Skip to content
VitrineRoyal Houses of Europe
Sign in

Juan Muñoz y de Borbón, Conde de Recuerdo

1844–1863

Born
29 Aug 1844, Madrid
Country of birth
Spain
Died
2 Apr 1863, Pisa
facts
8
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

A life in time

  1. Born · Madrid

    Birth, Madrid

  2. Died · Pisa

    Death, Pisa

What was it like?

The world around Madrid, 1844: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Juan was born around the same time as Antonín Dvořák, Edvard Grieg, and Buffalo Bill.

Known for

Titles held

  • officier d'ordonnance
Born around the same time

  • Antonín Dvořák

    1841 · Czech composer (1841–1904)

  • Edvard Grieg

    1843 · Norwegian composer and pianist (1843–1907)

  • Buffalo Bill

    1846 · American soldier and showman (1846–1917)

  • William McKinley

    1843 · president of the United States from 1897 to 1901 (1843-1901)

  • Henryk Sienkiewicz

    1846 · Polish writer, novelist, journalist, philanthropist and Nobel Prize laureate (1846–1916)

  • Robert Koch

    1843 · German physician, bacteriologist (1843–1910)

Fashion
Around 1850–1850

Distinctive festive shawl for married women

Married women in the Sierra de Béjar region wore a green rectangular shoulder shawl known as a serenero, fastened with a silver brooch.

Around 1850–1850

Popularity of head scarves in Navarra

Head scarves were the most common head covering for Navarrese women at mid-century, used by over 37% of the population, sometimes reaching up to 55% in specific areas.

Music

Rise of regional dances and castanets

During the mid-19th century, popular regional dances like the bolero, cachucha, zapateado, and fandango gained significant prominence, becoming a source of national pride. Performers even traveled to Paris in the 1830s, where their performances, particularly the use of castanets, fascinated European audiences.

Instruments and style in Levante

In the Spanish Levante region, popular music was often performed at home or during festivals using a variety of instruments, including the guitar, bandurria, violin, and traditional percussion like castanets, tambourines, and triangles. These performances were often simple and characterized by a melancholy, genuinely Moorish tone.

Getting around
Around 1850–1850

Stagecoaches traveled 150 kilometers a day

By 1850, stagecoaches regularly covered about 150 kilometers (thirty leagues) in a single day through many hours of travel.

Lower Travel Costs for Stagecoaches

Between 1822 and 1854, the price of stagecoach services fell by 57 percent, making long-distance travel more accessible.

Daily life

Limited daily meals for the poor

In poor households, meals were often limited to eating once a day, consisting of simple items like garlic soup, a handful of figs, or a tomato with salt.

Schooling interrupted by child labor

Poor children often missed school to work as shepherds or errand boys, struggling to learn because they fell behind whenever they were pulled away for labor.

Food
Around 1850–1874

Gender inequality at the dinner table

In rural Spanish households during the mid-19th century, men often sat at the table to eat while women served them standing, frequently eating separately in the kitchen later.

Around 1850–1874

High spending on alcohol by families

In some industrial mining regions, families spent over 25 percent of their total food budget on alcohol, specifically wine and aguardiente.

Prices and wages

Daily wages for laborers and artisans

In this period, laborers typically earned about four reales per day, while skilled workers could earn up to ten reales.

High cost of basic food basket

A family of four could spend nearly 70 percent of their daily income of ten reales just on basic food, including bread, oil, and beans. Meat was expensive and excluded from the daily diet of ordinary people.

Work

Common occupations were farming, labor, and service.

Agriculture was the dominant occupation, while in urban areas, work often involved manual labor in ports, crafts, or domestic service. Domestic service was a primary job for rural women moving to cities.

Long working days and simple meals.

Working days were often dictated by sunlight or extended by artificial light in factories, sometimes reaching 12 to 14 hours. Miners and laborers might eat simple meals like garlic soup, costing about 3 reales per day.

During their lifetime

  1. 1847

    First telegraph line established in 1847

    The first Italian telegraph line connecting Florence, Pisa, and Livorno was established in 1847. This technology represented a major leap in communication speed across the region.

  2. 1848

    Inauguration of the first railway, 1848

    The first railway line in peninsular Spain, connecting Barcelona and Mataró, was inaugurated in 1848.

  3. 1853

    1853: Mass emigration to Latin America starts

    From 1853 to 1882, 325,000 Galicians emigrated, marking a period of intense, large-scale migration to Latin American countries like Cuba and Brazil.

  4. 1855

    1855: Major Railway Expansion Law enacted

    The 1855 General Railway Act spurred massive construction, with 460 km built annually from 1856 to 1866, connecting the country.

  5. 1857

    1857: Moyano Law mandates primary schooling

    The 1857 Moyano Law mandated school attendance for all children aged 6 to 9, aiming to improve basic literacy.

Family

Parents

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.