General Ramón Cabrera

Ramón Cabrera y Griñó (1806-1877) was one of the best generals on the Carlist side of the First Carlist War.  Originally a leader of a small band of Carlists, in late 1834 Don Carlos appointed him commander of all Carlist forces in Aragon. His forces won several fine victories, notably the battle of Maella in October 1838, and his Army of the Centre carried on fighting after the Army of the North had collapsed.  Cabrera seems to have held an almost fanatical belief in the Carlist cause, and he achieved some notoriety for executing prisoners. In 1837 Carlos granted him the title 1st Duke of Maestrazgo in recognition of his services.

Cabrera was finally forced to flee to France in July 1840. After a short period in captivity, he was allowed to go to England. Save for a brief reappearance in what is sometimes called the "Second Carlist War" of 1846-1848, he remained there until his death in 1877. By that time, he had essentially renounced his belief in the Carlist cause and urged Carlos to submit to the authority of King Alfonso XII and end the civil wars. Cabrera, together with his English wife, is buried in a church at Virginia Water in Surrey (which isn't that far from the place where King John signed Magna Carta in 1215).  

Cabrera is presented here with two cavalrymen from the Tortosa Lancers. One of them carries a standard that is known to have been used by the Army of the Centre and has been identified with Cabrera. I don't know whether it was personal to Cabrera or was carried by army units themselves. This post was written somewhat in haste as I fly off to Oz today. There's much more to Cabrera's biography than the above. 

3 figures, painted December 2025. Flag from Adolfo Ramos.

Standing outside some 3D printed stables, which I'll blog about separately:

 

Alava infantry - 2nd battalion

This is the companion unit to my first battalion of Alava infantry - see here. The figures are the same, but with the other half of the standing command pack. This is the first Carlist unit I have done with the infamous "black flag", which was carried to notify the other side that no prisoners would be taken. I'm not sure it looks right for a unit of troops who look half asleep, but I didn't want to have two units in the same post both carrying the specific Alava flag. As noted before, Alava is a province in the north-west Spain, and contributed about 6 regiments to the Carlist cause. I made even more of an effort than usual on the faces - I really wanted these soldiers to look bored and/or tired. As others have noticed, the "standing at ease" figures in the various Perry ranges are some of the Perries' best sculpts and always have a lot of character.    

There's not much else to say about these, really. My Christmas project last year was painting what was left of my First Carlist War lead pile. So the next few posts will be of Carlist high command and a couple of other things. Other stuff I've painted recently for myself includes more French infantry for the Egyptian Campaign and 1815.  So once I finished with the Carlist War I might get up to date with my Napoleon in Egypt units.

I was intending to do a 4th July post with AWI stuff, but that didn't happen for various reasons. Next Friday I head off to Australia and NZ for 4 weeks so I'll try to get up to date with the First Carlist War at least before I go, possibly Napoleon in Egypt as well. Very short notice - but if you're a wargamer in Perth, Cairns, Melbourne or Auckland and want to meet up, leave me a message and I'll see if we can make it work!  

18 figures. Painted December 2025. Flag by Adolfo Ramos.