Valeriano Weyler Nicolau, marques de Tenerife (17 September 1838 - 20 October 1930) was a Spanish soldier. Weyler was born at Palma de Majorca on 17 September 1838 to a Spanish mother and a German father, who was a military doctor, and educated in Granada. His family was originally Prussian, and served in the Spanish army for several generations. He entered at sixteen the military college of infantry at Toledo, and, when he attained the rank of lieutenant, passed into the staff college, from which he came out as the head of his class. Two years afterwards he became captain, and was sent to Cuba at his own request.