Antonio Benavides Bazán y Molina (8 December 1678 – 9 January 1762) was a Lieutenant General in the Spanish Army who held administrative positions in the Americas as Royal Governor of Spanish Florida (1718–1734), Governor of Veracruz (1734–1745), Governor and Captain General of Yucatán province (1745 – 1750), as well as Governor of Manila in the Philippines (September 1750 – ?). Before his successive appointments to these various positions, he served with distinction in several campaigns of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1710, and perhaps saved the life of Philip V, the first Bourbon King of Spain, at Guadalajara.
During his term of office in Florida, Benavides jailed Juan de Ayala y Escobar, the previous governor, for dealing in contraband, and repelled several attempts by the English to invade Florida by land and sea. He secured the friendship of the neighboring Indian groups who had previously been inimical to the Spaniards, a state of affairs that continued without interruption while he governed the province. He defended the rights of the indigenous people and established the first black militia unit in Florida to defend St. Augustine, the capital of the province, from British attacks. Over the course of his various administrative appointments, Benavides apparently donated most of his income to the poor people of Florida, Yucatan, Veracruz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
Antonio de Benavides was born at La Matanza de Acentejo, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands (part of Spain) on 8 December 1678, into a family of farmers. The son of Andrés Benavides, a captain in the provincial militia, and his wife María, he was the third of 8 siblings. In late 1698 a captain of the Bandera de la Habana (Flag of Havana) stayed at the Benavides family home while touring the island to recruit young men into the Spanish army for service in the New World colonies. According to Bernardo Cólogan Fallón, writer of the first biography of Benavides (1798), the officer saw military potential in the young Benavides, and asked his parents to allow his enlistment as a cadet. In 1699, at age 19, Benavides entered the Spanish army and joined ninety-nine other recruits in a regiment assigned to the garrison of Havana. He spent three years in the Cuban city, where he was promoted to second lieutenant in 1701.
After the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), Benavides went to Madrid as a member of one of the dragoon infantry regiments sent there as reinforcements for Philip V's troops. When Philip V's advisors told the king of the Canarian soldier who had gained fame as a sharpshooter in Havana, he ordered Benavides to accompany him on one of his hunting trips, after which the two hunted together frequently and became friends. Philip customarily hunted on the grounds of the royal hunting estate, the Casa de Campo, accompanied by the best marksmen in the Royal Guard Corps (Reales Guardias de Corps), which provided his personal security. Due to Benavides' exceptional skill as a marksman and the friendship that had developed between them, the king ordered him to be enrolled in the Corps – an unusual circumstance, since normally only the children of the nobility could join. Benavides was admitted to the second company of the unit, the most elite branch of the Royal Army, and joined the king in numerous other royal hunting parties. He distinguished himself in battle at Flanders and, most famously, at the Battle of Saragossa. He also participated in various actions at Salcedillo, Villareal and Iniesta, as well as the Battle of Balaguer at Barcelona and Tortosa, and Almahara and Peñalba.
In 1710, Benavides fought in several battles of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). On 20 August 1710, he commanded a Guards of Corps cavalry squadron of the Bourbon Spanish forces in the Battle of Saragossa, and managed to seize the enemy's artillery in a surprise attack. The Bourbon troops suffered serious casualties, however, and after a disorderly retreat saw that further efforts were futile and conceded defeat.
Benavides possibly saved the life of Philip V, the first Bourbon king of Spain, on 10 September 1710, in the Battle of Villaviciosa at Guadalajara between the Bourbon and Habsburg armies. Seeing that the king was exposed to enemy fire as he sat astride his white horse, and that he did not have a spare horse to escape the perilous situation, Benavides offered to exchange his own horse with Philip, who accepted. A shell knocked Benavides off the royal horse and he lay senseless until the king, noticing that he was missing, ordered that he be sought among the casualties on the field. He was soon found, still unconscious, and treated by Philip V's personal surgeons. To reward his bravery the king promoted Benavides to colonel, and thereafter called him "Father" as a mark of affection and respect. After the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht and the end of the war, Benavides, considered an exemplary cavalry officer by his superiors, was appointed in 1814 to the rank of brigadier of cavalry in the Royal Guard Corps in recognition of his performance on the battlefield.
Philip V, wanting to utilize his services and repay his steadfast loyalty, appointed Benavides governor and captain general of Florida while he was convalescing in Tenerife from his previous injuries. Serious irregularities in local administration were a problem in St. Augustine, the capital of La Florida, and the governorship was considered a difficult assignment in a dangerous frontier. Benavides was sworn into office by the governor of the Canary Islands, rather than before the Royal Council in Madrid, so that he could establish his administration as soon as possible. He embarked from Tenerife in a squadron that included the frigates San Jorge and San Francisco and their escort, the San Javier, which would stop in Havana on the passage to Cuba.
Reform and early years as governor (1718–1821)
The indefinite borders of Spain's province of La Florida were being challenged by other European powers at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries. Franciscan friars had established several missions in Apalachee Province, one of the four major provinces in the Spanish mission system of Florida. The Apalachee settlers of Mission San Luis de Apalachee, who were skilled agriculturalists, traded agricultural and livestock foodstuffs with Havana merchants throughout the 1600s, and built a thriving community. Meanwhile, the British had founded Charles Town in 1670 in Carolina, on territory the Spanish claimed, and with good reason considered St. Augustine the greatest threat to their security. Carolinian settlers moved southwards, bringing them into conflicts with long-established Spanish colonists. The Carolinian settlers and their Creek Indian allies raided the Franciscan mission settlements of convert Indians repeatedly, and by 1706 their expeditions had destroyed most of the Spanish missions in Florida. Under the previous administration of interim governor Juan de Ayala y Escobar, the territory of La Florida had been attacked frequently by these restive tribes and the British, who continued to harass the Spanish, hoping to hinder their trade and force them to abandon the province. An energetic and active administrator despite his improprieties, Ayala regained the loyalty of many of the Indian leaders who had switched their allegiance to the British.
The Spanish Crown needed a colonial administrator of demonstrated competency to assume the governorship, address these threats and maintain Spanish domination of the region. Benavides, with his distinguished record in the Spanish military and the support of Philip V, was appointed royal military governor of La Florida. While British forces periodically launched incursions into Spanish Florida by land and sea, British traders were constantly expanding their networks of trade with the Indians, and acquiring more influence with the colonial government in Charles Town. When Benavides, a zealous reformer, arrived at St. Augustine in late 1718 to take Ayala's place, he launched an investigation into his predecessor's entrepreneurial activities, and accused Ayala of having engaged in contraband trade with British merchants while still in office. Ayala was arrested, briefly imprisoned in the Castillo and exiled to Havana. The case was not settled until 1731, years after Ayala's death in Havana in 1727.