[1803-1804]. Carta de Miguel Soldevilla para Petra García Lera.

Letter from Miguel Soldevilla to Petra García Lera.

Miguel Soldevilla answers to a letter written by Petra García Lera in which she announced him that she is pregnant. He does not disown his paternity, but he seems reluctant to explicitly promise to marry her.

In 1808, José Vicente Soldevilla, as the guardian ad litem of Miguel de Soldevilla, appealed to the chancellery of Valladolid a sentence delivered by the tribunal of Nalda in a case of rape. In this process, Miguel de Soldevilla had been sentenced to compensate Petra García Lera, with whom he had had a relationship since 1802, marrying her or giving her a sum of money. He had also been obliged to recognise the son he had had with her. José Vicente Soldevilla claimed to the chancellery of Valladolid that the woman had maintained a suspicious conduct, and presented various witnesses who affirmed to have seen single men entering and leaving her house. In particular, he referred to the relationships of Petra García Lera with Manuel García del Valle, which some witnesses indicated as the actual father of the child, and with a priest. The father of Petra tried to defend her daughter from these accusations, and presented to the tribunal this letter, written by Miguel de Soldevilla between 1803 and 1804. However, the court eventually ruled in favour of Miguel de Soldevilla.