Ricardo Wall - Military Career

Military Career

He entered the Royal Company of Naval Cadets ("Colegio Real de Guardiamarinas"), founded at Cadiz by José Patiño in 1717, where he graduated in the second promotion. Immediately later, he embarked in the Real San Felipe (74 guns), under the command of Admiral Gaztañeta. In this ship he participated in the campaign of Sicily (1718) until the collapse of the Spanish fleet in the Battle of Cape Passaro. After the disaster, Wall entered the Spanish Irish Infantry regiment of Hibernia, under command of the Marquess of Lede. He took then part in the terrestrial campaign of the war, in actions such as Melazzo and Francavilla. In the following campaign of Ceuta (1720–21), Wall was aide de camp of the Marquess, and in the end, he was promoted captain of the Regiment of Batavia (of Dragoons).

In 1727, Wall accompanied the Duke of Liria, James Fitz-James Stuart, 2nd Duke of Berwick, (1696–1738), (also of maternal Irish descent) in his embassy to Russia. The Duke of Liria had also been born in French exile (Saint Germain-en-Laye, 1696) and was son of the Duke of Berwick, descendant therefore of James II of England.

The sponsorship of the Duke, based on this solidarity of origin, relaunched the military career of Wall. He was entertained by the king of Prussia: he received the Order of Generosity, and he was proposed as ambassador in Berlin but the project did not prosper. Wall had thus his first contact with the diplomatic world and knew some of the most representative capitals of the continent: Parma, Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, Saint Petersburg and Moscow.

He returned to Spain in 1729. Between 1732 and 1734, he participated in the expedition to Tuscany that placed Prince Carlos in the throne of Parma. Shortly after, he took part in the War of Naples (1734–35), and in the actions at Capua, Messina and Syracuse.

In 1737 he was made a Knight of the Spanish military Order of Santiago and in 1741, received, in second instance, the "Encomienda" (landlordship) of Peñausende, that included the villages of Peñausende, Peralejos de Abajo, Saucelle, Saldeana and Barrueco Pardo (now in the provinces of Zamora and Salamanca). In 1740 the control of the Regiment of Dragoons of France was granted to him. Finally his colors and the motto of his family, Aut Caesar aut nullus, shone ahead of a regiment.

Field marshal in 1744, he participated in the operations of the campaign of Lombardy (War of the Austrian Succession), being used by infant D. Felipe "in the boldness attacks". Brigadier in 1747, he profited from this campaign to establish a friendship with one of the most important courtiers of the moment: the Duke of Huéscar (short afterwards Duke of Alva).

He gave up his military career after being wounded in the action of Piacenza (1746) and entered diplomacy. In May 1747 he was appointed to a temporary mission "restricted only to the matters of the war" in the Republic of Genoa. Some weeks later, the new Spanish State Minister, José de Carvajal, intimate friend of Huescar, posted him to London.