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Valdés, Cayetano
(1767-1835)
Spanish naval officer and statesman
Joining the navy at an early age, Valdés dis-
tinguished himself at the Battle of Cape St.
Vincent (1797) and was promoted to the
rank of captain at an unusually early age.
At T
RAFALGAR
in 1805 his heroism earned
him the rank of rear admiral. When the
Franco-Spanish alliance collapsed in 1808
Valdés gave his services promptly to the
forces of the anti-Napoleonic junta at C
ÁDIZ
.
During the subsequent campaigns that led
to the expulsion of the French Valdés dis-
played his leadership in land warfare, tak-
ing command of an army division. As
notorious for his liberal political views as
his martial prowess, Valdés was removed
from his offices by the restored F
ERDINAND
VII in 1814 and spent the next six years
confined to prison. The liberal uprising in
1820 restored him to an active role in pub-
lic affairs, first as military governor of Cádiz
and then as a member of the regency that
led to the country's resistance to the reac-
tionary counterrevolution of 1823. Valdés
was among those condemned to death for
his opposition to the absolutist Ferdinand
VII but escaped with his life. Having found
refuge in G
IBRALTAR
, Valdés spent the next
decade in Great Britain and returned to
Spain only after the death of Ferdinand.
During his final years many of his honors
were restored, and new and grander ones
were bestowed upon him by I
SABELLA
II,
including “Great Man of the Nation.”
1491 or 1492 and rejects the formerly
asserted theory that he and his brother
A
LFONSO
DE
V
ALDÉS
were twins. Like his
brother, Valdés was a disciple of Erasmus
and was clearly influenced by the latter's
thinking on the church. His
Diálogo de la doc-
trina cristiana,
published in 1529, was suffi-
ciently unorthodox to bring him to the
attention of the S
PANISH
I
NQUISITION
. Flee-
ing a charge of heresy, he found refuge in
Italy, eventually settling in Naples, where
he would reside for the rest of his life.
Unlike his brother Alfonso, Valdés
devoted most of his thinking and writing to
religious matters. Although he spoke of a
careless life as a student at Alcalá and held
no degree in theology, he was clearly a
well-read and thoughtful Christian. During
the early years of the Reformation crisis he
took part in a number of dialogues between
Catholic and Protestant thinkers that were
sponsored by C
HARLES
I of Spain (Holy
Roman Emperor Charles V). Although he
and his fellow conferees could agree on a
number of ritualistic or structural points,
the discussions always left Valdés support-
ing the official Catholic doctrinal positions.
In his discussions with like-minded Erasmi-
ans in the relatively liberal environment of
Naples he evidently spoke more freely and
even ventured into subjects like the doc-
trine of justification by faith alone, which
church authorities regarded as irredeem-
ably “Lutheran.” Valdés produced a number
of writings (some of which remained in
manuscript until after his death). Widely
known and respected, Valdés was one of
the most significant Spanish contributors to
the great religious debates that eventually
left Spain firmly committed to papal Cathol-
icism during the Counter-Reformation era.
Valdés, Juan de
(ca. 1491/1492-1541)
Spanish humanist
Although the year of Valdés's birth is not
precisely known, modern scholarship favors
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