belonged to the Royal Council and was prosecutor of the Royal Chancery of Granada. His father was knight of the Order of Carlos III and valet of the King Carlos IV. Thanks to the position he held, Jose Maria served ten years as the King's page. He immediately decided on a military career and, at the age of thirteen, he entered the Academy of Engineers where he specialized in engineering. War of Independence (1808–1814) Torrijos participation in the War of Independence began the same day that the war began, May 2, 1808. He came to the aid of the officers Luis Daoiz and Pedro Velarde who were out of ammunition in the artillery park of Madrid. They sent him to negotiate with the French general Gobert but in the middle of the mission, the popular anti-French revolt erupted in the capital and so he was arrested. He was only saved from being shot by the intervention of a field helper who knew Joaquin Murat. At that time he was seventeen and had the rank of captain. He later joined the defence of Valencia,Murcia and those of Catalonia, being "one of the few military cadres of the old army who put themselves at the head of the national resistance in the name of the liberal principles of freedom and independence. He detached himself from the French and collaborationist camp chosen by many illustrated and clearly confronted with absolutism. " In 1810, at nineteen years old, he reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was taken prisoner by the French, after being wounded, but escaped and returned to fight in the war, "consecrating like a military of great boldness and value". He was appreciated by the two sides – the French general Suchet offered him the chance to defect, and the British Doyle asked of the Cortes of Cadiz that he be given a distinguished command in the reorganised forces in the Island of Leon. It was under the orders of the Duke of Wellington in the decisive Battle of Vitoria, that was going to lead to the end of the war. Three months earlier, in March 1813, he had married Luisa Carlota Sáenz de Viniegra, daughter of an honorary intendant of the army, with whom he had a daughter in 1815 who died shortly after birth. Torrijos ended the war with the rank of brigadier general at only twenty-three years of