Manifesto of the Persians: A Call for Absolutism in 1814
Manifesto of the Persians: Demanding the Old Regime
- The proposed text is a primary source, the so-called Manifesto of the Persians. It is a text in which a group of deputies from the Legislative Cortes that had been elected in 1813 addresses King Fernando VII, who has just returned to Spain after six years of captivity in France under Napoleon Bonaparte.
- It is a “manifesto” because the deputies formulate a political program while they propose to the King what to do regarding the Cortes and the liberal political regime that had been established in the country during the French occupation. The authors are the so-called “serviles” deputies in Cortes. They are not yet a political party, but they are a group of deputies with a conservative ideology, and they are against the liberal system.
- It is known as the “Persians” manifesto because the text starts with a comparison between the situation the country had experienced during the six years the King was in captivity with the five days of anarchy the ancient Persians allowed before appointing a new king for the country.
Introduction
Liberalism had had an early and brilliant start in Spain. However, as this text shows, it did not have the support of the majority of the population when the war was over, and forces that resisted change, led by the King himself, fought against the establishment of Liberalism. The new system, however, was definitively set up after 1833, when Maria Cristina was forced to support the Liberals in order to preserve the throne for her daughter, Isabel II. The ones that still defended the restoration of the Old Regime and absolutism supported Fernando VII’s brother Carlos María Isidro and were defeated in the three Carlist wars between 1833 and 1876.
Context
Because of the French invasion of Spain, the Royal Family was exiled to France in 1808 (living in comfortable captivity). Spaniards did not accept Joseph I as king of Spain, leading to a 6-year War of Independence (1808-1814) to throw away the French invaders and the afrancesados, addressing Fernando VII as King of Spain.
Resistance created a new form of government composed of Juntas (local, provincial, central) assuming sovereignty in the name of the king. This started a process of political reforms and held Elections for the Cortes of Cadiz in 1810, formed by representatives of each province (plus substitutes). The 1812 Constitution was based on a unicameral legislature, but the crown had a suspensive veto (limited power of the king and gave it to the nation/all citizens declared equal in front of the law). It also dismantled the Old Regime, abolishing jurisdictional lordships and feudal institutions, decreeing the Disentailment, and establishing economic freedom.
When the war was still happening (with notable Spanish superiority), Fernando VII came back with the support of citizens. But taking into account the Manifesto of the Persians and the help of the Holy Alliance (100,000 sons of Saint Louis), he reestablished absolutism and abolished the Constitution of 1812, going back to the Old Regime for 10 years until his death in 1833.
Content
- The main aim of the “serviles” deputies in addressing this manifest to the King is to position themselves against the changes that the 1812 constitution has established and to ask the king to abolish the constitution and the Cortes and restore absolute monarchy.
- They defend absolute monarchy as a system according to reason, a system that respects divine order and that is not arbitrary.
- They, therefore, ask the King to abolish the constitution and all the decrees of the Cortes and to call the traditional Cortes by estates and restore the traditional absolute monarchy.