Els oficials de l’exèrcit austriacista a l’exili: el cas de Francesc Busquets i Mitjans

Abstract

After the War of the Spanish Succession, the bulk of Spanish army offi cers of the Habsburg army who managed to escape ended up taking refuge in Emperor Charles VI’s dominions. Francesc Busquets i Mitjans, a landowning farmer who reached the rank of colonel during the war, was one of them. By studying his years in exile and the events he had to go through, along with the fellow offi cers of the defeated army, this article sheds light, fi rst, on the lives of this group of refugees, particularly in Italian and Austrian lands, and then on the consequences for them of both the peace treaty of 1725 and the loss to the Emperor of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily in 1734, when Busquets died in Vienna. After describing the funerary system of the Austrian capital in the eighteenth century, it provides information from archival sources on the funeral service and burial Busquets was given. Th e article also studies his last will and the execution thereof by his executors, also Austracista exiles.