Gaspar de Vigodet
Gaspar de Vigodet (also called Gaspar de Bigodé) (1747–1834) was a Spanish military officer with French roots who served as last Royalist Governor of Montevideo.
Biography
De Vigodet participated in the Great Siege of Gibraltar in 1783 and fought in the War of the Pyrenees in 1793, where he was promoted to Mariscal de campo. He was in command of a division in the lost battles of Almonacid and Ocana (1809).
By the end of 1811, he was made Governor of Montevideo, to stop the advance of the Independentist rebels forces of Río de la Plata. By October 1812 the entire region was under control of the rebels, except for the city of Montevideo itself, which was besieged. On December 31, Vigodet broke out of the city but was defeated in the Battle of Cerrito.
Supplied from over the sea, the city still held out until May 17, 1814, when the naval victories of Admiral William Brown, cut off the supply route and the city faced starvation. By the end of June, Vigodet was forced to surrender Montevideo to General Carlos María de Alvear.
The following years he stayed in Río de Janeiro, where he tried to take revenge on Alvear, who was also exiled to this city, due to political differences.
In 1820 he returned to Spain where he became capitán general of Castille, and member of the Liberal Regency during the Trienio Liberal. When King Ferdinand VII of Spain was restored in 1823, de Vigodet went into exile in France, from where he could only return in 1834, after the death of the King.