Minority Of Isabella II Of Spain

Isabella II of Spain (10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904) was barely three years of age when her father Ferdinand VII of Spain died on 29 September 1833. Her minority age was marked first by the regency of her mother Maria Christina of the Two Sicilles and then under General Baldomero Espartero, covering almost ten years of her reign, until 23 July 1843, when Isabella was declared to be of age.

Upon the death of Ferdinand VII, his wife Maria Christina immediately assumed the regency on behalf of her daughter Isabella II, and promised the liberals a policy different from that of the deceased king. Part of the Spanish society was expectant before a possible change in the future reign of Isabella II, and that would incorporate to the country the liberal models that were developed in some nations of Europe. The First Carlist War and the confrontations between the liberals of the Moderate Party and those of the Progressive Party culminated in the rise to the head of state of General Espartero, in a convulsive period plagued by governmental crises and social instability.

The situation in Europe

In Great Britain, William IV initiated profound liberal reforms and Parliament became the real political engine of the country's life. After the defeat of Spain in the Battle of Trafalgar, the extension of what would soon become the British Empire began to take shape, especially from 1837 with the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne. Democracy was established in the country as an unquestioned model.

On the continent, with the dissolution of the Holy Alliance in 1830, France had overthrown absolutism with the fall of Charles X and established a constitutional monarchy in the person of Louis-Philippe d'Orleans, under whose rule the industrial revolution was launched and the bourgeoisie took the reins of the national economy.

Absolutism is relegated to Prussia, Russia and Austria, although in the former the impulses of unification with the German Customs Union, nourished by the liberals, who will not cease to obtain partial successes in the commercial field, will open the borders and will procure advances in the new pre-industrial society.

The First Carlist War

The death of Ferdinand VII provoked a series of uprisings and the proclamation of Don Carlos as king. The uprisings were led by absolutist military men who had been retired from the army or even prosecuted. The first to rise up was Manuel Martín González, followed by Verasategui, Santos Ladrón and Zumalacárregui. A bloody civil war began, characterized by its scarce geographical location, since it took place in the Basque Country and Navarre and in some small pockets in Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia.

The sides

Broadly speaking, the First Carlist War can be defined as the means to decide the continuity of the Ancien Régime or the triumph of liberalism.

Carlism defends absolutism. Among its ranks are the low rural nobility, the low Basque clergy and Basque and Navarrese peasants. The Carlists unite under the cry of "God, Country and Fueros" ( Spanish: ''"Dios, Patria y Fueros"'') (the defense of the Fueros begins in 1834 by means of an imposition of the Deputation of Biscay ( Spanish: ''Diputación foral de Vizcaya'') to Don Carlos).

The liberals are led by the queen regent Maria Christina. At first they were moderate liberals, but later there were also progressives. The enlightened middle classes, who had to put an end to the Ancien Régime, could be considered liberals.

The development of the war

The Carlist uprisings of 1833 are followed by the creation of juntas or local governments. When Don Carlos returned to Spain in 1834, he tried to create a government with the General State Administration in the Basque Country and Navarre that would become the national government at the end of the War. The Carlists used guerrilla warfare because of their knowledge of the rural environment and because the cities were liberal. The First Carlist War is a rural-urban confrontation that has three stages, of two years each:

* 1st stage (1833-1835): it is dominated by Zumalacárregui, a Carlist. The liberal army is depleted by the guerrillas, which forces Maria Christina to call up the progressives. Don Carlos considers in 1835 the assault of Bilbao, but Zumalacárregui does not support this plan because he knows that the Carlist artillery would not withstand a siege. In the end the assault was a failure and Zumalacárregui died.
* 2nd stage (1835-1837): Zumalacárregui is replaced by Cabrera. Both sides opted for control. Luis Fernández de Córdoba, liberal, tries to create a line of containment to isolate the Carlists, but this line would oblige to cover more than 500 km (kilometers), an area too extensive. The Carlists try to relieve the pressure in the Basque Country and Navarre with operations in Catalonia and Aragon, although they do not succeed and the rest of the war is only fought in the Basque Country and Navarre.
* 3rd stage (1837-1839): from 1837 the war is practically decided in favor of the liberals. Within the Carlist side a division arose between those who opted to surrender and sign the peace; and the intransigent ones who wanted to continue fighting. In the end, General Maroto agreed with the liberals the Convention of Vergara in August 1839, which put an end to the war, although Don Carlos would continue fighting for a few more months. Besides the peace, the agreement assures the continuity of the Fueros and allows the integration of the Carlist military into the regular royal army.

The most favored personage was General Espartero, known after his victory in Luchana as the ''"Espadón de Luchana"''. He obtained a great political and social presence and a noble title that turned him into Grandees of Spain, and he was Duke of la Victoria. María Christina reigned until 1843, the year in which Princess Isabella was named of age and began to reign at the age of thirteen.

The regency of Maria Christina

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. This was not an obstacle, however, for Carlos Maria Isidro, Ferdinand's brother, to claim his rights to the Spanish throne. 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, banishing his brother Carlos for refusing to recognize 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; he had the express support of the Portuguese crown, then in the hands of D. Miguel I, and the complicit silence of Austria, Prussia and Russia. The Spanish troops invaded Portugal in an attempt to punish the 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 timid 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.

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 were not long in coming. 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 in order 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.

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.

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

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