, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

—1813, Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

) was a wealthy landowner in New Spain, leader of the anti-independence party, and leader of the coup that overthrew Viceroy José de Iturrigaray

José de Iturrigaray

José de Iturrigaray was a Spanish military officer and viceroy of New Spain, from January 4, 1803 to September 16, 1808, during a period of turbulence....

 in 1808.

His life before the coup

When Gabriel de Yermo moved from Spain to New Spain, he married María Josefa de Yermo, his first cousin and heiress of the hacienda

Hacienda

Hacienda is a Spanish word for an estate. Some haciendas were plantations, mines, or even business factories. Many haciendas combined these productive activities...

s of Temixco and San Gabriel, in the current state of Morelos

Morelos

Morelos officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Morelos is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 33 municipalities and its capital city is Cuernavaca....

. Later he came to control the monopoly on aguardiente

Aguardiente

Aguardiente , aiguardent , aguardente , and augardente are generic terms for alcoholic beverages that contain between 29% and 60% alcohol by volume...

 and the sale of meat in Mexico City.

In 1790 Yermo celebrated the birth of his first child by freeing all of his more than 400 slaves

Slavery in the Spanish New World colonies

Slavery in the Spanish colonies began with the enslavement of the local indigenous peoples in their homelands by Spanish settlers. Enslavement and production quotas were used to force the local labor to bring a return on the expedition and colonization investments...

. In 1797, acquired the hacienda of Jalmolonga, which belonged to the Jesuits

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 and did the same with the slaves that worked there. In 1808, to celebrate the saint day of his wife, 200 slaves belonging to the Hacienda de Temixco were freed. This was one of the reasons why these former slaves did not contribute to the independence movement, but were instead on the royalist side, initially helping to defeat Viceroy Iturrigaray in 1808 and later remaining loyal to the King of Spain into the 1820s, after many Spanish-born generals and civil servants had switched their loyalty to an independent Mexico

First Mexican Empire

The Mexican Empire was the official name of independent Mexico under a monarchical regime from 1821 to 1823. The territory of the Mexican Empire included the continental intendencies and provinces of New Spain proper...

.

Discontent and the movement for independence of New Spain

News of the abdication of the Spanish king, Ferdinand VII, in favor of Napoleon was received in Mexico on July 14, 1808. It produced immediate discontent among the Criollos

Criollo people

The Criollo class ranked below that of the Iberian Peninsulares, the high-born permanent residence colonists born in Spain. But Criollos were higher status/rank than all other castes—people of mixed descent, Amerindians, and enslaved Africans...

 (Spaniards born in New Spain). On July 19, 1808, members of the Cabildo (city council)

Cabildo (council)

For a discussion of the contemporary Spanish and Latin American cabildo, see Ayuntamiento.A cabildo or ayuntamiento was a former Spanish, colonial administrative council that governed a municipality. Cabildos were sometimes appointed, sometimes elected, but were considered to be representative of...

 of Mexico City Juan Francisco Azcárate y Ledesma

Juan Francisco Azcárate y Ledesma

Juan Francisco Azcárate y Lezama was a lawyer, a Mexico City councilman, and a leader of the movement for Mexican independence from Spain....

 and Francisco Primo de Verdad y Ramos presented a plan to form a junta

Junta (Peninsular War)

In the Napoleonic era, junta was the name chosen by several local administrations formed in Spain during the Peninsular War as a patriotic alternative to the official administration toppled by the French invaders...

—that is, a provisional, autonomous government—of New Spain, with Viceroy Iturrigaray at its head. The plan was accepted by the viceroy and the Cabildo, but not by the Audiencia. It was also vehemently opposed by the Peninsulares

Peninsulares

In the colonial caste system of Spanish America, a peninsular was a Spanish-born Spaniard or mainland Spaniard residing in the New World, as opposed to a person of full Spanish descent born in the Americas or Philippines...

 (Spaniards resident in New Spain, but born in the mother country).

On September 1, 1808, Melchor de Talamantes

Melchor de Talamantes

Melchor de Talamantes , was a Roman Catholic priest, a political liberal, and a leader in Mexico's movement for independence from Spain....

, a Peruvian priest and the intellectual leader of the Criollo party, delivered two tracts to the Cabildo, in favor of separation from Spain and of the convoking of a Mexican congress. His premises were that all ties to Spain had now been broken with the abdication of the Bourbons

House of Bourbon

The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...

; that regional laws had to be made, independently of the mother country; that the Audiencia could not speak in behalf of the king; and that the king having disappeared, sovereignty was now vested in the people.

It looked as if open fighting would break out between the partisans of the Audiencia (the Peninsulares) and those of the Cabildo (the Criollos).

The coup and the deposition of the viceroy

Iturrigaray, because of his sympathy with the independence party, was held in great suspicion by the Spanish party. The latter chose Yermo as its head.

Iturrigaray was on the point of resigning when, on September 15, 1808 Yermo and his partisans arrested him. Yermo was supported by the rich Spanish merchants, by the oidores Aguirre and Bataller, by the archbishop, and by the judges of the Inquisition. Five hundred well-armed conspirators attacked the viceregal palace at 2 in the morning. One soldier was killed. The members of the Cabildo were also arrested. Marshall Pedro de Garibay

Pedro de Garibay

Pedro de Garibay was a Spanish military officer and, from September 16, 1808 to July 19, 1809, viceroy of New Spain.-Military career:...

, a puppet of the Spanish party, was installed as the new viceroy.

Yermo was created marquis, by king Fernando VII. He died in 1813, during the course of Mexico's war of independence

Mexican War of Independence

The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial authorities which started on 16 September 1810. The movement, which became known as the Mexican War of Independence, was led by Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos and Amerindians who sought...

.