page_title: Baldomero Espartero
section_title: Rule of Espartero
hierarchical_section_title: Baldomero Espartero / Rule of Espartero
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato del general español Baldomero Espartero (1793-1879), príncipe de Vergara y regente de España.
context_page_description: Baldomero Fernández-Espartero y Álvarez de Toro was a Spanish marshal and statesman. He served as the Regent of the Realm as well as three times as Prime Minister. Throughout his life, he was endowed with a long list of titles such as Prince of Vergara, Duke of la Victoria, Duke of Morella, Count of Luchana and Viscount of Banderas and was also styled as the Peacemaker.
  A "self-made man", Espartero was an exceptional case of social mobility. With a humble origin, son to a cart-maker from a small village, he was originally destined to priesthood yet he finally opted for a military career. He would become a champion for the Liberals after taking credit for the victory in the First Carlist War and replaced Maria Christina as regent of Spain in 1840.
  Associated with the Progressive Party, he was one of the so-called espadones, general-politicians who dominated much of the political life of the country during the reign of Isabella II. He was ousted from the regency in 1843, temporarily distancing from politics. He was called to government after the 1854 revolution, opening the two-year period known as the Bienio Progresista.
context_section_description: For two years Espartero ruled Spain, as its 18th Premier from 16 September 1840 to 21 May 1841, in accordance with his radical and conciliatory dispositions, giving special attention to the reorganization of the administration, taxation and finances, declaring all the estates of the church, congregations and religious orders to be national property, and suppressing the diezma, or tenths. He suppressed the Republican rebellions with as much severity as he did the military pronunciamientos of Generals Concha and Diego de León. The latter was shot in Madrid.
  Espartero defeated a rebellion in Barcelona, but on his return to Madrid was welcomed so weakly that he perceived that his prestige was decreasing. An economic slump and rumours of a free-trade deal with the United Kingdom provoked a popular rebellion by workers and the bourgeoisie of Barcelona during 1842. Espartero's ruthless bombardment of the city ended this revolutionary threat. But a second rebellion during 1843 combined with moderate conspiracies and military uprisings. The rebels declared Queen Isabella of age, and, commanded by General Ramón María Narváez y Campos, marched on Madrid, advancing as far as the city's gates. From this position Narváez issued an ultimatum in a dispatch to Esparero, who, deeming resistance useless, embarked at Cadiz on 30 July 1843 for England, and lived quietly until 1848, when a royal decree restored to him all his honors and his seat in the senate. Dubbed public enemy number one by the brutal forces of reaction, directed by the moderate Narváez, Espartero was unable to return to his estates in northern Spain until an amnesty was decreed later in the 1840s.
  Although Espartero's regime (1840–1843) in reality had done little for Spain's poor, the anti-radical reaction of the moderates made the former regent a folk hero among many of the workers. Therefore, it was logical that he should become director of the short-lived "progressive Biennium" of 1854–1856, thus becoming the 43rd Prime Minister of Spain on 19 July 1854. But, as Karl Marx observed, the progressive caudillo was a man whose time had passed.
  The old marshal vainly endeavoured to keep the demands of his own Progressists reasonable in the Cortes of 1854–1856 and in the great towns, but their excessive demands for reforms and liberties played into the hands of a clerical and reactionary court and of the equally retrograde governing classes. The growing ambition of General O'Donnell constantly clashed with the opinions of Espartero, until the latter, in sheer disgust, resigned his premiership and left for Logroño, after warning the queen that a conflict was imminent between O'Donnell and the Cortes, backed by the Progressist militia. O'Donnell's pronunciamiento during 1856 ended the Cortes, and the militia was disarmed, after a struggle in the streets of the capital. Spanish political power was assumed again by the moderates during 1856.
  He was the 42nd Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword.
caption: Portrait by Antonio María Esquivel, 1841.
exif: {"Image Copyright": "JOSE MORON. pepemoron@gmail.com"}