page_title: Ominous Decade
section_title: Reactionary restoration
hierarchical_section_title: Ominous Decade / History / Reactionary restoration
context_page_description: The Ominous Decade is a traditional term for the last ten years of the reign of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, dating from the abolition of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, on 1 October 1823, to his death on 29 September 1833.
context_section_description: After his restoration, Ferdinand VII started a period of his reign known as "Ominous Decade", due to its marked stress on the suppression of his enemies. Most of the members of the Liberal Party fled abroad, to London (where some received monetary help by the British government for their role in the wars against Napoleon), Paris, Malta, the United States, or to newly proclaimed independent republics of South America, towards which the  Spanish liberal government had held a far less hostile stance than Ferdinand VII. Others, instead, were  ruthlessly eliminated, such as  Del Riego, the main symbol of the revolution, who was hanged on 7 November 1823 in La Cebada Square of Madrid.
  Harsh censorship was re-established, while an archaic and totally reactionary organization of universities was introduced under the strict control of the Minister of Justice, Francisco Tadeo Calomarde, who was the mastermind of the suppression of opposition and of the restoration of former institutions, such as the Jesuits (outlawed by the Bourbons in the late 18th century), monasteries and others. The French corps remained in Spain, with the  de facto role of an occupation force: however, its heavy cost of supply caused further damage to the Spanish treasury, which had been depleted under the liberal government, also due to the South American revolutions.
  The discontent of the Spanish military was further spurred by the formation of the Voluntarios Realistas ("Royalist Volunteers"), a militia created by Ferdinand VII  in 1823, a short time after the collapse of the constitutional cabinet, in order to provide the king a direct means of suppression against the liberal opposition. In 1826 the militia amounted to some 200,000 volunteers, half of which included in 486 infantry battalions, 20 artillery companies, 52 cavalry squadrons and some sappers companies.
caption: Ferdinand VII depicted by Francisco Goya.
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