The 1839 Law and the Basque Fueros After the First Carlist War
The 25 October 1839 Law
This is a legal text about the fueros of the Basque territories and Navarre. It was elaborated by the courts in 1839 (after the end of the First Carlist War) and signed by the regent queen, Maria Christina.
During the last years of Ferdinand VII’s government, the Salic Law was modified so that, in case of having a daughter, she could inherit the crown. They did that by creating a new law: the Pragmatic Sanction.
Succession Crisis and the First Carlist War
Once Ferdinand VII died, a succession problem started. This was because Isabella was going to be the queen, and during her minority, her mother was going to assume the regency. The people who were in favor of absolutism did not tolerate this because they preferred to continue with the other system (Salic Law). So, the next on the throne would have been Ferdinand VII’s brother, Carlos. As they didn’t reach an agreement, the war started.
This war was more than just a dynastic confrontation. It was not just to decide who would be the king, but also what kind of state would be settled in Spain. It was the confrontation of these two: liberals (where citizens wanted participation in the institutions) and Carlists (who wanted a traditional monarchy where everything was controlled by the king). While Carlists continued with absolutism, Isabellins obtained the support of liberals, and so a liberal system was settled in Spain. Citizens were divided depending on different interests.
This war lasted seven years, which affected mainly the Basque Country and also other provinces where previously they had had fueros, such as Catalonia, Aragon, and Valencia. It was a conflict in which citizens, as I said before, were divided depending on their interests. In the Basque Country, it is evident that people from cities preferred a liberal system and a change of situation, and people from the countryside (who were many times manipulated by the ideology of the church) preferred to continue with loyalty to the traditional system.
The Course of the War
The difference between the armies was evident, and so, as the Carlist army was smaller, they had to use the tactic of guerrillas in which the leader was Zumalakarregi. After his death, the victory of liberals was very easy.
At the end of the war, there were two different positions in the Carlists: Apostolics, who wanted to continue with the fight, and the followers of Maroto (Carlists’ representative), who negotiated peace.
The Convention of Vergara
The war ended with Vergara’s Convention, in which Espartero (representative of the Liberals) met Maroto (representative of the Carlists) and agreed on two things. The first one was that the Carlists would be forgiven if they compromised to be loyal to Queen Isabella II. And the second one was that the fueros of the Basque Country would be maintained.
Consequences of the 1839 Law
This law was the first law given after that, in which appeared the intention of keeping the fueros. However, some negotiating changes could be produced on that: after the Carlist War, Basque territories were made into provinces, losing the operability of their institutions; customs were removed and put on the coast; the pase foral was eliminated. These changes led to a series of protests. In consequence, some things were modified: Basque territories recovered their institutions, but it didn’t change the fact that customs were on the coast and the pase foral was eliminated.
Basque people continued keeping other elements of the fueros that were also of great interest, such as tax exemption and the exemption from taking part in military service.
Lasting Impact
In conclusion, this law was important because it eliminated one of the main reasons to fight in order to reach peace. When this happened, the Carlists lost support because one of the reasons to fight was the defense of fueros, and as Spain compromised to respect them, they didn’t need the support anymore, so it disappeared.
The elimination of some of fueros is going to go in the sense of trying to reach a uniformity of the country. But, the bourgeoisie’s interests were fulfilled. Due to industrial advances in other countries, they could produce cheaper, and as they couldn’t compete with the new production methods, having customs on the coast could assure that the internal market was reserved for Basque products. To import products at a higher price was not a problem for the bourgeoisie, but it was a problem for normal citizens.
It lasts until 1876, in which after the Third Carlist War, a new law is created, eliminating all the remaining of the fueros.