Eugenio Eulalio Palafox Portocarrero

Eugenio Eulalio Palafox y Portocarrero (1773–1834), 7th Count of Montijo and 17th Count of Teba, was a Spanish military officer during the Peninsular War.

Early career Elected honorary academician of the Real Academia de la Historia in 1794, he was prevented from reading his inaugural speech, which proposed presenting the nobility as a moderating power on the absolutist monarchs, when Godoy got wind of it. Having initially been banished to Toledo, he finally ended up in Granada, where he joined that city's Regiment of Provincial Militias as a lieutenant colonel.

Montijo returned to Madrid towards the end of September and tried to form a government of relevant aristocrats but met with the opposition of the Duke of Infantado. Together with the Marquis of Coupigny and Francisco Palafox, as members of the Junta Militar commissioned by the Junta Central to oversee military matters, they were especially preoccupied with Castaños' movements on the Ebro.

1809

In February, Montijo fought at Uclés (13 February).

Montijo, together with members of the old Junta of Seville, Francisco Palafox, and the Dukes of Infantado and Osuna, was one of the conspirators planning to overthrow the Central Junta, deport them all to the Canaries, and proclaim a Regency. That September, they approached Wellesley, British Ambassador to Spain (and Wellington's younger brother), to request his aid, which he refused. Wellesley immediately reported the plot, without revealing any names, to Martín de Garay, secretary to the Junta. Montijo was imprisoned in Seville for participating in the plot.

He then went to Murcia to take up command of the 1st Division of the 3rd Army, with which he saw action at Saguntum and later tried to relieve Valencia.

1812

The new commander-in-chief of the 3rd Army, José O'Donnell, called him back to Alicante where, in July, Montijo saw action at Castalla (21 July).

In November he was promoted to field marshal.

Post-war career In June 1814 Montijo was appointed captain general of the Kingdom of Granada, and in August 1815 he was promoted to lieutenant general.

In August 1819, he was imprisoned in Santiago for his connections with the liberal revolutionaries. However, with Riego's uprising at the beginning of 1820 he was released the following February. At the end of March he was appointed captain general of Old Castille but dismissed at the end of April and confined to barracks at Murcia.

He died in 1834 without children and was succeeded by his younger brother Cipriano.