Antonio Benavides Bazán y Molina (8 December, 16789 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.
Early years
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.
War of the Spanish Succession
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.