Ferdinand VII’s Reign in Spain: Absolutism and Liberalism
The Reign of Ferdinand VII: 1814-1833
A) The Restoration of Absolutism: The Absolutist Sexennium (1814-1820)
In 1813, after the defeat of Napoleon, Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne, promising to rehabilitate the Francophiles. In March 1814, Ferdinand returned to Spain. The regency and the ordinary Cortes intended to have the king immediately swear to uphold the Constitution, fearing his desire to return to absolutism.
However, during his journey back to Spain, following a route marked by different courts, General Elio pronounced near Valencia in favor of the king’s return to absolutism. The king decided to proclaim the decree of May 4th in Valencia, annulling the Constitution and all the laws of Cadiz.
This was a true absolutist coup in which the traditional great powers converged again: the monarchy, nobility, and Church. Liberals resorted to insurrection, supported by liberal sectors of the army that emerged from the war against Napoleon, as a way to try and end absolutism. Until 1820, most of them paid with their lives for the attempt (Lacy, Porlier, Vidal, etc.).
In general, the government during those six years was totally inoperative, not only because of the constant changes of ministers and the actions of liberals trying to end it, but mainly due to the inability to carry out this political system. The country’s situation was chaotic, with the destruction of productive infrastructure, the disposal of the fleet, and a demographic disaster. The financial situation was catastrophic; traditional problems were exacerbated by the war and had no solution without changing the tax structures of the Old Regime. The American colonies were in rebellion, causing a paralysis of commerce. Either the reforms advocated by liberalism were put in place, or it was impossible to improve the economic situation. And these reforms were opposed by those who had supported the absolutist coup of May 1814.
Isolated, bankrupt, and powerless, with a disorganized and poorly paid army, the absolutist regime could not withstand the general uprising of 1820.
B) The Liberal Triennium (1820-1823)
On January 1, 1820, Riego, in charge of the army fighting the American colonies, proclaimed the Constitution of Cadiz. Ferdinand VII was forced to swear allegiance to the Constitution.
Between 1820 and 1823, the first attempt was made to implement the entire task and spirit of Cadiz: abolition of jurisdictional domains, deletion of the Inquisition, territorial and administrative reorganization, unification of codes and laws, freedom of trade, industry, and ownership, control of ecclesiastical privileges, reform of the monastic orders, and reduction of tithing.
All this was no easy task. However, neither the coup of the royal guard (July 7, 1822) nor the so-called realistic Regency of Urgel (previous Carlist) managed to end the regime. Under these conditions, Ferdinand VII asked the Holy Alliance to intervene in Spain to restore absolutism. The task was given to France by the Congress of Verona in April 1823, and nearly a hundred thousand soldiers commanded by the Duke of Angoulême (the Hundred Thousand Sons of St. Louis) invaded Spanish territory, where they were joined by a few realistic groups.
C) The Return to Absolutism: The Ominous Decade (1823-1833)
The early years were marked by absolutist repression, as in 1814, and by the destruction of the entire work of the Liberal Triennium. The only substantial concern of the government of Ferdinand VII was not to exacerbate the deficit of public finances.
Faced with intransigent absolutism, liberalism insisted on the formula of enlightened despotism. Surrounded by a small clique of moderate royalists, the king accepted some demands for economic reforms. In 1825, he accepted the grant of a protective tariff for Catalan manufactures, and in 1827, he appointed Ballesteros as finance minister.
But since 1823, the apostolic (ultra-realists), staunch supporters of absolutism, also opposed the king. They were unhappy because he had not reinstated the Inquisition (the police had been established), because the fighting was not enough against liberals, and they demanded a return to old foral traditions. They found a leader in the person of the king’s brother, Carlos, successor to the crown in the absence of descendants from the marriages of Ferdinand VII. Given the small twist of real politics in 1827, conservative groups took up arms against the king.
Dissatisfied with a power they believed was not sufficiently defending the old society, they forced Ferdinand VII to move to Catalonia to quell the rebellion.
In 1830, another revolutionary wave in Europe led to attempts to restore liberalism in Spain, resulting in severe restrictions: the execution of Torrijos and Mariana Pineda. Thus, at the end of the decade, the absolutism of Ferdinand VII was threatened by both liberals and ultra-conservatives.