Reign of Ferdinand VII of Spain

The Reign of Ferdinand VII of Spain occured from 1808 to his early death in 1823. Brought upon by a popular uprising in 1808, he became head of state in Spain after making his father Charles IV abdicate. This in turn would lead to a series of events that caused the independence of Spanish-America down the line. Ferdinand’s reign would be marked by an initial gleam of hope for Spanish liberalism, for it was believed the new monarch would prove to be more level-headed and manageable than his father Charles and the latter’s valido Manuel Godoy, and thus more open for reforms. However, these attempts would soon prove futile, as despite the efforts from many politicians, he proved to be as stubbornly clinging onto his absolute power as his father. He would be succeeded by his son and heir Ferdinand VIII.

## Tumult of Aranjuez and coming to power

Before the mutiny, Charles IV's *valido*, or prime minister, Manuel de Godoy, a former member of the Royal Guard, had become unpopular among both the nobles and the Spanish people. The first resented how Godoy had attained power even though he was born in poverty and obscurity. Most notable among them was the King's own son Ferdinand, who had led the El Escorial Conspiracy a few months earlier. The people were upset about Godoy's ambitious nature, his flirting with many women of the court and his willingness to have Catholic Spain make treaties with atheist Revolutionary France against Christian (though Anglican) Great Britain. The latter also blamed him for the economic crisis affecting the country, which was heightened after Spain lost its navy in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. This had impaired trade with the United States, causing food shortages and affecting industrial production.

In addition, under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the King and Godoy had allowed French Emperor Napoleon's troops to cross Spain to attack Portugal. This move was extremely unpopular with the Spanish people, who saw the entry as a humiliating invasion, which it soon became. French troops rapidly occupied the important cities of San Sebastián, Pamplona, and Barcelona, fuelling Spanish resentment towards Godoy.

## Mutiny

The uprising took place on 17 March 1808 in Aranjuez, about 48 kilometres (30 mi) south of Madrid, where the royal family and the government were staying while on their way south, anticipating a French invasion from the north. Soldiers, peasants, and members of the general public assaulted Godoy's quarters and tried to capture him. The mutineers made King Charles dismiss Godoy, and, two days later, the court forced the King himself to abdicate in favor of his son and rival, who became King Ferdinand VII.

But Godoy wasn’t captured, he was alive and well. After hiding in the countryside, he managed to hide in a home in Alcalá de Henares, wherein he intercepted the carriage with Charles IV directed to Bayonne. Napoleon had wanted to use the opportunity to stike gold and take the Spanish throne by summoning both son and father (the ex-king) to a castle in Bayonne. For this, he had ordered Joachim Murat to ensure the former king’s passing through the Pyrinees. However, Godoy intercepted with the monarchs and pleaded with them to escape, thinking that Bonaparte would just use him as a political pawn against Ferdinand. He knew the Spanish people and the new king were out for his blood, so he tried to convince Charles to escape following the old Bourbon B-plan to go to Mexico in case of a French expansion. As Charles pondered, feigning declining health to stall Bonaparte, the actions of the Revolts of 12 April 1808 turned him away from the French emperor that had taken over his reign a mere months ago, and he decided to go ahead (insisted upon by his wife Maria Luisa of Parma). As the King made a run for it going to Zaragoza before turning to Barcelona and from then to Cadiz and Mexico.

Ferdinand, on his way to Bayonne himself to plead with Bonaparte to recognize him and unaware that his father hadn’t even made it there, decided to settle for going back to Madrid to calm down the population, also fearful that his father would try to take over the city and start a civil war. Instead, he send his uncle Infante Antonio to talk to the emperor in Bayonne. The latter’s plan flustered, he decided to bedgruginly accept Ferdinand in exchange for some commercial concessions and military agreements.

## First years of his reign 1808-1815

The first major problem Ferdinand faced was the continuation of the North being occupied by the French, and several guerrillas trying to fight the French invading forces. Ferdinand was eager to distance himself from the politics of Godoy, and so he asked the French emperor to take the troops out of the kingdom. The latter Congress of Erfurt, wherein the Spanish threatened to go to war for Mexico but were discouraged by the aggrement of both France and Britain, saw the French accepting to leave most of the region save a couple of cities like Bilbao or Barcelona, mostly to ensure Spanish compliance with French dictated policies. The congress also ended with the Spanish claim for Sicilian independence being recognized by all Great Powers, and in order to secure good relations and fidelty with them, he married his late’s wife sister, Maria Amalia. The guerrillas continued in several areas of the Maestrazgo and Vascongadas regions until the French eventually left altogether in 1814.

Ferdinand started his reign under the advise of the Duke of El Infantado and his uncle Infante Antonio. Representing a court both reactionary yet somewhat open to liberalism, the King himself was full of contradictions. He seemed enthusiastically aware of his royal power and predicament yet very uninterested in the actual governing, something he shared in common with his antecessor. He also was furious with the escape of his father, and completely disgusted at the revolutionary movements in America, yet very remorseful at his treachery and completely uneager to take any firm action to stop the wars. A lot of money, resources and men were sent to the Americas, only to end up losing most of them.

The royal family drama were only starting. Initially Charle’s plan was to escape to Ciudad de México with the intention of setting up a rival court wherefrom govern as the legitimate emperor of Spain. As such, he decreed that the Spanish territories and Audiencias were to declare loyalty to him. Several mestizo and criollo governments in the Americas took this chance to start the process of independence and as such declared Charles as their ligitimate monarch, instead of Fernando. Moreover, any kind of hope for a pollitical reconciliation was lost upon the recognition by Charles IV of his last son (Francisco de Paula de Borbón) as heir of the Mexican throne, and subsecuently as Emperor of Mexico. Both Ferdinand and Carlos María were looked over and this translated into animosity. Many of the members of the royal family were made to chose sides. For instance, the queen consort of the late Kingdom of Etruria had been one of the most ardent supporters of her father at court before Aranjuez, and so when Ferdinand negotiated with Napoleon the initial plans to give her a kingdom in Porto called Lusitania, but Napoleon instead offered the island of Elba, wherein he knew the queen could be contained. Ferdinand refused but this was taken by the former Queen regent as an affront and an attempt by his brother to punish her. Thus, she negotiated with General Belgrano of the Argentine junta to have her son crowned as king Carlos I of Argentina.

### Valido-ship of the Duke of El Infantado

Pedro de Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo became the un-offical court valido after Ferdinand decided to keep on living the bachelor lifestyle he was accostumed to. The Duke’s government decided inmediately to cut all unnecesary ties with the French and focus on trying to win back the Americas. Nontheless, the independence movement had already begun and, much to their chagrin, there was nothing they could do. It possibly didn’t help that they alienated both the British and the French, whose subsequent battle for influence over America proved partially the reason for the Empire’s undoing.

As a consequence of the revolutionary movdements within the Americas, commerce dropped so much it caused deflation. This translated in poverty on the rise and malnourishment. the Duke of El Infantado tried by all means to alliviate the crisis, but it only grew worse. Attempts to reform Tax-collection were also blocked by the Higher Nobility and the Clergy.

The motín of Aranjuez had been in all but name a court complot, but amidst the romantic atmosphere of the time it started to be remembered as a popular uprising, inspired by those like the Esquilache Tumult of 1766. Thus, many revolutionaries of a liberal mind started to fantasize about taking the reins of government and forcing the reform by military means. This was the case of Juan Díaz Porlier, who attempted the first of these “pronunciamientos” in 1815. This was however unsuccesful, but it led to several of the more liberal-minded courtiers to start flirting with the idea of a liberal revolution. Eventually the liberal movement centered around the idea of Miguel José de Azanza Alegría, former Viceroy of the New Spain. Also centered were the figures of Agustín Argüelles and the Count of Toreno. Finally, in 1817 a revolutionary pronunciamiento started in Cartagena led by Juan van Haren and Sartí. This revolt was however unsucessful and most of its leaders imprisioned. Most liberals were then forced out of the country by the government, who spent the next couple of years putting down revolutionary attempt after revolutionary attempt.

## Levantamiento de Riego

Rafael de Riego was a soldier and brigadier of Asturian origin. In 1819, the King was forming an army of ten battalions to fight in the Spanish American wars of independence. Riego was given command of the AsturianBattalion. After arriving in Cádiz, together with other liberal officers, he started a mutiny on 1 January 1820, demanding the return of the liberals and a formal Constitution (reminder up until then Spain had absolutely always been an absolute paternalistic monarchy).

Riego's troops marched through the cities of Andalusia with the hope of starting an anti-absolutist uprising, but the local population was mostly indifferent. An uprising, however, took place in Galicia, and it quickly spread throughout Spain. On 7 March 1820, the royal palace in Madrid was surrounded by soldiers under the command of General Francisco Ballesteros, and on 10 March, the King agreed to install a Constitution. Despite the rebels' relative weakness, Ferdinand accepted the constitution on 9 March 1820, granting power to liberal ministers and ushering in a period of liberal rule. However, many political conspiracies of both right and left proliferated in Spain, as was the case across much of the rest of Europe.

A constitution was approved by the government, and created by many liberal deputies. The revolution was inspired by the Napoleonic code and started one of the more Liberal regimes in the country. The revolutionaries stormed the King's palace and seized Ferdinand VII, who was a prisoner of the Cortes in all but name for the next four years and retired to Aranjuez. The elections to the Cortes Generales in 1822 were won by Rafael del Riego. Ferdinand's supporters set themselves up at Urgell, took up arms and put in place an absolutist regency, the Urgel Regency.

Ferdinand's supporters, accompanied by the Royal Guard, staged an uprising in Madrid that was subdued by forces supporting the new government and its constitution. Despite the defeat of Ferdinand's supporters at Madrid, civil war erupted in the regions of Castile, Toledo, and Andalusia.

Four years of liberal rule followed. The Progresista government reorganized Spain into 52 provinces, and it intended to reduce the regional autonomy that had been a hallmark of Spanish bureaucracy since Habsburg rule in the 16th and 17th centuries. Opposition of the affected regions, in particular, Aragon, Navarre, and Catalonia, shared in the king's antipathy for the liberal government. The anticlerical policies of the Progresista government led to friction with the Catholic Church, and attempts to bring about industrialisation alienated old trade guilds. The Spanish Inquisition was ended by the government, which led to accusations of it being nothing more than *afrancesados* (francophiles), who, only six years earlier, had been forced out of the country.

More radical liberals attempted to revolt against the entire idea of a monarchy, regardless of how little power it had. In 1821, they were suppressed, but the incident served to illustrate the frail coalition that bound the government together. The election of a radical liberal government in 1823 further destabilized Spain. The army, whose liberal leanings had brought the government to power, began to waver when the Spanish economy failed to improve, and in 1823, a mutiny in Madrid had to be suppressed. The Jesuits, who had been banned by Charles III in the 18th century, only to be rehabilitated by Ferdinand VII after his coming to power, were banned again by the government. For the duration of liberal rule, Ferdinand (still technically head of state) lived under virtual house arrest in Madrid.

Regarding the policy for America in the absolutist period, the new government changed political repression into negotiation. Sending troops was replaced by commissioners to attract pro-independence leaders, who were invited to submit to royal authority in exchange for recognition by Spain. With that in mind, the government announced a ceasefire for negotiations with the rebels until the Constitution, which ironically, had been superseded by Ferdinand's actions, was accepted.

According to the ceasefire, Spain would end the persecution and would issue a blanket amnesty for the insurgents; otherwise, the war would continue. The 11 commissioners failed, since the patriots demanded recognition of their independence from Spain. The death of Charles IV and the refusal of new king Francis I to accept Spanish suzerainity and later proclaiming himself Emperador de Mexico, finally severed all atempts of reuniting the Empire.

## Civil War and death of Ferdinand VII

The new revolutionary government that was introduced in 1821 formed a liberal Cortes that were mostly held by liberal radicals or Exaltados. They initiated swift reforms in order to start modernizing the Spanish state. San Miguel was chosen as the new head of government.

The absolutits immediately accused these revolutionaries of masonry and anticlericalism in order to alienate them from the traditionalist and completely ignorant lower classes. The Regency of Urgell was set up by the Marquis of Mataflorida and started to conspire against the Cortes in Madrid. Infante Carlos secretly became the leading figure of the Regency at Court.

The beginning of the Spanish democracy saw a lot of enemies from all sides, as well as internal infighting. The exaltados and the moderados became the first scions of the Liberal Party. The firsts were the more radical part, aiming for a large voting population (albeit only partaking the higher strata of the population). They were mainly supported by the small Spanish middle class, the liberal intelligentsia and some part of the army. Then, the moderates or moderados were supported by the non-aristocratic higher class, some parts of the aristocracy and the liberals that wanted to reform Spain but not all the way through. They were the pollitical descendants of Jovellanos. Finally, the conservative nobility and the clergy were traditionalists who tried to persuade the lower classes of the dangers of liberalism.

On July 1822, the King attempted a counterevolution in the Royal Palace. For over a week, his forces and those of the Milicia Nacional fought only for the former to be defeated. Afterwards, the moderate government of Martínez de la Rosa was let off and substituted by the exaltado government of the Duke of San Miguel. San Miguel decided to “pardon” the “lapse in judgement” of the king just so that he would not be forced into martyrdom by the traditionalists. This “treason” on behalf of the king made the first stepts towards the Spanish Republican Party.

The defeat in July led towards the creation of the regency of Urgell and the Northern Part of the country started to submerge into anarchy. Extraordinary Cortes were convened on October 1822 and among other policies they decided to declare the state of war in Catalonia. The war carried onto winter of 1823, but it ended with a Liberal victory, who took Urgell in August. By January, the last regions of the rebels were taken over at Irati and then they were pushed into the Pyrinees.

Afterwards, there was an attempt at taking over Madrid by the realists after taking Guadalajara, but they were definately defeated by the liberals. Since then, the traditionalists mostly exiled themselves, were detained or simply gave up. Ferdinand was adamant there was a general anemsty for the counterevolutionaries. By then, the wave of European revolutions was dying down. However, the problem was that the Austrians and French were quarrelling over whether or not to intervene on the Italian Peninsula. Thus, when the Spanish tried asking the French for an intervention, the Austrians refused and vice versa.

Thus, the Spanish liberal government under San Miguel survived. The war saw the exile of a lot of conservatives, some heretofore influential members at Court. Among others, the Duke of El Infantado was forced to exile himself to Vienna and, later, Rome. In fact, many of these exilees decided to settle on the Papal city because it was considered to be the more conservative Catholic court in Europe at the time. This coupled with the increasing anti-clericalism in Spain saw the beginning of the Spanish-Rome rift, which would translate in the Papacy backing the conservative Traditionalists uprisings in Spain and the Americas. Even the Infante Carlos, one of the remaining members of the royal family, decided to set onto a self-imposed exile at La Granja de San Ildefonso.

Ferdinand was a man who came from an inbred family, was prone to eating, suffered from obesity and the last couple of years had taken a very strong toll on both his demeanor and his health. He had aged rapidly and was very sick all the time. It is said that after the news of the defeat at Irati, he fell ill and never completely recovered again. He recovered a little bit at the beginning of summer 1823, only to completely fall again sick again later that year. He died the 29th September 1823, at the age of 38.

## Regency of Maria Amalia and the First Traditionalist War 1823-1830

Ferdinand had however left a vast descendance