portrayed by
Vicente López Portaña.
The succession controversy During the reign of
Philip V, the exclusion of women in the line of succession had been established by the so-called
Salic Law. This norm had been revoked in 1789 by
Charles IV, by means of a decree that was never promulgated. On March 29, 1830, by means of the
Pragmatic Sanction,
Ferdinand VII elevated it to the rank of law. Ferdinand VII had foreseen this controversy, and, wanting the throne for his first-born daughter, the future
Isabella II. He appointed his wife
Maria Christina as
Regent, and banished his brother Carlos for refusing to recognize his niece Isabella as heir. Before the death of the King, the future Regent had managed to separate the military supporters of Carlos from the headquarters of the army and had guaranteed the support of the liberals in exile, as well as that of France and England. Nevertheless, Carlos proclaimed himself King of Spain on October 1, 1833, with the name of Carlos V; with the support of the
Portuguese crown, then in the hands of D. Miguel I, and the complicit silence of
Austria,
Prussia and Russia. Spanish troops invaded Portugal in an attempt to eliminate their support to
Carlism but with the mediation of England, Carlos was exiled to Great Britain, from where he would escape in 1834 to appear between
Navarre and the
Basque Country and lead the Carlist War.
The first cabinets In 1832
Francisco Cea Bermúdez had been appointed
President of the Council of Ministers, linked to the most right wing of the moderates, who initiated minor administrative reforms but lacked the capacity and interest to facilitate the incorporation of many former enlightened and liberal members into the new model of economic and political development. Among the reforms of the cabinet of Cea Bermúdez, a
new division of Spain into provinces, promoted by the Secretary of State for Public Works,
Javier de Burgos, stood out, aimed at improving the administration, which, with some adjustments, is still in place today. The lack of harmony between economic and political liberalism and the Government led the Regent to dismiss Cea Bermúdez and to the appointment of
Martínez de la Rosa as the new president, in January 1834. The new president had to face the Carlist War, initiated by the supporters of the pretender in the
Basque Country, Navarre,
Catalonia and
Aragon fundamentally. in a painting preserved in the
Ateneo de Madrid. Martínez de la Rosa, who had returned from exile, tried to implement a reform of the clergy and promulgated the
Royal Statute in 1834. In the form of a charter, it disguised the liberal spirit so as not to upset the followers of the
Ancien Régime, leaving it unclear whether national sovereignty resided in the King or in the
Cortes. The political equilibrium that this indeterminacy implied ended up not satisfying either one or the other. At the same time, the climate of confrontation intensified due to the intrigues of the Regent against the liberals and a
cholera epidemic that devastated Spain from south to north, generating the hoax that the
Church had poisoned the wells and canals that supplied
Madrid with drinking water. Assaults on convents and churches became commonplace. Harassed by both sides and unable to govern, Martínez de la Rosa resigned in June 1835.
The Royal Statute of 1834 The Carlist War forces
María Christina to transform the regime to remain on the throne. This change consists of granting powers to the liberals, with which it happens that the wife of the most absolutist Spanish king is the one who opens the way to liberalism. In 1832,
Ferdinand VII recovers from an illness and appoints a new cabinet led by
Cea Bermudez, who governs until 1834 and carries out some reforms, quite conservative and directed by the king. The reforms are not well received neither by the absolutists nor by the liberals. After the death of Fernando VII in 1833, several people close to the queen insinuated the need for a new Cortes and a new government, although later Maria Christina only appointed a new government under
Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, who headed a moderate liberal government that should create a constitutional framework acceptable to the Crown. The progressives did not support Martínez de la Rosa, who was nicknamed "
Rosita la pastelera" (Rosy the baker woman). Although Martínez de la Rosa may seem conservative, at the time he was a real revolution, since the monarchy renounces the monopoly of power. The Royal Statute is also a kind of compromise between monarchy and liberals to thank them for their support during the war. In practice the Royal Statute gives the Crown a great margin of action, since it directly appoints many deputies in the Cortes and the rest are elected only by the richest. The executive power belongs to the Queen and the legislative power belongs to the Queen and the Cortes. Liberal illusions collapse when they see the few concessions that the Crown gives them. The Royal Statute establishes two chambers. In one are the non-elected representatives, the
Grandees of Spain, who enter the Cortes directly. This chamber of non-elected representatives is the
Estamento de Próceres (House of Peers). The other chamber, of deputies elected under census suffrage, is the
Estamento de Procuradores. They are only elected by about 16,000 men. The Royal Statute establishes that the Cortes vote taxes but does not give them the legislative initiative without the support of the Crown, which also has the executive power. The progressives did not give up and used legal loopholes in the Royal Statute to make reforms. They were favored by the bad results of the liberals in the first years of the Carlist War, which forced María Cristina to make concessions. Among the progressive reforms are the approval of some rights of the individual (
freedom, equality,
property, judicial independence and ministerial responsibility). In the end, the progressives put more and more pressure on María Cristina, until in 1835 the regent appointed a progressive liberal government.
The momentum of the liberals and the coming to power of the progressives The progressives came to power through
insurrection, with revolts throughout the summer of 1835 led by the Juntas and the Militias. Given the anarchy of the country, the Queen Regent was forced to appoint a progressive government, led by
Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, who quickly initiated a series of reforms that would lead Spain to become a more modern state. The first objective of Mendizábal is to obtain money to increase the military troops of the liberals and to pay off the
public debt that the State had contracted with those who had invested in the State. Mendizábal's solution is the
confiscation of the goods of the regular clergy and their sale, although the privileged estates are opposed and pressure María Cristina to dismiss Mendizábal. The queen agrees and throws Mendizábal out, but there is another violent uprising in the summer of 1836 to bring back a progressive government: the Mutiny of
La Granja. A new progressive government is created in which Mendizábal is only
Minister of Finance. Progressive Reforms (1835–1837) The great protagonist is Mendizábal. In 1823, after the
Liberal Triennium, he had gone into exile. During his exile in Europe he came into contact with the most liberal ideas. He has a new legal conception of property law based on the theories of
Adam Smith and
capitalist theories. According to Mendizábal, to make Spain a liberal country, economically and politically speaking, the following steps had to be taken: the elimination of the seigniorial regime, the dissociation of the lands (ending the
majorat), and the ecclesiastical and civil confiscation. Then the agricultural revolution could be carried out, with an increase in yields that would produce a surplus to invest in industry. The seigniorial regime is eliminated in August 1837. The lords lose jurisdiction, but retain ownership of the land if they can prove that it is theirs. The seigniories are converted into capitalist holdings. The entailed estate is also eliminated, so many nobles improve their economic situation by selling land. The most important is the ecclesiastical confiscation, which is carried out by means of the "Law of the vote of confidence", to make decisions on the war without the need to decide them in the Cortes. The confiscation is carried out by means of a decree without debate in the Cortes. Mendizábal took the opportunity to reform the regular clergy, with two decrees. The first, of February 1836, is the "Decree of Extinction of the Regulars", which establishes the universal elimination of the orders of the regular male clergy. Only the missionary colleges and the hospitaller orders were saved. With respect to the feminine regular clergy, the suppression of convents is decreed and, in some, a maximum community of twenty nuns is fixed. In addition the coexistence of two convents of the same order within the same population center is prohibited; and it is also prohibited to admit novices and that the brothers are priests. Those who were priests are now parish priests of the secular clergy, and the lay brothers are left in the civil society, without compensation. All the possessions of the eliminated and reformed orders become national property. The second decree, of March 1836, is the "Decree of sale of national goods". Mendizábal argues that it solves the problem of the Treasury by saving public debt; it justifies a socioeconomic reform based on the free market, promoting individual interest; and it says that this sale of goods would create a broad group of support for the
Isabellin cause. After this decree the system of sale of national property is established. The installment sale system, which is the only possibility for the colonists to become owners, is rejected; and the
public auction system is approved, in which only the richest participate. The higher the bidding, the more the public debt is released. All this reforming action was accompanied by a series of laws that ensured the
free market. To this end, freedom is given in the form of land exploitation and free circulation of agricultural and industrial goods; the rights of the
Mesta are eliminated, among which are those of free passage and free grazing; permits are given for fencing off farms; freedom is given in land leases; freedom of storage and price (controlled only by supply and demand) are given. The liberals felt strong and mobilized in protest demonstrations throughout the peninsula, which on many occasions turned into serious altercations. The press, with a markedly progressive tendency, did not spare the government from criticism and was in favor of a more democratic system, with a greater role for
parliamentarism. The Regent, however, offered the Head of Government to
José María Queipo de Llano, who, three months after accepting, presented his resignation because of the violent clashes that took place in
Barcelona and an uprising that formed revolutionary
juntas similar to those of the
War of Independence period. These juntas joined the
National Militia and took control of different provinces. The revolutionaries presented the Regent with a list of conditions in which they demanded an enlargement of the Militia, freedom of the press, a revision of the electoral regulations that would allow more heads of families to vote, and the convocation of the Cortes Generales. will mark the whole period of the regencies and will make difficult the task of the liberal governments. Drawing of the passage of the
Infante Don Carlos through
Navarre in 1833.
Maria Christina felt obliged to grant the government to
Mendizábal, in an attempt to alleviate the serious crisis and to make a gesture to the progressives. Aware of the situation, the new president reached an agreement with the liberals: the revolutionary juntas were to be dissolved and integrated into the administrative organization of the State, within the
provincial deputation, in exchange for the political and economic reforms that he undertook to carry out. He obtained extraordinary powers from the Cortes to carry out reforms in the system that took the form of a substantial modification of the
public treasury and the tax system to guarantee a healthy State capable of meeting its obligations, meeting its loans and obtaining new credits, in addition to the
confiscation of a large part of the assets of the
Catholic Church, with the aim of making it possible to bring hitherto unproductive goods into commerce. Among the measures that Mendizábal intended to carry out was a wide remodeling of the army, which included as first step a change in the high commands, very linked to the most reactionary sectors. Although the military troops were increased to 75,000 new men and a greater contribution of 20 million pesetas was destined to the Carlist War, the reorganization did not please the Regent, who because of it lost authority in the
armed forces. Mendizábal was dismissed after a campaign of discredit,
Francisco Javier de Istúriz was appointed President of the Council of Ministers, a progressive who had returned from exile and had evolved towards much more moderate positions and contrary to the confiscation process, positioning himself as a man of the Regent's clique. After dissolving the Cortes in search of new ones that would legitimize him and support a constitution different from the Royal Statute, even more conservative, his wishes were abruptly interrupted by the Mutiny of
La Granja de San Ildefonso, which sought and obtained that the Regent reinstated the
Constitution of 1812 and repealed the Statute. Istúriz resigned on August 14, 1836, barely three months after his appointment. .'' Painting by
Francisco de Goya y Lucientes in the Stockholm Museum. The new President of the Government was
José María Calatrava, who appointed Mendizábal as
Minister of Finance, in a continuist line. He took advantage of this to conclude the confiscation process and the suppression of the
tithes. Calatrava promoted a social policy that allowed him to approve the first law in Spain that regulated and recognized the
freedom of the press. But the most important work was the adaptation of the
Constitution of 1812 to the new reality to which the Regent had committed herself by Royal Decree during the Mutiny of La Granja, with the approval of the
Constitution of 1837.
Constitution of 1837 After the Mutiny of
La Granja, the progressive government convened an extraordinary constituent Cortes, which had two options: to reform the
Constitution of 1812 or to create a new one. This would give rise to the
Constitution of 1837, which would lead to a new political system until 1844. In addition, the reforms it proposes give rise to a class society. The progressive party, "direct heir" of the
doceañistas, proposes the reform of the Constitution of 1812, but in reality gives birth to a new Constitution that wants to be of consensus and therefore acceptable to the moderates. This moderantism is seen at the moment of deciding the form of government, because they choose a
constitutional monarchy of a doctrinaire liberal character: the executive role of the Crown is reinforced. They only agree with the
doceañistas in the proclamation of national sovereignty, from which the constitution arises without the Crown acting. But the affirmation of the principle of national sovereignty is not made in the articles, as was the case in the Constitution of 1812, but appears in the preamble. The Constitution of 1837 established a
bicameral Cortes: the
Senate, appointed by the Queen; and the
Lower house, elected by census suffrage. The Crown can dissolve the Cortes, in which it acts as moderator, and veto laws. It is the first power of the State, although its powers are limited by the Cortes, which are on a lower plane. . The reasons that lead the progressives to make this constitution have given rise to a debate in
historiography. One of the most widely followed ideas is that the progressives, with all the power, break the political exclusivism between progressives and moderates, create a transactional constitution, to accommodate the Crown. This theory considers the Constitution of 1837 as the precedent of the
Canovist Constitution of 1876. It is followed by Suanzes-Carpeña and Miguel de Artola. Another idea of some historians is that exclusivism is accidental, and that the progressives did not dare to propose a system other than
constitutional monarchy. They thought neither of a parliamentary monarchy nor of a republic. This second idea is defended by
Javier Tusell. Another third proposal says that basically the
moderate and the
progressive parties defend the same thing, they are the same, and that the only difference between them is the pace of reforms. As for the social model they defend, it is a mesocratic Spain, of capitalist owners and free market. Apart from this debate on the Constitution of 1837, the great problem of liberalism is the economic backwardness of the country, so the middle class is very weak. Liberalism has enemies on the right, the absolutists; and on the left, the supporters of a social revolution. In the meantime, the only thing that interests the liberals is to maintain what they have achieved. Progressives and moderates knew that order could not be maintained by an insecure parliament with many alternations, so they opted to strengthen the executive power, which offered two possibilities: an authoritarian regime in the hands of a military man or to strengthen the Crown. Within the second option, the progressives contemplate a monarchy with all the powers, but they want someone they can control as king. Although in principle it was an attempt to reform the Constitution of 1812, the Constitution of 1837 was a completely new Constitution, drawn up on the basis of a certain consensus that sought to overcome the discussion between progressives and moderates on the question of national sovereignty. The text, very short, recognized the
legislative power of the Cortes —in a bicameral system with the
Congress of Deputies and the Senate— together with the King, to whom corresponded the prerogatives of the
Head of state and the
executive power, which he later delegated to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, but reserving great maneuvering capacity, such as the dissolution of the Chambers. The text protected freedom of the press, among other individual rights.
The Carlists at the gates of Madrid The Constitution was drawn up while the
Carlists had taken
Segovia and were at the gates of
Madrid. Azara resigned shortly after the Constitution was approved. Since 1833, the Carlists had been at war against the
Christinos. They had made themselves strong in the
Basque Country, Navarre and
Catalonia, fundamentally, with an initial support of some 70,000 men, although there were far fewer of them in arms. On November 14, 1833, the Juntas of
Alava and
Biscay named
Tomás de Zumalacárregui head of their armies. The Christino army counted at that time about 115,000 men, although only about 50,000 were capable of fighting. In the future, about half a million men had to be mobilized to face the Carlist troops victoriously. The
Infante Don Carlos, escaped from his English exile, settled between
Navarre and the
Basque Country, and from there he directed the conflict, establishing the capital in
Estella. After initial successes, Zumalacárregui lost the
Battle of Mendaza on December 12, 1834, and retreated until a new incursion in the spring of 1835 that forced the Regent's followers to position themselves beyond the
Ebro River. During the siege of Bilbao on June 15 of that year, Zumalacárregui suffered battle wounds that caused his death days later. In the summer of 1835, the
Isabellinos under the command of
General Fernández de Córdova tried to isolate the Carlists in the north but only managed to maintain control of the most important cities. The death of Zumalacárregui caused a stabilization of the fronts, except for the incursion of 1837 to the gates of
Madrid.
General Baldomero Espartero was in charge of leading the troops loyal to the Regent and avoiding the onslaught of the
Royal Expedition that approached
Madrid, until August 29, 1839, when he signed peace with the Carlist general
Rafael Maroto in what is known as the
Abrazo de Vergara (
Embrace of Vergara).
The contending political formations The
Progressive Party defended a national sovereignty that resided only in the
Cortes Generales, which put them in opposition to the monarchist thesis, although their intention was not the establishment of a Republic. He organized a
National Militia, much contested by the moderates who saw in it the end of the army of the notables. In economic matters, they relied on the theses of
Mendizábal and
Flórez Estrada, with the confiscation processes, the abolition of the
majorat and the opening of trade and free trade. In 1849, the
Democratic Party was formed, which was more ambitious than the progressives and sought
universal manhood suffrage as opposed to
census suffrage, the legalization of the incipient
workers' organizations and a fair distribution of land for farmers, since confiscation had changed hands but had not brought land to the peasants. The
moderates presented themselves as those who contained the liberals in their eagerness to destroy the monarchy and the
Ancien Régime. Its members were mostly
nobles,
aristocrats, high officials, lawyers and members of the Court and the clergy. They claimed a concept of national sovereignty shared between the King and the Cortes with alleged "historical rights" and "ancient customs".
The moderate triennium (1837–1840) Whether it was due to the Carlist offensive or to the very weakness of the political parties or to both phenomena,
Calatrava's succession brought three men from the most moderate wing of liberalism to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers in less than a year. The first was
Eusebio Bardají Azara, who acceded after the resignation of
Espartero, who preferred to continue the military campaign, and obtained even more prestige when he came down from
Navarre with his men to defend the capital from the Carlist troops of General Juan Antonio de Zaratiegui, whom he defeated. Azara resigned, dissatisfied with the position of the Regent, who tried by all means to win the
sympathies of Espartero's men. He was followed by
Narciso de Heredia and
Bernardino Fernández de Velasco. However, on December 9, 1838,
Evaristo Pérez de Castro was appointed. The new president established reforms in local administration that allowed a certain level of state
interventionism, and at the same time tried to reconcile the most negative aspects of the confiscation of
Mendizábal with the
Holy See, especially suspicious of the Spanish Crown since the death of
Fernando VII. The "revolution of 1840" and the end of the regency of Maria Christina , president of the moderate government that promoted the Local Government Law of 1840. The idea of a peaceful alternation in power between moderates and progressives supported by the
Constitution of 1837 was frustrated when the moderate government of
Evaristo Pérez de Castro presented a bill for the Local Government Law in which the appointment of the mayor corresponded to the government which would choose him from among the elected councilors, which, according to the progressives, was contrary to article 70 of the Constitution (
"For the government of the towns there will be Local Governments appointed by the neighbors to whom the law grants this right"), so the progressives resorted to popular pressure during the debate of the law —a riot in
Madrid ended with the invasion of the tribunes of the
Congress of Deputies from where they shouted and insulted the moderate deputies— and, when the law was approved without admitting their amendments, they opted for withdrawal and left the Chamber, thus questioning the legitimacy of the Cortes. Immediately, the progressives began a campaign so that the regent Maria Christina would not sanction the law under the threat of not obeying it —that is, under the threat of rebellion— and when they saw that the regent was willing to sign it, they addressed their petitions to
General Baldomero Espartero, the most popular figure of the moment after his triumph in the
First Carlist War and who was closer to
progressivism than to moderantism, to prevent the promulgation of that law contrary to the "spirit of the Constitution of 1837". The radical opposition of the progressives to the Local Government Law —to the point that it made them abandon the "legal way" to opt for the "revolutionary way"— was due, according to Jorge Vilches, to the importance of the figure of the mayor in the elaboration of the electoral census —the local government was the one that issued the electoral ballots— and in the organization, direction and composition of the
National Militia, which made the progressives fear that their chances of gaining access to the government through elections would be practically nil, in addition to the fact that the militia, whose existence for the progressives was essential for the "vigilance of the rights of the people," would be placed in the hands of the moderates. , morganatic husband of the regent
María Cristina de Borbón. In
Barcelona and
Madrid the altercations between moderates and progressives, between supporters of the Regent and
Espartero took place. In this situation
Maria Christina did not consider it convenient to remain in a Barcelona governed by the progressives and where she had not found the support she had hoped for, and she moved to
Valencia. Espartero tried to pretend that he was defending the Regent, so on July 22 he dictated a decree declaring a state of siege in
Barcelona, which was lifted on August 26. From September 1, 1840, onwards, progressive revolts broke out all over Spain in which "revolutionary juntas" were formed to challenge the authority of the government. The first to be formed was the one in
Madrid headed by the Local Government itself, which published a manifesto justifying its rebellion as a defense of the threatened, according to them,
Constitution of 1837 and in which they demanded the suspension of the enactment of the Local Government Law, the dissolution of the Cortes and the appointment of a government "
composed of resolute men." Then Maria Christina ordered General Espartero to repress the rebellion —which would also be known as the "revolution of 1840"— but he refused, so the regent had no choice but to accept the new government presided over by General Espartero and composed of progressives. The program that he presented not only contemplated the suspension of the application of the Local Government Law and the dissolution of the Cortes, but also the resignation of Maria Cristina from the Regency. In the letter sent to the regent it was said: "
There is Madam, who believes that Your Majesty cannot continue governing the nation, whose confidence they say you have lost, for other causes that should be known to you through the publicity given to them", in reference to the secret marriage of Mariia Christina with
Agustín Fernando Muñoz y Sánchez contracted three months after the death of her husband,
King Ferdinand VII. ''"Maria Christina understood that she had lost all her authority and that her continuity as regent endangered her daughter's throne, so she resigned from the Regency, asking Espartero to take charge of it."'' It was October 12, 1840. == The regency of Espartero ==