Demencia en militares: the royal orders on insane soldiers sent to the Indies, 1791-1819
Royal orders of 1791 to 1819, communicated to the viceroyalty of Mexico, told commanders what to do with soldiers who showed signs of madness: confine them safely, try them but with medical examination of whether they acted without deliberation or judgement, send them to the nearest asylum at the treasury's charge, take them back on certified cure. In 1802 every asylum in the monarchy was ordered to admit them even when full.
Why this wins its question: Histories of the insanity defence in English reach for M'Naghten in 1843, and histories of madness in Spanish America reach for the hospital of San Hipólito and stop. Between them sits a documented run of Spanish military law - reported here from the compilation of overseas legislation, quoted from inside its guillemets - that in 1793 required a court-martial to examine with medical opinion whether the accused had offended "sin deliberacion y sin juicio", in 1800 fixed who paid for his keep and returned him to his enlistment if cured, and in 1802 ordered every asylum in the monarchy to admit soldiers even when its endowed places were full, on the ground that they were vassals and citizens like the others and had served. The same pages carry the counterweight nobody quotes either: the crown's own warning that compassion would be used as a cloak, and the two thieves whom a protection faction in their regiment had got declared mad in 1797.
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
The article exists because the orders were sent to America. The compilation of overseas law heads its entry "DEMENCIA en militares" and states that the royal orders it prints "fueron comunicadas al vireinato de Méjico", adding that the work Juzgados militares compiles them at tome 4, page 117. What follows is therefore the standing rule for the army and navy of the Indies as a colonial administrator understood it in the eighteen-forties, not a European rule quoted for interest.
The first order is custodial and centralising. The royal order of 17 June 1791 directs "que los gefes de los cuerpos cuiden de poner en segura prision á cualquiera individuo á la primera señal que se les advierta de demencia, dando cuenta á S. M. ó al consejo para determinar el destino del delincuente." Secure confinement at the first sign, and the disposal of the man reserved to the king or the council rather than to his colonel.
The rule that follows is an insanity defence, and it was made on a single case. The order of 16 August 1793 was issued, the source says, on the process against a soldier of the Walloon Guards who had struck a lieutenant-sergeant of his corps, the case having been suspended "por resultar en las declaraciones haber dimanado el crimen de un rapto de locura". The ordinary council of officers was of opinion "se le eximiese de la pena prescrita en las reales ordenanzas para el delito de insubordinacion é insulto á sus superiores, y se le destine á un hospital de locos por su conocida demencia"; the king approved the sentence, and declared "por punto general y por via de adicion" to the order of 1791 what was to be done in all corps. The council of war is still to be held; there the matter is to be examined "con reconocimiento de profesores, declaracion de testigos, y demas medios que parezcan conducentes", to establish whether the accused suffers the illness "en términos de haber delinquido, sin deliberacion y sin juicio". Medical examination inside a court-martial, and acquittal turning on deliberation and judgement, are set out here as general law in 1793.
The same order writes its own suspicion into the text, and this is the part that keeps the entry honest. The declaration was made "á fin de precaver todo abuso en materia tan delicada, y que la justa compasion que siempre han merecido tales desgraciados no sirva de capa á escesos maliciosos". Commanders are made answerable for having proceeded without due vigilance or for having kept a demented man in the ranks; and the king will be much displeased if, "por una piedad mal entendida y de que por desgracia hay repetidos ejemplares", such inquiries are not conducted with the greatest diligence and the most impartial exactness, or if defenders allege the exception of madness lightly or without ground merely to obstruct justice, "pues de todos modos se abrirá una puerta muy perjudicial á la relajacion de la disciplina y á la impunidad de los delitos." The crown created a defence and in the same breath warned that it would be used as a shield.
It was used as a shield, on the crown's own account. The rule was reiterated by royal order of 12 October 1797 "á ocasion de haberse declarado dementes dos soldados reos de delitos de robo, y maltrato de obra á su cabo, por un partido de proteccion que se formó á su favor", with the inspectors-general charged to prevent such abuses and to see that on no account crimes went unpunished. A protection faction inside a regiment had got two thieves declared mad, and the government said so in print.
The care rules are specific about who pays and for how long. By the royal order of 12 July 1800, taken on the least burdensome means proposed by the supreme council of war, men of the army and navy declared insane are to be sent to the nearest hospital "en clase de soldados" and maintained there the first four months at the charge of the royal treasury, their assistance continuing thereafter out of the hospital's own funds; the rector or head of the house is to report monthly to their corps on the state of "estos dolientes"; and in case of perfect cure certified by the medical staff they return to their corps "para continuar el tiempo de su empeño interrumpido por sus dolencias." Recovery restores the man to his enlistment rather than discharging him.
The order of 31 May 1802 adds the travel money and one sentence that is the reason this entry exists. Demented soldiers are to be conducted to the nearest hospital or madhouse as the inspector directs, with six reales a day allowed during the journey, the rate already fixed in 1787 for men going to the baths; the provisions are extended to the provincial militias; and finally "que en todos los hospitales, ó casas destinadas á la reclusion y curacion de los dementes, sean admitidos sin repugnancia los militares que adolezcan de esta enfermedad, esten ó no completas las plazas de su dotacion, porque ademas de ser vasallos y ciudadanos, como los otros, tienen la recomendable circunstancia en su favor de haber militado en servicio del Rey y del estado, y tal vez alguno la de haberse inutilizado en la carrera; lo que los constituye acreedores de preferencia al cuidado del público, y á la asistencia señalada por fundaciones piadosas para esta clase de enfermos." A right of admission overriding the endowed number of beds, argued from citizenship first and service second.
The last order in the series is addressed to Mexico. The royal order of 28 February 1819 to the viceroy of New Spain, on demencia in officers and in corporals, sergeants and soldiers, provides that officers so afflicted be placed for six months under observation in a military hospital and assisted meanwhile "con toda su paga"; that those declared incurable be granted their retirement with the pay due to them by regulation, and that where no pay corresponds the royal treasury cover the excess needed to constitute "una estancia distinguida" above what the establishment provides; and that for the ranks the orders of 12 July 1800 and 31 May 1802 be observed. The provision for the officer is better than the provision for the soldier, and the text does not pretend otherwise.
These are orders, and orders are not outcomes. Everything above is read in a nineteenth-century dictionary of the law compiled by an official of the colonial administration; it records that the series was communicated to the viceroyalty of Mexico and prints a royal order addressed to its viceroy, but it gives no American case, no asylum in the Indies by name, and no count of soldiers admitted anywhere. The one identified patient in the whole run is in Spain - the madman of the provincial regiment of Ciudad Real, to be deposited in a Madrid hospital until he could be taken to the refuge at Zaragoza. What happened when a demented soldier of the garrison of Veracruz or Manila reached a hospital door is not established by anything opened for this entry.