with two governments: Riva Agüero's stood for interests in northern Peru, while Torre Tagle's represented Lima. Neither had much support or lasted very long.

Torre Tagle presided over a weak, bankrupt state. When it appeared on the verge of collapse, he committed treason by negotiating secretly with the Spaniards against Simón Bolívar, to whom Torre Tagle had given full control of the army in 1823. Surrendering to the royal army, Torre Tagle presided over the last year of Spanish rule in Peru.

See alsoBolívar, Simón; Wars of Independence, South America.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Timothy E. Anna, The Fall of the Royal Government in Peru (1979).

Peter Blanchard, Slavery and Abolition in Early Republican Peru (1992).

Additional Bibliography

Hunefeldt, Christine. A Brief History of Peru. New York: Facts on File, 2004.

Mazzeo, Cristina Ana. Los comerciantes Limeños a fines del siglo XVIII: Capacidad y cohesión de un elite, 1750–1825. Lima: PUCP, 2000.

Walker, Charles. Smoldering Ashes: Cuzco and the Creation of Republican Peru, 1780–1840. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999.

                                        Vincent Peloso