The Reign of Isabella II and the Liberal Regime in Spain

The Opposition to the Liberal System: The Carlist Wars and the Foral Question

Background

During the last years of Ferdinand VII’s reign, a problem arose over the succession to the throne. After the King’s death, this issue helped spark a civil war in Spain. In October 1830, Princess Isabella was born, the first daughter of Ferdinand and his fourth wife, Maria Cristina of Naples. The Salic Law, adopted by Philip V in 1713, stipulated that the crown could only be transmitted between men, excluding women. Women could only enforce their rights to the throne in the absence of a male heir in the direct or collateral line. Ferdinand VII repealed the law before the birth of his daughter, negating the aspirations of the king’s brother, the Infante Carlos María Isidro, who was backed by staunch absolutists. In late 1832, to avoid further conflict, King Ferdinand VII made three decisions: he forced Carlos to leave for Portugal for refusing to recognize his niece as heir to the throne, removed military supporters of the Infante from office, and ordered a political amnesty for liberal prisoners and exiles.

Upon the death of Ferdinand VII in September 1833, his brother claimed the rights to the crown against Princess Isabella, who was only three years old. This ignited a bloody civil war that lasted until 1839, pitting two opposing factions against each other:

  • The Carlists: Championed traditionalism, advocating for absolutism and the maintenance of traditional fueros (regional privileges). This garnered them significant support among the Basque and Navarrese populations.
  • The Isabelinos: Were the champions of liberalism.

Opposing Camps

  • Isabelino Camp: Supported by the urban middle classes, officials, and almost all members of the economic, political, and ecclesiastical elites. The Liberals were advocates of Isabella and therefore supported the regent, Queen Maria Cristina of Naples.
  • Carlist Camp: Received support from more traditional sectors of society: rural gentry, lower clergy, reactionary army officers, and smallholders. Carlism found greater support in Navarre, the Basque provinces north of the Ebro River, and the Maestrazgo region of Castellón. Their army was composed almost entirely of volunteers from rural areas.

Carlist Values and Ideological Principles

  • Protection of royal absolutism of divine origin
  • Maintenance of a stratified society
  • Religious fundamentalism and defense of all interests of the Church
  • Maintenance of the Basque and Navarrese fueros, which were threatened by the centralist and egalitarian proposals of liberalism
  • Rejection of any reforms proposed by the liberals, whom they considered enemies of God and the king
  • Loyalty to the nation understood as a set of traditions, norms, customs, and beliefs inherited from the past. They rejected the innovations of the modern world and resisted the advance of industrialization and capitalism, which they claimed were endangering the foundations of traditional rural society.

The symbol adopted by the supporters of Don Carlos was the white flag with the Burgundy Cross of St. Andrew, an old royal insignia used by the Habsburg troops in the 16th century.

First Carlist War: Stages

Stage 1: 1833-35

Carlist General Tomás Zumalacárregui led Carlist troops, using guerrilla tactics to control rural areas, but died in the attempt to take Bilbao. They never managed to conquer major cities, and there was little fighting in the southern half of the peninsula. The repression was fierce on both sides.

Stage 2: 1836-37

Liberal General Baldomero Espartero led the Isabelino army, thwarting Carlist incursions into Castile, Andalusia, Santander, Asturias, and Galicia. The goal was to extend the fighting to other areas and mitigate the consequences in the Basque Country and Navarre. The Carlists did not find new support among the populations of the central and southern peninsula.

Stage 3: 1838-1840

The Carlist side, weakened by continuous defeats, suffered internal strife. Carlist moderates favored a peaceful settlement in exchange for maintaining their rights, while hardliners refused any peaceful solution. The war ended with the signing of the Convention of Vergara in 1839 by General Maroto and Espartero. It was a commitment to seek reconciliation on both sides, attempting to integrate the defeated Carlists into the new political system created by the liberals. The Isabelinos recognized the ranks of officers and commanders who had served in the Carlist ranks to facilitate their reintegration into the regular Spanish Army. It also included a promise to maintain provincial privileges. However, in 1841, several laws were adopted, and Navarre lost its customs, tax privileges, exemptions, and institutions such as the military and the courts. In return, it received a very beneficial tax payment consisting of a single annual quota to the State Treasury. In 1841, the three Basque provinces also lost some of their provincial privileges, preserving only the exemption from military service. In 1846, there was a further reduction of Basque jurisdictions with the introduction of the “economic agreement” on the annual amount paid to the state treasury.

Isabella II: The Organization of the Liberal Regime

Regency (1833-1843)

When Ferdinand VII died in 1833, Princess Isabella was three years old. Her mother, Maria Cristina of Naples, assumed the regency between 1833 and 1840, supported by the Liberals, who were the only political force capable of maintaining Princess Isabella’s rights to the throne against the Carlists.

The first prime minister, Cea Bermúdez, was unwilling to implement more than administrative reforms, which alienated the more reformist factions. This left the regime without the support of the cities, weakening the Cristino side. Pressure from liberals, military commanders, and ambassadors from France and Britain led to the appointment of Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, a moderate liberal, as head of government in January 1834. He initiated a cautious political opening, though without addressing reforms to clean up the Treasury, boost economic activity, democratize the regime, or win the war. The most important change was the adoption of a Royal Statute that sought to reconcile the absolutist tradition with elements of constitutionalism. The statute was enacted and signed by the Queen Regent, signifying a desire for a less traumatic transition between the Old Regime and the new one.

The Royal Statute was a “granted charter” in which the Queen consented to share power with other branches of government, but it excluded national sovereignty, did not regulate the powers of the king or the government, and did not include a bill of rights. It incorporated a bicameral system with an Upper House of Peers and a Lower House that could only be consulted, and the King could dissolve it at will. With the entry of the financially prestigious Mendizábal as Secretary of State, the liberal revolution itself began. These measures were not always supported by the Cortes, which forced him to resign.

During these years, with the Carlist War in the background, Spanish liberalism was divided into two trends: moderates and progressives. Although both groups cooperated in the fight against Carlism, significant ideological differences remained, and they competed electorally. Soon, a practice that would be common throughout the 19th century began, namely that any political option in power would attribute to itself the monopoly of political power, manipulating election results to impose a completely favorable outcome.

Moderate Ideological Proposals

  • Protection of strong authority
  • Opposition to democracy and universal suffrage
  • Aim of combining tradition and progress
  • Rejection of revolutionary subversion
  • Maintenance of public order and security
  • Improved relations with the Catholic Church

Progressive Liberal Postulates

  • Extending the right to vote
  • Implementing rapid and deep reforms intended to expand freedoms
  • Limiting the powers and duties of the monarch
  • Distrust towards the Catholic clergy
  • Strengthening the National Militia as a guarantee of freedoms

Both moderates and progressives shared an aversion to democracy because they considered it dangerous to integrate the working classes into politics, fearing revolutionary radicalism.

The uncertain evolution of the Carlist War and the poor state of public finances led to a growing climate of tension that culminated in July 1836 in rebellions across much of the state. These culminated in the “Mutiny of the Sergeants of La Granja” in August 1836, which forced the Queen Regent to restore the 1812 Constitution and hand power to the progressives. The Constituent Cortes decided to frame a new Constitution, adopted on June 18, 1837, based on a consensus between moderates and progressives.

After the end of the First Carlist War in 1839, the last reason for consensus between moderates and progressives disappeared, while the prestige of the progressive General Espartero increased. This led to support for provincial uprisings in 1840 against the Municipal Councils Bill, which was defended by the moderates. Regent Maria Cristina signed the law in July, but further unrest began, including an insurrection of the National Militia. This pressure forced her to renounce the regency and go into exile. A regency ministry headed by General Espartero was formed, and in 1841, Parliament elected him regent.

General Espartero, with a militaristic and personalist spirit, ruled from 1841 to 1843 in an authoritarian manner, isolating himself from the progressives who had supported him. The reasons for his failure include the division of the progressive party between more radical advocates of greater democratization and those who preferred to consolidate the dominance of the middle class and landowners. Another cause was his economic policy. Extending confiscations for the benefit of landowners alienated popular support, and his orientation towards free trade antagonized Catalan industry. The brutal repression against the working-class districts of Barcelona in 1842 was the direct cause of the uprising led by General Narváez in 1843 and General Espartero’s exile to London. Queen Isabella II was proclaimed queen at the age of 13 in 1843. The queen was a pious and outgoing woman, but lacked the maturity and training necessary to govern, having assumed the throne at such an early age.

Moderate Decade (1844-54)

In the last months of 1843, a moderate shift in power had already begun. The view grew that the state needed to establish firm foundations by reforming the Constitution of 1837, which was still in force. Ramón María Narváez, leader of Isabelino moderatism, assumed the chairmanship of the Government in May 1844 and remained in power until 1851, with brief interruptions (1846-47). He began a series of reforms that limited the freedoms proposed by progressives, strengthened the power of the Crown, and organized a centralized administration.

Relevant Actions Carried Out by Moderates

  • 1843: Abolition of the National Militia, replaced by a new public order body, the Civil Guard, established in 1844 with military status and responsible for safeguarding public order and private property.
  • 1845: Law abolished the elective nature of mayors, who were now directly elected by the Government.
  • 1845: Direct control by the government of printing and the press.
  • Adoption of a new Constitution on May 23, 1845: Of a moderate character, replacing the principle of national sovereignty with shared sovereignty, limiting the power of the courts, and extending the royal prerogative. The new Constitution stated that the religion of the Spanish nation was the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, compared to the 1837 Constitution, which simply stated that the Catholic religion was the one professed by the Spanish. By then, the moderates were trying to re-establish relations with the Pope after the rupture caused by Mendizábal’s secularization measures. The Concordat was signed in 1851, whereby the government agreed to halt sales of disentailment goods, allowed the return of suppressed religious orders, and gave the clergy control over education. In return, Rome consented to the sales of disentailment goods already made and renewed the right of presenting bishops from the previous Concordat of 1753.
  • Administrative reorganization: Moderates set out three goals: to create a unitary legal order, create a centralized and unified administration, and reform the Treasury, which imposed additional direct contributions, but the lack of registers made tax fraud and evasion rampant.
  • 1845 decree organizing public education: Centralized education levels based on the French model.

Progressive Biennium (1854-56)

Scandalous favoritism in all fields of social life and widespread corruption in the economic and financial policies of moderate governments provoked reactions in large sections of liberal opinion and among the popular classes. The revolution of 1854 used a military coup to bring about a change in policy orientation. In July 1854, a section of the army led by the moderate General O’Donnell revolted in Vicálvaro, confronting government troops. The result of the action was indecisive, and O’Donnell retreated to Andalusia. In Manzanares, he was joined by General Serrano, and the two launched a manifesto to the country with progressive promises. The unrest spread throughout Spain, and the pronouncement became a popular and progressive movement. Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, fearing a return to the repression of the Moderate Decade, convinced Queen Isabella II to call back the old progressive General Espartero to take over the new Cabinet.

Progressive Reforms of the Biennium

  • Development of a new constitution that reflected progressive ideas.
  • Economic policy focused on the civil confiscation led by Minister Pascual Madoz, affecting 20% of Spanish soil. The sale of municipal lands ruined many localities, did not solve the problem of public debt, and hurt the poorest neighbors who lost the use of communal lands. Thus, the attempt to obtain public funds to finance the industrialization process failed.
  • Economic laws to attract foreign capital, boost lending by banks, and promote the railroad, a symbol of industrialization and progress. Creation of the Bank of Spain in 1855.

Concern for individual rights and the liberalization of the electoral mechanism, widening the base of voters, allowed new political currents that had been suppressed in the previous stage to emerge. To the left of the progressives, the Democrat and Republican options were consolidated, and currents such as socialism and federalism were gaining momentum. Hopes also increased for a nascent labor movement that attempted general strike action. At the same time, Carlism was showing signs of life, promoting armed bands in the countryside.

During these two years, the pressure on the progressive government grew, and insecurity and conflict increased due to industrial action by workers and peasants. The crisis occurred in July 1856. O’Donnell staged a coup against the parliamentary majority, removing General Espartero and the progressive party from power.

Liberal Union and the Return of Conservatism: 1856-1868

This was the last period of Isabella II’s reign, the longest and most politically stable. During this period, there were fourteen governments, including four chaired by Leopoldo O’Donnell and three headed by Ramón María Narváez. General Leopoldo O’Donnell became president of the Government with the support of his new party: the Liberal Union. They diagnosed the moderate governments as having been too open, causing all the ills of the system, and eventually returned to the Constitution of 1845, with an additional Act that recognized some progressive principles, abolished the National Militia, and reorganized the municipalities. His government was short-lived, and Ramón Narváez returned to head the government until 1858, surrounding himself with more conservative moderates and enjoying strong support from the Queen.

Between 1858 and 1863, the Liberal Union returned to government, taking advantage of good years of economic expansion to embark on a policy of international intervention to restore prestige and international recognition. In these interventions, General Prim, a progressive leader and convinced supporter of the constitutional monarchy, achieved great popularity and acclaim. In 1864, Narváez returned to the government, bringing with him a conservative policy of repression of civil liberties. This attitude contributed to increasing governmental isolation, as did the moderate party of the queen, which was increasingly losing social and political support. The moderate attitude provoked the first idea of marginalizing the monarchy of Isabella II among a large political group. The situation worsened with the general economic crisis that began in 1866 and the fierce repression of the revolt of the sergeants of the San Gil barracks. Prim hatched seven plans to overthrow the system, but after the failure of the San Gil barracks uprising, he forged an alliance with the Democratic Party through the Pact of Ostend, based on two principles: the destruction of the existing political order and the construction of a new order through a Constituent Cortes elected by universal suffrage. In September 1868, a triumphant military uprising led to the overthrow of Isabella II.