Lord Eliot Convention - Executions

Executions

During the First Carlist War, which began in 1833, Carlist prisoners who did not accept Isabel II as their sovereign were executed by firing squad.

Early Isabeline executions include that of Santos Ladrón de Cegama on October 14, 1833 at Pamplona. On December 4, 1833, Vicente Genaro de Quesada, captain-general of Old Castile, executed five Carlists by firing squad at Burgos. The prisoners were given four hours to prepare for death, though the archbishop of Burgos requested, on December 6, 1833, that in future prisoners be given twenty-four hours to prepare for death. Quesada responded to this with: "...it would be pointless one way or another how much time we give before executing them" ("...será inútil la menor o mayor concesión de tiempo para ejecutarlos").

The Carlists also began to execute their prisoners in this way, because they wanted to perform reprisals against the enemy, and due to limited space at their disposal with which to house their prisoners. Not being able to take their prisoners with them on mountain campaigns, for example, the Carlists executed their prisoners before moving to a new location. Liberal soldiers found hiding in the aftermath of the Battle of Alegría de Álava (October 27, 1834), for example, were shot or bayoneted on sight., and the Liberal commander during that battle, Manuel O'Doyle, was executed by firing squad on October 28, 1834.

A notorious incident was the execution of 118 Isabeline prisoners by the Carlists at the town of Heredia (in Spain, called Fusilamientos de Heredia) by the order of Tomás de Zumalacárregui.

Espartero complained at Bilbao about the barbaric executions of the war, stating that it was prudent for the government to regulate the treatment of prisoners between the two opposing sides, in accordance with practices enacted between two opposing countries, "according to the general laws concerning the rights of men and of war."