The tribulations of a Spanish American “afrancesado” agent: the rise and fall of the II count of Casa-Valencia, 1808-1816

Abstract

This article reconstructs the life of Pedro Felipe Valencia, the II count of Casa-Valencia, between 1808 and 1816. The count was a Spanish American imperial agent who transitioned from being an enlightened bourbon to an afrancesado, and from that to a American patriot, according both to his political convictions and to his material and strategic needs of survival. The methodology employed is that of global microhistory, via a biographical study which transcends the local space and moves into the transnational framework. In order to do so, the article compares the count’s personal view of the world, as represented in letters and personal reports, to that of other people of the period who also described and reflected on the significance of their actions. The originality of the paper lies in how it details the imbrications of the global structures of the revolutions of independence in the life of an “afrancesado” who ended up exiled in New Granada.