Juan Van Halen y Sarti , (Isla de León, Cadiz, Spain, 16 February 1788 - El Puerto de Santa María, Cadiz, Spain, 8 November 1864, aged 76), was a Spanish military and liberal from Flemish ancestors, and Colonel in a Russian Caucasus Dragoon's Regiment for 18 months, until his removal by Tsar Alexander I of Russia.
Aged 15, he traveled in 1803 from Cadiz on the frigate "Anfitrite" as a Spanish Navy Cadet to La Habana, Cuba, and Veracruz, Mexico. Although he seems to have played a certain role at the events in Madrid of 2 May 1808, marking the beginning of the Peninsular War, till Madrid surrendered to Napoleonic Marechal Jean de Dieu Soult, (9 March 1769 -26 November 1851), Van Halen soon entered in the service of the French King of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte, leaving with him when King Jose took refuge in France around 1813.
On his return to Spain in 1815 Captain Van Halen was investigated about his undergoings during the Spanish Independence War and put in prison on 21 March 1817, first in Murcia, and later in Madrid, because of his connections with a Granada Masonic Lodge. He was also acquinted also with the later by a firing squad executed Liberal General José María de Torrijos y Uriarte.
Escaping from prison he traveled to Russia around the beginning of 1819, visiting in Saint Petersburg, between other Russian dignitaries, Prince Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky, (1776 - 1852), close advisor to Tsar Alexander I, Chief General Staff (1815–1823), etc., who resigned in 1824 after a conflict with the rather despotic War Minister Count Alexey Arakcheyev, (1769–1834).
He also visited the Tsar Assistant, Prince Dmitriy Vladimirovich Golitsyn, (1771–1844), who fought bravely during the Napoleonic wars, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and governed Moscow for 25 years.
He also visited famous Engineer from the Spanish Canary Islands Agustín de Betancourt y Molina, (Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, España, 1758 - Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1824), then the Director and one of the founders of the First Engineering Academy School of Russia. Supported by Betancourt, who was trusted by other Russian military leaders , Van Halen was appointed as Caucasus Dragoon's Regiment Colonel in Tblisi, Georgia.
His Head Officers were them, among others, Generals Aleksey Petrovich Yermolov and Armenian Prince Valerian Madatov, participating in the conquest of Josereck on 21 June 1820, against the troops of Surghai Khan, replaced by Ashan Khan, in the region of Kazikoumik in Daghestan. For this he received the medal of the Russian Order of St. George.
Juan Van Halen gave in in 1854 the tartar Yatagan long knife he took on 12 June 1820 to the Naval Museum of Madrid.
His liberal political convictions prompted the Tsar Secret Police to inform the Tsar, who in december 1820 removed Van Halen from the Caucasus and put him on the Austrian frontier.
in 1821 he returned to Spain which lived the Trienio Liberal (1820 - 1823), until this revolution was crushed by a European Kingdoms Absolutist coalition, (including Tsarist Russia). Here after he stayed for three years, (1823–1826), at Matanzas, Cuba, doing also business, apparently, in the USA (New York and Philadelphia).
In 1830, Van Halen went to war against Holland to liberate and create thus the new kingdom of Belgium, as he felt the call of the blood from his Flemish Catholic Ancestors, sailing merchants, formerly settled in Cadiz, Andalucia, Spain.
In 1831, as a "Condottiere" in the 15th century Italian Style, he formed a military brigade of Belgian subjects to defend Portuguese Liberals of the prosecutions of absolutist King Miguel I of Portugal, (October 26, 1802 - November 14, 1866). Money was provided by Cadiz businessman, banker and politician Juan Álvarez Mendizabal.
Before and after his trip to liberate Belgium from Dutch rule, he took part in the First Carlist War in Catalunya under Generals José María Torrijos, Francisco Miláns del Bosch and Francisco Espoz y Mina.
Van Halen came back to Spain in February 1833, on the death of Absolutist King Fernando VII, but he would travel and stay shortly in 1835, 1837 and 1838 in Belgium and England.
Being very close to General Baldomero Espartero, (Granátula de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, 27 February 1793 - † Logroño, 8 January 1879), he went with Don Baldomero into English exile when Espartero fell from grace in 1843.
He only came back to Madrid in 1854, receiving on November 30 the Great Cross of King Carlos III.
He had been married to Maria del Carmen Quiroga y Hermida in 1821, (deceased 14 February 1859), and after her death to Clotilde Butler y Abrines, the daughter of a Spanish Navy Frigate Captain,, deceased after 1854.
digitilized book by Google from Van Halen's book (English edition), described as:
Narrative of Don Juan Van Halen's Imprisonment in the Dungeons of the Inquisition at Madrid, and His Escape in 1817 and 1818: To which are Added, His Journey to Russia, His Campaign with the Army of the Caucasus, and His Return to Spain in 1821 Escrito por Juan Van Halen, Valentín Llanos Gutiérrez Publicado por Collins and Hannay, 1828 Procedente de Universidad de Harvard Digitalizado el 17 May 2006, 363 páginas Version pdf 22.5 Megabytes.