Fernando VII’s Reign: Absolutism and Liberalism in Spain
Fernando VII’s Reign: Absolutism and Liberalism
The Absolutist Six Years (1814-1820)
The end of military operations did not appease the entire country. There was a confrontation between liberals and absolutists, both on the lookout for the position that Fernando VII would take upon his return. Upon his arrival, absolutist deputies gave the king the Manifesto of the Persians, which supposedly detailed the evils caused by the liberals and the Constitution. Some generals offered the king their support to restore absolutism. Two months after arriving, in May 1814, Fernando VII outlawed the convening of the Cortes of Cadiz and annulled all its legislative work. No one tried to stop him from returning Spain to absolutism, and he began the crackdown on liberals and Francophiles.
After the fall of Napoleon, the counter-revolution designed by the Holy Alliance gave new impetus to Fernando’s absolutism, supported by the Church and the nobility. The king suppressed the freedom of the press and revived the Inquisition, which helped reveal the liberals. When the Church demanded the return of their land, sold in the previous reign, Fernando VII refused, which cooled relations. Since the return of Fernando VII, many soldiers opposed the restoration of the old regime, and some of them conspired with liberals to support the restoration of the laws of Cadiz. There were several coup attempts, such as those of Espoz y Mina and Lacy, but all failed until 1820. The pronouncements of Riego were favored by the critical situation after the War of Independence and the economic mismanagement of the governments of Fernando VII.
The Constitutional Triennium (1820-1823)
In 1820, Commander Rafael Riego, leading some troops ready to go to America, spoke in favor of the Constitution of 1812. The statement found support in other garrisons, and Fernando VII had to accept the constitutional regime. Meanwhile, liberals were born together in different cities, who ran the municipalities along the lines of 1808 until the meeting of the Cortes. From power, they eliminated the Inquisition, imposed the tax system adopted in Cadiz, abolished feudal laws, and confirmed the rights and freedoms of citizens. The Church was the institution that suffered the most, as the government approved the suppression of monastic orders and the confiscation of their land.
Sheltered by freedom of opinion, many gatherings were born in the form of patriotic societies. These promoted the first newspapers in defense of the constitutional order, and the press began to become a powerful instrument of political action in the service of implementing reforms. The parties caused the breakdown of the liberal bloc into two factions:
- Moderates: Men who participated in the Cortes of Cadiz, now moderate.
- Exalted: Young followers of Riego.
The moderates wanted to reform the Constitution to limit voting rights, establish shared sovereignty, and reach an agreement with the king. The extremists advocated for universal suffrage, popular sovereignty, and imposing reforms with or without the king’s support. Despite their caution in introducing reforms, the moderate cabinet was barely able to govern, harassed by the absolutist reaction.