The July 2, 1808 Zaragoza resisted the siege of French troops. In one of the gates of the city, known as del Portillo, a girl of no more than twenty years he took a Botafuegos and over the fallen soldiers, lit the fuse of a cannon. The shooting forced the French to retreat. Agustina de Aragón, this courageous act, became a myth. Like her, many women fought bravely in the English War of Independence.
The sources
Agustina Agustina Raimunda María Saragossa i Domènech was born in Barcelona in 1786. His parents, Ramon Francisco Labastida and Raimunda Saragossa i Domènech i Gasull, Lleida were peasants who had moved to Barcelona in search of a better life.
While still a 17-year-old Agustina married Joan Roca i Vilaseca. Joan was a second corporal of artillery which had been temporarily assigned to Barcelona. For five years the couple lived happily. They had a son, whom they named as their father. But the entry of Napoleon's troops in Spain would truncate this existence quiet.
war begins
Juan Roca was quickly mobilized. Agustina sought to follow, as was customary among women in the military, but eventually had to move his son to Zaragoza, where he apparently lived his sister. The marriage was not reunited until the end of the war.
Rise of Zaragoza
On 25 May 1808, Zaragoza authorities defenders of the new dynasty headed by Jose I was deposed. General Jose de Palafox Rebolledo and then the government took control the city. Zaragoza's rebellion soon led the French armies to besiege the city. By then, Agustina already been installed with your sister.
Despite that, a priori , the location of the city and the number of French troops were in Zaragoza a site relatively easy for the enemy, Napoleon's troops found themselves before a population ready to fight whatever it was and as out. Among citizens, many women were willing to cooperate in the defense of the city, supplying ammunition, food and water, or fighting with the enemy.
The birth of the myth
In one of the French attacks in early May, a grenade exploded near the position where it was Agustina. The girl watched as the soldiers fell all around and there was the threat of enemy troops managed to enter the city. Did not think twice. Moved from the dead and injured to a cannon that fired. The surprise came over the two sides. Agustina managed to maintain the situation until reinforcements arrived.
In the same place an officer pulled the insignia of a gunner killed in combat and gave them to Gustine. He was born "Ordnance." The fighting continued. Agustina remained steadfast in their struggle as a member of the Artillery Corps.
The fight outside Zaragoza
She was taken prisoner but escaped. After suffering the tragic disappearance of her son, Augustine decided to continue with their lives artillery and presented in the Provincial Government of Teruel, where he rejoined the army and continued fighting against the French until the end of the war in 1813.
An itinerant life
After the war, Agustina was reunited with her husband again in Zaragoza, where they remained a short time. The couple traveled to Segovia, Barcelona, \u200b\u200bwhere they had their second child, and Valencia. Back in Barcelona, \u200b\u200bin 1823 her husband died.
Agustina remarried in Valencia with a doctor, Juan Cobo and will install in Seville where they had a daughter. After a relatively quiet phase, Agustina and John drifted apart due to her husband's Carlist ideas. His daughter Charlotte, wife of an artillery officer, was installed in Ceuta. Disenchanted with their marriage, Agustina decided in 1853 to live with her daughter. Four years later, in 1857, died Agustina, 71 years old.
Back Zaragoza
Although Augustine was buried in Ceuta in 1870 was moved to the city that conviritió a true hero. With great honor, his body was placed in the Basilica del Pilar. Still have to make one last trip. In 1908, the church of Santa Maria del Portillo, a mausoleum was erected in memory of the fallen men and women in the same place 200 years ago. That should be the last trip of Gustine.
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Genre: Biography
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