The story of Juan de Grimaldi (1796–1872) is the story of much of the intellectual, cultural and political life of nineteenth-century Spain. His life parallels – and indeed is intimately tied to – many of the turbulent political upheavals and cultural advances of that century. During his lifetime he was revered and criticized, feared and consulted. After his death he was remembered as one of the most significant figures of Romantic Spain, and he has even appeared in fiction written by authors such as Benito Perez Galdos, Antonio Espina, and Antonio Buero Vallejo. Still, he remains for us today largely underestimated or misunderstood. Grimaldi was a Frenchman who came to Spain with the invasion of the 100,000 Sons of St. Louis in 1823. Between that year and 1836, when he left the country permanently and under mysterious circumstances,

Grimaldi exercised powerful control over theatrical life in Madrid. He acted as either impresario or stage director of the two major theatres in the capital, the Principe and the Cruz, and made important decisions concerning repertory, set design, the makeup of the acting companies and physical improvements to those theatres. He was so influential that he was remembered by Ramon de Mesonero Romanos, one of his friends from the tertulia “El Parnasillo,” as being a veritable “theatrical dictator.”