Leonardo Márquez



Leonardo Márquez (1820 – 1913) was a Mexican general. He fought against the United States in the Intervention of 1846-1848 and was a prominent supporter of Antonio López de Santa Anna in the revolutionary movement of 1849. After the fall of that dictator, Márquez espoused the cause of Miramón and Zuloaga against Benito Juárez.

In 1862, he took up the cause of the French, and rendered important service to the establishment of the power of Maximilian, by whom he was placed at the head of the regular army, and was, in 1864, given the mission to Constantinople. He returned in 1866, and a year later, when the French withdrew, he undertook to organize a native army to support the Empire.

In October 1866, Maximilian made him a division commander, and in March 1867, sent him to Mexico City to form a cabinet and raise troops for the relief of Querétaro. Marquez was a known rival of Miguel Miramón and would disagree with him constantly. Miramon had proposed an assault on the republican army while they were divided but Marquez opposed the idea, possibly only because Miramon had suggested it. He joined Maximilian at Quetétaro, but broke through the besiegers and made his way to Mexico City for the purpose of organizing a force to relieve the Emperor. Finding this impossible, he conceived the plan of setting up an independent government of his own in the southern states, with Puebla as the capital. He was defeated before he could reach that city and returned to Mexico, where he was besieged by General Porfirio Díaz.

The city was captured on 21 June 1867 and Márquez, after remaining in concealment for several months, made his way to Vera Cruz, and then to Havana. He was expressly excluded from the amnesty of 1870. He was fanatical and cold-blooded in his disregard of human life, receiving the nickname "The Tiger of Tacubaya" for the wholesale executions which followed one of his guerilla victories in 1859, though he alleged the express order of Miramón as an explanation. Emperor Maximilian revealed to one of his officers before his execution that he could forgive Lopez's betrayal but not Marquez.

Publications

 * H. H. Bancroft, History of Mexico, volumes v and vi (San Francisco, 1888)