Key Figures & Events in 19th Century Spain
19th Century Spain: Key Figures and Events
1820: A military uprising, intended for troops sailing to America to fight insurgents, led by Riego, forced King Ferdinand VII, unable to control the rebels, to swear to the Constitution of 1812. Thus began another brief period in Spanish history, the constitutional triennium.
1823: A French army entered Spain to restore Ferdinand VII to the throne as an absolute monarch. Meeting little resistance, these troops swept across the country, defeated the supporters of liberalism, ending the liberal triennium, and re-established Ferdinand’s absolute power. The Constitution of 1812 was definitively suspended and never reinstated.
1833: The last absolute monarch of Spain, Ferdinand VII, died. He left as heir a three-year-old daughter, Isabel, the future Queen Isabel II. His widow, Maria Cristina de Borbon, became regent. To deal with the claims to the throne of Ferdinand’s brother, Charles, Count of Molina, supported by absolutists, she sought the help of the Liberals. Thus began, amidst a civil conflict (the Carlist Wars), a final effort to consolidate a liberal regime in Spain.
Bravo Murillo (1803-1873)
Juan Bravo Murillo was a Spanish politician, born in Fregenal de la Sierra (Badajoz). A lawyer, he began his political career in the ranks of the moderate party as a deputy to the Cortes in 1873. He conspired against Espartero, forcing him to flee to France in 1843. Upon his return to Spain, he achieved a major political role in the ‘moderate decade’. He served as Minister of Grace and Justice in 1847 and Minister of Finance in 1849. In 1851, he was appointed Prime Minister. A defender of doctrinaire liberalism, he proposed a constitutional change in an authoritarian direction, which led to his fall from power in 1852. He reformed the public debt and signed the concordat with the Holy See. In 1854, with Espartero’s return to power, he again went into exile in France.
Carlos, Count of Molina (1788-1855)
Carlos, Count of Molina, was the son of Charles IV and brother of Ferdinand VII. As Ferdinand VII had no children in his first three marriages, Carlos began to be considered as heir, supported by the more traditional forces of the former regime. The birth of Princess Isabel in 1830, from the king’s fourth marriage, created a delicate situation because the dynastic tradition introduced by the Bourbons in Spain excluded women from the throne. A rule of 1789 had nullified this practice but had not been enforced. Thus, upon the death of Ferdinand VII, Carlos claimed the crown, nominating himself Carlos V. His absolutist supporters took up arms, and the First Carlist War began. At the end of this war, he went into exile in France in 1845 and surrendered his rights to the throne to his son, Charles VI, called Montemolin.
Donoso Cortés, Juan
Juan Donoso Cortés was a politician and thinker born in the town of Badajoz. A distinguished writer who embraced traditional conservative thought, he was a congressman and ambassador. A supporter of Isabel II, he was secretary to her mother, whom he accompanied into exile in 1840. The revolutionary events he witnessed in Berlin deeply impressed him and led him to strengthen his Catholicism and publish essays on liberalism, Catholicism, and socialism.
Espartero
Baldomero Espartero was a Spanish military and political figure with liberal progressive ideas. He fought against the Carlists in the Carlist Wars, skillfully exploiting divisions between Carlists and attracting Rafael Maroto to peace talks that ended with the Vergara Agreement. This agreement ended the war and made him so popular that he was even offered the crown of Spain.
Ferdinand VII, King of Spain
Ferdinand VII was the son of Charles IV. His reign began after the Mutiny of Aranjuez and coincided with the occupation of Spain by the French army. He and his father were taken to France, where they resided until 1814. Although he swore to defend the Constitution of 1812, he later abolished it and ruled with absolute power until his death.