Agustina de Aragón was born on March 4, 1786, in Spain. Not much is exactly known about her early life. She was a daughter of Pedro Juan Saragossa, worker, and Raymunda Doménech. Due to the shortage of work and family needs, they marched to Barcelona, a city where the family settled.
On 4 July 1808 French troops assaulted the Portillo battery guarding an entrance to the besieged city of Zaragoza, the strategic key to northern Spain.
The French succeeded in killing the men serving the battery and had begun to storm into the city when Agustina Aragon saved the day. She stepped into the breach, wrenched a lighted match from the dead hand of one of the Spanish artillerymen, and fired the twenty-four-pound cannon into the oncoming French. The blast of grapeshot reputedly saved the city, which held out until February 1809, and served to rally a movement of popular resistance that eventually helped drive Napoleon out of Iberia.
Born in Catalonia, Agustina was present in Zaragoza because her husband, an artillery sergeant, had been stationed in the city in 1808. After the death of her husband in the siege, Agustina dropped her patronymic and took the name Aragon. The Spanish commander in Zaragoza, Jose Palafox у Melci, who had witnessed her bravery, rewarded Agustina with decoration and the rank of officer in the Spanish artillery. In this capacity, she served with her unit in Seville in 1809 and later participated in the defense of Tortosa in Catalonia.
Agustina's international fame brought English and Spanish officers on pilgrimages to meet 'lа Artillera" during the war. In the fall of 1808, Agustina sat for the artist Juan Galvez, who sketched her as a beautiful young woman in feminine attire. Later portraits showed her in military uniform striking Byronic poses or as an allegorical figure, as in Goya's portrait titled What Courage! (number seven in his series The Disasters of War). These portraits made Agustina the most visible icon of Spanish resistance to Napoleon.
In the fall of 1808, Agustina sat for the artist Juan Galvez, who sketched her as a beautiful young woman in feminine attire. Later portraits showed her in military uniform striking Byronic poses or as an allegorical figure, as in Goya's portrait titled What Courage! (number seven in his series The Disasters of War). These portraits made Agustina the most visible icon of Spanish resistance to Napoleon.
On April 16, 1803, Agustina married Juan Roca Vilaseca, a young military of Cabrenys Masanet. They had a son, Eugenio, who died from the plague and famine. Her husband also died during the war.
In March 1824 Agustina married Juan Cobos Mesperuza, they settled in Valencia. In this city in 1824 their daughter Carlota was born.
