Carlism

Carlism was a conservative political movement in Spain, purporting to establish an alternative branch of the Bourbons in the Spanish throne.

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The dynastic issue

• 13th May 1713, Felipe V of Spain, first of the Spanish Bourbons, through an "Auto Acordado" changes the traditional order of succession to the Spanish crown, dating from the Kingdom of Castile, to a "semi-Salic" system as in France, thereby limiting inheritance rights to his male descendants, and only through the female line in absence of any male heir on any line.
• 1789, Carlos IV of Spain approves in Cortes a reversal to the Siete Partidas order of succession: women would inherit the Crown, in absence of male siblings. The pragmatic sanction is not published due to protests from the cadet branches (Naples, Parma) who saw their rights diminished with the new regulation.
• 31st March 1830, Fernando VII, at the time without issue, and with his fourth wife pregnant, publishes the Pragmatica Sanci?n. The 10th of October a girl, the future Isabel II of Spain is born. After several courtly intrigues, the Pragmatica Sanci?n is definitively approved on 1832. Fernando's brother, Infante Carlos, up to that time the heir presumptive, felt robbed of his rights, and left for Portugal.

The political landscape at the death of Fernando VII

Like many European countries, after the Napoleonic occupation, the Spanish political class was split between the "absolutists", supporters of the ancien r?gime, and the Liberals, influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution. Both parties had fought Napoleon side-by-side in the Peninsular War. Unlike most other countries, the liberal Constitution of 1812 was written by the patriotic forces.

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The long war also left a long supply of experienced guerrilla fighters, and an oversized army officialdom — for the most part, staunch Liberals. The perceived success of the uprising of 1808 against Napoleon left also a wide, if unconscious, belief in the validity of the right of rebellion, with a long lasting effect in the politics of Spain and Spanish America through the 19th century and beyond.

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The reign of Fernando VII proved unable to overcome the political divide or to create stable institutions. The so-called "Liberal Triennium" (1820–1823), when, after a military "pronunciamiento", the Liberals reinstated the 1812 constitution, and the succeeding "Ominous Decade" (1823–1833), ten years of absolute rule by the King, left bitter memories of persecution in both parties.

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While in power, both groups had divided themselves into moderate and radical branches. The radical branch of the absolutists (or royalists), known as the Apost?licos, looked upon the heir presumptive, Carlos, as its natural head, as he was profoundly devout and, especially after 1820, staunchly anti-liberal.

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In 1827, Catalonia was shaken by the rebellion of the Agreugats or Agraviados ("the Grievous"), an ultra-absolutist movement, which, for a time, controlled large parts of the region. The Infante was for the first time then hailed as King. He denied any involvement.

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The last years of King Fernando saw a political realignment due to the troubles around his succession. In October 1832, the King formed a moderate royalist Government under Cea Bermudez, which tried, almost successfully, to curb the Apostolic party and, through an amnesty, to gain liberal support for Isabella's right to succeed and for Queen Maria Cristina de Borb?n, her mother, and designated regent. If only to get rid of Don Carlos, the Liberals accepted the new Princess of Asturias.

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Moreover, the first years of the 1830s were influenced by the failure of the French Restoration, which meant the end of Bourbonic absolutist rule in France; and the civil war in Portugal between both absolutist and liberal parties.

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Social and economical factors

Beside this political evolution, the years before the Carlist wars were marked with a deep economic crisis in Spain, partly spurred by the loss of the American colonies and by the bankruptcy of the state. The last triggered enhanced tax pressure which further fueled social unrest.

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Certain economic measures proposed by the Liberals (like the division and sale of the commons, initiated in 1821) were directly threatening to the viability of many small farms, which could rely on the commons to feed, at little or no cost, their mules and oxen.

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One important factor was the religious question. The radical liberals (progresistas) after 1820 had grown more and more anticlerical, with special hatred for regular orders, and were suspected of being masonic shields. This policy alienated them from many sections of the (mostly deeply Catholic) Spanish people, especially in rural areas.

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Incidentally, the only institution abolished in the "Liberal Triennium", which was not restored by Fernando VII, was the Inquisition. One of the demands of the radical absolutist party was its reinstitution.

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Liberals had been, while in power, quite doctrinarian, and therefore uniformists. In many sections of Spain, there were intense particularist feelings, who where thus hurt. While only a secondary element at the outbreak of the first War, this anti-uniformism, exemplified in the defense of the "Fueros", would become in time one of the more important banners of Carlism.

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Spain: The Kingdom of Spain or Spain (Spanish and Galician: Reino de Espa?a or Espa?a; Catalan: Regne d'Espanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma; Asturian: Reinu d'Espa?a or Espa?a) is a country located in the southwest of Europe. It shares the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. To the nor...

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