Francisco Antonio de Agurto, 1st Marquess of Gastañaga

Francisco Antonio de Agurto y Salcedo, 1st Marquess of Gastañaga (1640 – 2 November 1702) was a Spanish nobleman, viceroy and governor of Basque origin. Son of Don Antonio de Agurto Alava and Catalina de Salcedo Medrano, daughter of Iñigo López de Salcedo Camargo and María Melchora de Medrano Zúñiga.

Portrait of Francisco Antonio de Agurto by the engraver Richard Collin.

He was born in Vitoria. He became first Marquess de Gastañaga in 1676 and was Governor of the Habsburg Netherlands between 1685 and 1692. He led the Spanish troops in the Battle of Fleurus (1690) and unsuccessfully defended Mons against the French.

Royal Chapel of Saint Joseph in Waterloo

He began a new royal chapel of Saint Joseph in Waterloo in 1687 an attempt to curry favour with the court, but was recalled to Madrid for his failure to hold Mons. The marquis decided that building a new chapel on the site dedicated to Saint Joseph (a spiritual model to Agurto's sovereign Charles II) would be a good way of remedying the sickly Charles's continuing and desperate sterility (despite his two marriages he had produced no heir). The ceremony of laying the first stone took place on 26 June 1687, in the presence of the Archbishop of Mechelen.

Patron and Protector of the Royal Military and Mathematics Academy of Brussels

In 1675 the Royal Military and Mathematics Academy was opened and directed by Sebastian Fernandez de Medrano at the request of Carlos de Aragón de Gurrea, 9th Duke of Villahermosa, in order to correct the shortage of artillerymen and engineers from the Spanish Tercio.

On March 1, 1687, Don Sebastian Fernandez de Medrano (Mora, 1646 - Brussels, February 18, 1705), Master of Mathematics of the Kingdom and the sole-director of the first Modern Royal Military and Mathematics Academy in Europe (Brussels, 1675-1706) dedicated his academic book: "El ingeniero: primera parte, de la moderna architectura militar (1687)" to the 1st Marquess of Gastañaga, whom he chose as the patron and protector of his Royal Military and Mathematics Academy.[1]

The Marquess Don Francisco Antonio de Agurto Salcedo Medrano Zuñiga took command of the Army of Flanders during his time in Government over the Habsburg Netherlands. In 1688, Gastañaga's Army of Flanders numbered 25,539 officers and men, and by 1689 the total strength of his army increased to 31,743 men. This was the peak strength of the Army of Flanders in the Nine Years War.[2]

In 1689 Don Sebastian Fernandez de Medrano accompanied Don Francisco, being Master of Camp General, on the journey and visit, as Sebastian himself wrote, "to see some of Germany's places, which were Cologne, Bonn, Kolbenz and Trier," where they met the Elector of Trier, Johann Hugo von Orsbeck.[3]

Viceroy of Catalonia

Gastañaga was 55 when he took command in Catalonia, serving as Viceroy from 1694 to 1696. After his recall, the court martial exonerated him of all blame for losing Mons.[4]

As Viceroy of Catalonia, he was confronted with a French invasion during the War of the Grand Alliance.

He never married, and died in Zaragoza. After his death, the title of Marquess of Gastañaga went to his brother, Iñigo Eugenio (1648–1715).

References
  1. Medrano, Sebastián Fernández de (1687). El ingeniero: primera parte, de la moderna architectura militar ... (in Spanish). en casa de Lamberto Marchant, mercader de libros, al Buen Pastor. pp. 3–4.
  2. Stapleton, John Michael (2003). Forging a Coalition Army: William III, the Grand Alliance, and the Confederate Army in the Spanish Netherlands, 1688-1697. Ohio State University.
  3. Villa, Antonio Rodríguez (1882). Noticia biográfica de Don Sebastian Fernandez de Medrano (in Spanish). Tipografía de Manuel G. Hernández. p. 12.
  4. Weir, Ian (2016). Army of Roussillon: The War of the Grand Alliance in Spain 1689-1697. p. 91.
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