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Historical person

Bernardo O’Higgins

1778–1842

Bernardo O’Higgins was a Chilean independence leader and one of the principal figures in the struggle against Spanish rule in South America. As Supreme Director of Chile, he helped consolidate independence after the campaigns of the 1810s.

The illegitimate son of the Irish-born Spanish colonial official Ambrosio O’Higgins, he entered the independence movement in Chile and fought in the campaigns that followed. After defeat at Rancagua he joined José de San Martín in exile, returned with the Army of the Andes and, after Chacabuco, became Supreme Director. He resigned in 1823 and spent his remaining years in Peru.

Robert Harvey’s Liberators centres the narrative on Francisco de Miranda, Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, Bernardo O’Higgins, Thomas Cochrane, Agustín de Iturbide and Pedro I of Brazil. Napoleon’s invasion of the Iberian Peninsula and the collapse of established royal authority created the opening, but independence depended on local armies, shifting coalitions and campaigns conducted across immense distances. In Patrick O’Brian’s Blue at the Mizzen, Service under Bernardo O’Higgins gives Jack one final route toward flag rank as the series moves beyond the Napoleonic Wars into the struggles for South American independence. Historical accounts that place Bernardo O’Higgins in context include Robert Harvey’s Cochrane.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Bernardo O’Higgins (1 series)

Aubrey–Maturin Novels in Order

by Patrick O’Brian 21 books 4.5(73,173)

The Aubrey–Maturin novels follow Royal Navy officer Jack Aubrey and surgeon, naturalist and intelligence agent Stephen Maturin from the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France through the War of 1812 and the first years after Waterloo. Across twenty completed novels, their friendship links shipboard command, espionage, science, domestic…

All books in this series

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Bernardo O’Higgins (2 books)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.