SERNA, Jose de la (sair-nah), last viceroy of Peru, born in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, in 1770; died in Cadiz in 1832. At an early age he entered the army, seeing his first service as a cadet in the defence of Ceuta against the Moors in 1784. He served afterward against the French in Catalonia in 1795, under Admiral Mazarredo against the British in 1797, and in the second siege of Saragossa in 1809, where he was captured and carried to France as a prisoner. Soon he escaped, and. after travelling for some time in Switzerland and the Orient, returned in 1811 to Spain, and served under Wellington till the expulsion of the French in 1813. In 1816 he held the rank of major-general and was appointed to take command in Peru. He arrived on 22 September in Callao, and, proceeding at once to upper Peru, took charge of the army in Cotagaita on 12 November The viceroy urged Serna to begin offensive operations against the province of Tucuman, which was occupied by the Argentine patriots. Serna objected to the insufficiency of his forces, but Pezuela insisted, when suddenly they were surprised by the victorious march of San Martin across the Andes and the reconquest of Chili. The army of upper Peru was henceforth reduced to a defensive warfare against the insurrectionary movements in several parts of the country. Serna's opposition to the viceroy increased, and at last he asked for permission to retire to Spain. His leave of absence arrived in May, 1819, and in September he resigned the command of the army to General Canterac. On his arrival in Lima in December, his partisans made a demonstration in favor of not allowing Serna to leave Peru on the eve of a threatened invasion from Chili, and the viceroy, to avoid disagreement, promoted him lieu-tenant-general and appointed him president of a consulting council of war. After the landing of San Martin in Pisco, 8 September, 1820, Serna, through secret machinations, obtained an appointment as commander-in-chief of the army that was gathered at Aznapuquio, to protect the capital against the advance of San Martin, and was ordered by the viceroy to march to Chancay. On 29 January, 1821, the principal officers of the camp, partisans of Serna, presented a petition to the viceroy, requesting him to resign in favor of the latter. Pezuela refused, and ordered Serna to subdue the mutiny; but the latter pretended to be unable to do so, and, after vain resistance, the viceroy delivered to him the executive on the evening of the same day. When San Martin threatened the capital, a Spanish commissioner, Captain Manuel Abreu, arrived from Europe with orders to negotiate for a pacific arrangement, and Serna sent him to make proposals to San Martin. The negotiations lasted from 3 May till 24 June, but produced no result, and on the next day hostilities began again. As the situation became daily more dangerous, Serna abandoned the capital on 6 July, 1821, and retired to Jauja, where he reorganized his army, sending General Canterac on 24 August with a force of 4,000 men to relieve Callao. Afterward Serna established his headquarters at Cuzco, but after a campaign of variable success there were dissensions in the army, and General Olaneta refused obedience and maintained an independent position in upper Peru. Canterac was defeated on 6 August, 1824, by Bolivar, at Junin. The viceroy now resolved to crush the patriot army by a supreme effort, and left Cuzco in October with a well-disciplined army of 10,000 infantry and 1,600 cavalry. He met the patriot army in the mountain plain of Ayacucho on 8 December, and on the next day was totally defeated by General Sucre and wounded and taken prisoner. The Spanish army lost 2,000 wounded and dead and 3,000 prisoners, and as the rest was entirely dispersed, General Canterac, the second in command, signed an honorable capitulation the next day, and the viceroy, who on the date of the battle had been created by the king Count de los Andes, was soon afterward permitted to sail for Europe. He was honorably received at court, his administration was approved, and he was appointed captain-general of several provinces.