Spain Under Ferdinand VII: A Clash of Ideologies
The Reign of Ferdinand VII
During the reign of Fernando VII, “The Desired” (1814-1833), there was a major conflict between absolutism and liberalism. His reign is divided into three phases.
1st Stage: Sexenio Absolutista (1814-1820)
Enthusiastically received, especially by the absolutists (nobility and clergy), in the document known as the “Manifesto of the Persians,” he expressed his desire to bring back the old regime and its belief in the unlimited power of the king and alliance of throne and altar, while rejecting the liberal and pro-French intentions to control the monarchy.
As in the rest of Europe, when Napoleon was defeated, the powers decided at the Congress of Vienna to reimpose the principles of the Ancien Régime. Even the Holy Alliance was created with the mission of protecting European governments from liberal progress.
Fernando VII’s intentions soon became clear:
- Royal Decree annulling the courts and with them the Constitution, restoring and clearing the rights of the nobility.
- He restores the Inquisition and the Mesta.
His next steps were aimed at repressing the liberal movement, arrests and trials of liberals and Francophiles, exile and confiscation, forcing them to go underground and form secret societies.
The result was a chaotic government, further aggravated by an unfavorable economic outlook, in particular, falling agricultural prices and trade and industrial collapse. The paralysis of the social measures ordered by the courts increased social tension.
Unrest among the military, who did not feel rewarded for their efforts in the War of Independence. The guerrillas were not integrated, and barracks life was miserable. But worse was to come: the crisis of finance, with an actual deficit of 12,000 million, was further aggravated by the cost of reconstruction from the war and military spending in the colonies, despite all the absolutist sectors being aware that most of the land was unproductive and did not pay taxes.
During the Sexenio Absolutista, most of the territories of America became independent from Spain. The process of independence (1810-1824), after the defeat of Trafalgar, America was unprotected and gradually emancipated itself, ending in emancipation in 1824 at the Battle of Ayacucho. The impact of emancipation was the loss of territory; only Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines remained. England and the United States supplanted Spain in the control of the American market, American trade declined, and tax revenue from those lands was lost, needed due to the serious situation that Spain was going through. Ultimately, it led to the loss of international influence.
Meanwhile, liberals organized in Masonic revolutionary circles and societies. On the other hand, uprisings and rebellions happened: Espoz y Mina, Generals Lara and Milans del Bosch, the conjuration of the Palmar, and General Vidal.
Finally, the military coup by General Riego would succeed. Using troops to quell the rebellion for America, he restored the 1812 Constitution. Fernando VII, resigned, accepted the new situation and, on June 7, 1820, the Constitution came into force.
2nd Stage: Trienio Liberal (1820-1823)
In January 1820, Lieutenant Colonel Riego pronounced in Cabezas de San Juan, ranging from La Coruña, Barcelona, Pamplona, and Madrid. A few months later, in March, he forced Ferdinand VII to swear to the constitution of 1812, thus becoming a constitutional monarch, proclaiming “Let us march all frankly, and I am the first, the constitutional path.” This was the new liberal movement, the second attempt at a bourgeois liberal revolution.
Government instability characterized this period. The reasons were obvious:
- The division between liberals: moderates or doceañistas on one side, representatives of the urban bourgeoisie and business, advocated for the existence of a strong government, social order, and a vote based on census; and the exalted or veinteañistas on the other, supported by the middle and popular classes, bet for parliamentary scrutiny of government, universal suffrage, freedom of the press, and anti-clericalism.
- The hostility of the king and his supporters, constantly obstructing reformist intentions and supporting counter-revolutionary movements.
- The opposition of the Church, which was aggravated by measures such as confiscation and the reduction of tithing, and the Layoffs and Suppression Act of monastic convents (this was one of the most controversial of the Trienio, dissolving all regular monasteries except eight of great historical value).
The piece of legislation created by the new liberal Cortes abolished class privilege, the Inquisition, the courts, and entailed estates. The Church was banned from purchasing real estate. Freedom of industry was approved, and the confiscation of some religious orders continued. But they scarcely had time to carry out these laws, and the liberal revolution had a life of just three years.
The measures had little success. Rather than benefiting the people, they allowed the large estates to increase even more (the large landowners were the only ones with capital to buy disentailed land). This originated discontent among the peasants, hopeful at first, but soon disillusioned, hence their inclination toward absolutism.
The absolutist reaction since 1822 was forging a powerful group known as realists, who were noticeable in some events designed to restore the old absolutism: the revolt of the Royal Guard in 1822 in opposition to the king, the organization of guerrilla forces, and the creation of the Regency of Urgel that conspired against the Liberal government. This regency demanded the intervention of the Holy Alliance, formed by the absolutist powers that had defeated Napoleon and hoped to prevent any liberal and revolutionary experience in Europe.
The extension of the revolutionary ideal to other European countries (Portugal and Naples) encouraged the involvement of the Holy Alliance and the French army (“The Hundred Thousand Sons of St. Louis”), with the reinforcement of 35,000 realists. They entered Spain and, with hardly any opposition, arrived easily in Cadiz in October 1823, releasing and returning absolute power to the king.
3rd Stage: La Década Ominosa (1823-1833)
In this stage, there was a return to absolutism. Universities were closed, and liberal legislation was deleted, but the Inquisition was not restored. It involved a return to the absolute conception, the suppression of liberals, and ultra-absolutist pressure. The first measures aimed to end the work of the Trienio: revocation of appointments and promotions that occurred during the Trienio, restoration of the traditional tax system, restoration of the tithe, the abrogation of the confiscations, and restoration of the court, all endorsed by the king.
But also in the army and public administration, officers and soldiers who had served in the Trienio were purged and prosecuted (execution of Riego). Repression was severe, affecting nearly 800,000 people.
In the late 1820s, the regime approached a more moderate approach, as personified by ministers Cea Bermúdez and López Ballesteros, accentuating the radicalism of the extremists who published the “Manifesto of Pure Realists” in 1826. There were uprisings such as the War of the Aggrieved in Catalonia, finally quelled, and its leaders executed. The break was short, and their leaders began to support the king’s brother, Charles. This was the germ of Carlism. In the last stage of his reign, he encountered a double opposition: the liberals, opponents of an absolutist regime, and the Apostólicos, the most exalted group of realists and absolutists, who suspected the timid reform measures and the conservatism of the monarch. The economic crisis became untenable: industrial stagnation, lack of capital and therefore investment, trade collapse, loss of colonies, deflation, and discontent of the peasantry. Again, finance bankruptcy was inevitable.
There were also positive measures, in particular, the adoption of the Commercial Code and the creation of the Stock Exchange in 1831.
Succession Crisis
The king had failed to produce offspring in his first three marriages. When he was old, he married Maria Cristina. He then attempted to secure the throne for his future son or daughter, and in 1830 published the Pragmatic Sanction, which nullified the Salic Law (a rule preventing women from inheriting the throne), sparking the anger among Carlists. The Infante Carlos María Isidro considered this measure illegal because it took away his right to inherit the crown. On the other hand, Maria Cristina, the wife of Ferdinand, sought support from the Liberals. In 1832, during the events called La Granja, influential absolutists convinced the dying King Ferdinand to suppress the Pragmatic Sanction. A sudden recovery put him back in force. In 1833, Fernando VII died.