In Portugal, under the reign of Alphonso I--Sancho II--
Dionysus--John II--Emanuel--John III--Sebastian--Philip II--
Joseph I--Maria Francesca Isabella--John VI--Pedro VI--and
Dona Maria.
In Spain, under the reign of Reccarred I--Charles V--Philip II--Philip
III--Charles II--Charles III. Charles IV.--and Ferdinand VII
Alphonso, in 1139, in the cause of the church and of national
independence, subjugated the Moors of Portugal. The victor was saluted
on the field by his army as king of the conquered dominion; the Cortes
Lamego invested him with regal authority; and Pope Alexander III.
acknowledged his legitimacy, the independence of the nation, and the
laws and constitution which were prescribed. By a provision of the
constitution, which probably sprung from the religious tolerance of the
Moorish regime, the king was prohibited under forfeiture of the crown,
from becoming tributary to any foreign power. But notwithstanding this
proud interdiction, Alphonso in the course of severe conflicts which
afterwards took place between him and the kings of Castile and Leon,
made his kingdom, in violation of his own constitution, a fief of Rome,
in order to secure the papal support.
In consequence of this concession to papal supremacy, Sancho II., in
1245, became involved in a dispute with the clergy; and upon appealing
to Pope Innocent IV., had the misfortune to lose his crown.
Alphonso III. succeeded to the regal dignity. Jealous of the rights
of sovereignty, and determined to transmit them unimpaired to his
successor, his reign was, in consequence, a perpetual contest with the
intrigues of the clergy. Inflexibly firm and resolute, he defeated their
artful attempts to extend their landed estates; to obtain exemption from
taxation; to acquire for their persons and possessions an independence
of secular jurisdiction; and to subject the temporal to the spiritual
authority by an insidious and gradual encroachment on the rights of the
crown.
Dionysus, who succeeded Alphonso III., opposed with prudence and
firmness the papal intrigues, which had disturbed the peace of the
kingdom from its foundation. In order to moderate the selfishness and
tyranny of the first and second estates, composed of the clergy
and nobility, he erected the cities into a third estate, of equal
legislative authority. By elevating the dignity of the commonality, and
taking advantage of the commercial resources which the geography of
the country afforded, he awakened in the nation a spirit of indomitable
enterprise which laid the foundation of its subsequent greatness. This
liberal and enlightened policy cost him the friendship of the papal
court, but he disarmed its malice by an admirable course of prudence and
courtesy.
John II. became King of Portugal in 1450. During his administration
Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain, governed by the spirit of Catholic
intolerance, instituted a rigorous prosecution against the Jews, by
which thousands of them were deprived of their fortunes, and driven
into exile. The Jews had arisen in Spain into considerable political
influence; they had become farmers of the revenue; and their
characteristic avarice had rendered them obnoxious to the people.
Instead of rectifying the evil by adequate measures, the crown and
people, influenced by the church, were made instrumental in gratifying
its hatred against the Hebrew race, by a persecution as unjust as it was
impolitic. John II., with more liberal views of government, improved
the injudicious measures of Spain, to the advantage of his own kingdom.
Discarding the intolerance of his religion, he invited the persecuted
Jews to his dominion; and by affording them a peaceful asylum, added
largely to the wealth, population, prosperity and importance of the
nation.
Emanuel, son of John II., succeeded to the throne of Portugal in 1495.
He married Elenora, sister of Charles V., of Germany. He had imbibed the
beneficent toleration of his sire, which had been so advantageous to the
nation, but which was too antagonistical to the spirit of Catholicism,
to command its support. The craft of priestly policy might conceal its
hostility to tolerance from public perception, but machinations for its
subversion would be no less incessantly at work. In the pious system of
sacerdotal intrigue the amiable qualities of human nature are the
most available, as they are the most insidious, and least liable to
be suspected. Devoid of the finer sentiments of honor, the priests,
in their capacity of spiritual advisers, scruple not to abuse the
privileges accorded them, in making the influence which a female may
exercise over a husband, lover or parent, subservient to their own
purposes. This species of ecclesiastical intrigue is illustrated in the
conduct of Queen Elenora. Having acquired a controlling ascendancy over
the king's mind, she was induced by her spiritual advisers to
extort from him a promise that he would require the Jews to embrace
Christianity under pain of being reduced to slavery for life. By
whatever considerations, Emanuel was led to promulgate a decree so
injurious to the national welfare, and so inconsistent with the tolerant
spirit he had manifested, yet he had the humanity or sagacity to
procrastinate its execution for twenty years, and thus to ameliorate the
horrors with which it was fraught; and to place the development of the
catastrophe beyond the period of his administration.
John III., son of Emanuel, was crowned King of Portugal in 1521. A
pliant tool in the hand of papal intrigue, he gave a fatal blow to the
tolerance and prosperity of his kingdom. The implacable hatred of the
church towards the Jews, hoarded for so many years, now relieved of all
restraint, exhibited its fiendish barbarism in deeds of exterminating
cruelty. To escape the persecution to which they were exposed, the Jews
practised the externals of Catholicism, while they secretly observed
their ancient rites. The vigilance of the papal machinery, like a
monster with a thousand eyes, penetrating all secrets, soon detected
this evasion. In order to discover the persons who thus consulted
self-preservation and the dictates of consciences, the inquisition was
introduced, and a crusade of blood and devastation preached against the
whole Hebrew race. Their property was confiscated; their children were
torn from them and placed under Catholic control; and they themselves
reduced to slavery, or subjected to the tortures of the inquisition.
While John III., during his reign, was the wretched instrument of
Catholicism for the accomplishment of its atrocious designs, his
grandson, Sebastian, who in 1557, at the age of three years succeeded
to the throne, was educated, by the express injunction of his father's
will, by the Jesuists, and consequently was moulded to the same
purposes, and reduced to the same flexible subserviency. Inclined to
extravagance by temper and disposition, and educated by bigotry and
craft, his ambition became singularly whimsical; his devotion to the
pope absolute; and his thirst indomitable and unquenchable to engage
in some enterprise in which he might shed the blood of infidels and
heretics. When he arrived at majority, in order to express his devotion
to the pope, he assumed the title of "Most Obedient King." At the age of
twenty years his restless fanaticism led him to undertake an expedition
against the unoffending infidels of Tangiers; and suddenly falling
on the astonished inhabitants, gained an easy victory over them. The
success of his forces against these defenceless mountaineers led him to
imagine that his arms were invincible. Muley Mohammed having conspired
against his uncle Muley Moloch, the governor of Morocco, Sebastian
conceived that by aiding the conspirators with his personal valor and
military forces, he might acquire some distinction for his name, and
some advantages for the church. The dictates of prudence and sound
policy, the protestations of his ablest counsellors, and the munificent
offer of Muley Moloch to purchase his neutrality by the cession of five
fortified places on the coast of Africa, were feeble remonstrances to
a mind like that of Sebastian's, in which fanaticism had supplanted
principle, and despotism humanity. To popularize the hazardous
undertaking, the papal machinery began to work industriously in its
favor. Collecting an army of twenty-one thousand three hundred men,
comprised of Portuguese, Germans, Spaniards, Frenchmen and Italians, and
a fleet of one hundred vessels, he sailed for Africa, and landed
with safety at the port of Alzira. Although the number and skilful
disposition of the Moorish troops left little doubt of their triumph;
although Sebastian's provisions were nearly exhausted; although Muley
Moloch, more concerned for the safety of the misguided fanatic than
from any apprehension of the success of his arms, again attempted to
negotiate a peace; although some of the Portuguese commanders advised
a retreat, and all of those of the conspirators a retreat to the coast,
yet so confident was Sebastian of the interposition of divine providence
in aiding him to butcher the infidels, that he even refused to defer the
engagement until the afternoon, in order that he might have the
darkness of the night to cover a retreat, should such a measure become
inevitable. Sebastian fought with distinguished bravery, yet his
desperate fanaticism was equalled, if not surpassed, by the heroic
courage of those who had been tortured, outraged, and exiled by his
intolerance. The martial semicircle of the Moors enclosed his forces in
a volume of destructive flame, and their disciplined valor and skilful
manoeuvres completely annihilated them. The bodies of the vanquished
that strewed the battlefield were, in general, too horribly disfigured
with wounds to admit of their persons being identified; and Sebastian's
corpse being among the number, his actual death became doubtful. This
circumstance, twenty years afterwards furnished the papal machinery
with a convenient opportunity for manufacturing a bogus Sebastian. But
although Joseph Taxera, a Dominican monk, traversed Europe to enlist the
imperial courts in its favor, yet the numerous spurious Sebastians that
had sprung up, and the eagerness of several crowned heads to seize the
kingdom, defeated the object of his mission. The controversy was finally
settled by the battle of Alancatura, which, crowning with victory the
arms of Philip II., of Spain, one of the claimants, subjugated Portugal
to the dominion of Spain.
The religious frenzy and whimsical ambition of Sebastian, the result of
his Catholic education, cost Portugal the flower of her nobility, the
strength of her army, and her national independence; overloaded her with
debt, and degraded her under the dominion of a government distracted
by unsuccessful wars, and governed by a rapacious and unprincipled
administration. When John III., in 1540, introduced the Jesuists into
his kingdom, the doom of Portugal was sealed. From that period, under
the intolerant measures of his administration, its power began rapidly
to decline, until its disastrous connection with Spain secured its
downfall. Guinea, Brazil, the Molluccas, and all the fairest dominions
of Portugal were wrung from her grasp. Spain oppressed her with
rapacious tyranny; England and the Jesuists monopolized her trade,
and the calamities which had visited her in such frightful succession
exhausted her resources.
The capacity of the nation for greatness, notwithstanding the
degradation into which she had sunk, still animated the patriotic
Portuguese with the hopes of a national redemption. In 1640 a powerful
conspiracy was formed against the Spanish regime, and in 1750 the
political independence of Portugal was achieved, and Joseph I. elevated
to the throne. Duke Pombal, an able statesman, and the prime minister of
the government, regarding the Jesuists as the origin of the weakness
and disgraces of the government, and believing that their secrecy,
dissimulation and treachery, absolved him from any obligation he might
assume with regard to them, inconsistent with the public good, became a
member of their order that he might acquire a correct knowledge of their
principles and mode of operation, and be qualified to counteract their
pernicious machinations. With profound dissimulation, he so completely
deceived them that they admitted him to an intimate knowledge of all
their secrets, plans and designs. After having fully obtained his object
he made a public exposition of their secrets. He disclosed the dangerous
principles of their constitution, their political objects, the oaths
by which they were bound, the baseness of their intrigues, their false
professions, their horrible deeds, and their disgraceful rapacity and
profligacy. By the exposure which he was enabled to make he succeeded
in having them removed from the important position of confessors to the
king, and instructors of youth in colleges. He also induced Joseph to
expel them from the missions of Paraguay; to abridge the power of the
bishops; and to prohibit the celebration of the "auto-da-fe" of the
inquisition. The Jesuists not being able successfully to arrest the
progress of reform determined to assassinate the king; but failing in
this attempt, the whole order fell under the ban of the kingdom, and
were officially declared a political organization under the mask of
religion, and its members expelled from the kingdom as enemies of
the public peace, and traitors to the government. Pope Clement XIII.,
enraged at this summary destruction of the most efficient department
of his machinery, endeavored to intimidate the reformers by threats of
excommunication, and commissioned a legate to adopt any means to arrest
proceedings against the Jesuists. But his legate was promptly escorted
out of the kingdom; and as the conduct of the holy father in protecting
and defending an organization of traitors and assassins, implicated him
in the guilt of an accessory, all connection with the See of Rome
was declared dissolved until the imputation should be removed by the
abolishment of the Jesuistical order. The vanity of Pope Clement
could not permit him to suffer such a mortification, and the decree of
dissolution was rigorously enforced; but his successor, at the hazard
of disproving the papal infallibility, complying with the demands of
Portugal, amicable relations were re-established.
On the death of Joseph I., in 1777, Maria Francesca Isabella, his eldest
daughter, succeeded to the royal dignity. The superstitious temperament
of this queen, and her natural infirmity, which terminated in confirmed
mental alienation, disqualified her for the administration of
the governmental powers on sound principles of public policy, and
surrendered her to the selfish control of a corrupt priesthood and
ambitious nobility. By the intrigues of these two classes, which seldom
scruple to sacrifice the popular interest to their personal advantage,
Pombal was deprived of his useful political influence, most of his
regulations were abolished, and Portugal, from the dawn of a magnificent
future, sunk into the obscurity and lethargy of her former condition.
In 1817 John VI., who had been regent during the imbecility of the
queen, from 1795 to her death, ascended the throne. The spirit of French
republicanism exerted a liberalizing influence over Europe generally,
and had apparently a similar effect on the pope and his machinery.
Those who did not understand the profoundity of sacerdotal craft might
have been stupefied with astonishment to see a pope, while professing
to be infallible, discarding principles and policies which had
been approved by the practice, and defended by the anathemas of his
predecessors. He not only sanctioned the prohibition of Portugal
forbidding Jesuists from entering the kingdom, and consented to the
abolition of the inquisition, but even requested that all persecution
against the Jews should cease, and that they should be admitted to
greater rights and privileges. The popular current had set in too
strongly in favor of change in the constitution and administration of
the government for papal sagacity to oppose, and unobstructed by
the sacerdotal machinery, it became daily augmented in volume and
impetuosity. The liberal feeling of the nation, allowed spontaneously to
flow, culminated in 1820 in establishing, without violence or bloodshed,
a provisional government and a new cortes. Tolerance on the lips of a
Catholic priest is treason to Rome; and, though this circumstance might
have cautioned prudence against investing any of them with power, yet
as they had warmly espoused the liberal cause, they were elected by the
people as members to the cortes, with the exception of a few lawyers
and governmental officers. At the assemblage of the cortes, under the
presidency of the archbishop of Braga, the revolutionary measures were
sanctioned, the inquisition forever interdicted, and a constitution
framed which secured freedom of person and property, the liberty of
the press, and legal equality. The king approved the provisions of
this constitution, and swore to support it. But under this prosperous
appearance of republican progress, the demon of religious intolerance
was secretly at work; availing itself of every means to arrest the
popular current. The portentous mutterings of an approaching storm were
frequently heard; and it was not, therefore, a matter of surprise to
the friends of freedom, that in 1832, a regency was established at
Valladolid, under the bishop of Lisbon, with the avowed object of
subverting the constitution, and inviting the people to rally under the
standard of monarchy; nor that this regency was supported by the queen,
Don Miguel, the clergy and the nobility. The machinations of the papal
machinery had so successfully extinguished the popular enthusiasm which
had won such important concessions to natural right, that no sooner was
the standard of royalty raised, than an enormous reduction took place in
the ranks of the liberal party. So many priests, noblemen, soldiers and
people espoused the royal cause, that John VI. found no difficulty in
declaring the constitution of 1822, which he had sworn to support, null
and void, and to protect his perjury and his treason to the freedom
of the people, by disarming the military and the national guards. The
absolutists then proceeded to annul all the concessions that had been
made, in accommodation to the popular feeling; they restored the
church confiscated property, established a censorship over the press,
imprisoned or banished the liberal members of the cortes, and organized
a junta for the purpose of framing a monarchial constitution. But
Don Migual, aspiring to become absolute king, could not submit to
the restriction of a constitution; and, being commander-in-chief, and
exercising the governmental powers, excited an insurrection against
the Lisbon cortes, and arbitrarily proceeded to banish all liberals,
constitutionalists, freemasons, and members of other secret societies.
That he might successfully remove every obstacle that imperiled his
ultimate designs, he forbade all appeals to the king. But the acts
which his ambition dictated were too reprehensible not to acquire for his
administration a dangerous and prejudicial notoriety. In spite of all
precaution the rumor of his tyranny penetrated the royal palace, and Don
Miguel was summoned into the presence of the king to explain the reasons
for his arbitrary conduct. Candidly acknowledging or artfully assuming
that he had been the innocent victim of craft and misrepresentation, he
succeeded in obtaining the king's pardon.
In 1826 John VI. died, and Isabella becoming regent, administered the
government until Pedro IV. of Brazil, the brother of the deceased king,
could make it convenient to visit Portugal, and assume the reigns
of government. After having done so he established a constitution,
providing two legislative chambers, and then abdicated in favor of his
eldest daughter, Dona Maria da Gloria. Don Miguel, his brother, the
chamberlains, and the magistrates swore to support the constitution. But
the first, in violation of his oath of allegiance, and of his fraternal
obligations, entered into a conspiracy for its overthrow. With this
object in view he organized an apostolic party, and abusing the power
and confidence with which he was honored, secretly filled the army,
navy, and civil offices with his adherents. Having matured his plans
he caused an insurrection to break out against the queen, in order to
enable him to seize the royal authority under pretense of restoring
public tranquillity. England, however, interfering, the revolution was
checked, and the project of usurpation frustrated. But the treasonable
plot was skilfully and comprehensively laid, and the zealous support
which it derived from the papal machinery soon rendered it popular with
the masses. As if enamored of slavery and despotism, the people began to
crowd into the ranks of the apostolic party, to second its declaration
in favor of Don Miguel as king, to unite in its shouts of "Long live the
absolute king," "Down with the constitutions," and to denounce, abuse
and assault those who refused to echo its suicidal acclamations. A few
military garrisons which still withstood the popular frenzy, and adhered
to the cause of constitutional government, raised the standard of
revolt; and being joined by other troops, an army was organized which
marched against Lisbon. It was met by the apostolic army, which greatly
outnumbered it; and being defeated, the liberal junta was dissolved and
Don Miguel proclaimed absolute king. In 1834 Don Miguel was defeated by
Don Pedro IV., and the constitution of 1826 was re-established by the
cortes.
PAPAL POLITICAL INTRIGUES IN SPAIN
We will conclude our history of Papal Political Intrigues, by a cursory
glance at a few of its instances with regard to the government of Spain.
Catholicism was introduced into Spain in 586, under the reign of
Reccared I.; and from that period the governmental affairs were
controlled by the political intrigues of the clergy, until 711, when the
kingdom became a province of the Caliph of Bagdad.
The Moorish government adopted a more liberal policy than was consistent
with the spirit of Catholicism. It tolerated the free exercise of
all religions. It permitted the subjugated to retain their laws and
magistrates. Agriculture, commerce, arts and science flourished under
its auspices. It established libraries and universities; and, from
the hand of its civilization Europe has received the knowledge of
arithmetical characters, of gunpowder, and of the art of manufacturing
rags into paper. But the Infidels who conferred these advantages could
not conciliate the proud spirit of the Spaniard to subjugation under
foreign rule, nor the pope to the loss of revenues derivable from an
opulent kingdom. A national struggle for indivisibility of empire, and
primogenitureship in succession was consequently inaugurated; and a
succession of conquests, from 1220 to 1491, ultimated in the reduction
of the Moors under Castellian supremacy. With the achievement of
nationality, and the discovery of South America, Spain began to rank
with the first powers of Europe. But her decline was as rapid as her
elevation. Besides the conflicting laws and customs which prevented
national unity, and the political tyranny which oppressed the masses,
a rigorous persecution was inaugurated against the Moors and Jews,
compelling such as refused to be baptized to leave the kingdom.
In 1520 Charles V. became king of Spain, and subsequently, also Emperor
of Germany. After suppressing an insurrection of his Spanish subjects,
who demanded a liberal constitution, and annihilating the last vestige
of civil liberty by separating the deliberative estates, he established
over the kingdom a military, religious, and political despotism.
So oppressive was his administration, and so reckless were his
expenditures, that although Mexico, Peru, and Chili poured a continual
stream of wealth into the public treasury, yet excessive taxes had to
be imposed, and enormous loans negotiated to satisfy the demands of the
rapacious monarch.
In 1555 Philip II. ascended the throne of Spain. The Catholic education
of this prince fitted him better for a cloister than a throne. His
rapacity empoverished the nation, and his religious intolerance
perpetually convulsed it with sedition and war. His devoutest wish was
to extirpate heretics, and his most pleasing sight was an auto-da-fe,
in which he could behold his subjects expiring in the flames. Like
Sigismund, the smell of burning heretics was never offensive to his
nostrils. His inhuman and impolitic course having led his minister to
intimate that he was depopulating his kingdom by his frequent massacres,
he replied: "Better be without subjects than to reign over heretics."
As cowardly as he was blood-thirsty, it was his custom when his army was
engaged in battle, to retire to a safe retreat and pray for its success;
and whenever a victory was achieved to assume the head of the command,
as if the triumph was the result of his valor and military skill.
Although his Catholicism had transformed him into merely mechanical part
of the papal machinery, without feeling or reason, yet when his truce
with France was broken by the interference of Pope Paul IV., and his
right to the kingdom of Naples was declared forfeited, he awoke from his
lethargic slumbers, and commissioned the bloody Alva to proceed with an
army to Rome and chastise the holy father for his insulting political
intrigues. The pope alarmed, and, perhaps surprised at the belligerent
attitude of a king once so remarkably obedient, thought it better to
consult prudence than the divine prerogatives of his office, and to
avert the impending chastisement by subscribing to articles of peace.
In 1169 Philip III. became invested with the royal dignity. By nature
a tyrant, by temper a bigot, without any administrative capacity, and
educated in superstition and intolerance, he seems to have been born for
the the disgrace and destruction of the throne he inherited. In the
most brilliant period of Spanish history her religious despotism was
prophetic of her premature decay, and each succeeding reign verifying
the prophecy, she now tottered on the verge of ruin. Favorites were
allowed to waste the national revenues, England and Holland destroyed
the Spanish commerce, frequent insurrections destroyed the public peace;
eight hundred thousand Jews, and two million Moors were, during this and
the preceding administration driven from the country; and to complete
the national degradation Spain had to submit to the supremacy of
England.
In 1665 Charles II. succeeded to the regal authority. At his death,
which occurred in 1700, he made Philip of Anjou, grandson of his sister,
consort of Louis XIV., the sole heir of his dominion, in order to
prevent the division of the empire, which had been resolved upon by
France, England and Holland. This will led to the war of the Spanish
succession, notwithstanding which the Bourbon, Philip V., maintained
himself on the Spanish throne.
In 1759 Charles III. succeeded to the throne of the Spanish monarchy.
The decaying embers of liberalism which had began to scintillate amid
the gloom of despotism, now shone forth with renewed brilliancy. Genius
and intelligence, which alone are capable of grappling with the astute
principles of government, and of developing the latent greatness of
a people, were fortunately exhibited in the favorite publicists and
statesmen of the monarch. Profound and elevated views of political
economy began to characterize the administration; and the true
principles of commerce, the national importance of agriculture, arts
and manufacture, and the best means for their development, became
more generally understood by the government and the people. With
Count Florida Blanca, a man of extraordinary ability and activity, as
ambassador at Rome, holding the pope in check; with Aranda, a man of
penetrating genius, occupying the most influential position of the
state; with Olavides enjoying the confidence of the monarch, and
elaborating laws for public improvement; and with Campomanes, a scholar
of varied and profound erudition, as fiscal giant of the royal council
of Castile, defending the enlightened policy of the government against
the attacks of bishops; equalizing taxation; and reducing the number
of mendicants, the nation could not but increase in splendor and
prosperity, notwithstanding it had became involved in a formidable war
which raged between France and England. By the co-operation of these
patriotic statesmen, whose lofty spirit scowled on despotism and
religious bigotry, a pragmatic sanction was obtained from the government
which restricted the inquisition, banished the Jesuists from the Spanish
dominions, and confiscated their property.
But Rome and her priests could not forgive these benefactors of the
nation, although their liberal policy had improved every department
of government, and had added, amid the disasters of war, wealth to
the treasury, and a million men to the population. Florida Blanca was
disgraced, imprisoned, and finally banished to his estates. Campomanes
was removed from office, and disgraced. Aranda, who so greatly
contributed to public security, good order, and the abolition of abuses,
after passing through several trying vicissitudes, was banished to
Arragon. And Olavides, in the midst of his beneficent and patriotic
labors was arrested for heresy, and imprisoned in a monastic dungeon.
For the better protection, perhaps, of the monarchy from aggressions
from without, and from insubordination from within, the pope, at the
request of Charles III., declared the Spanish monarchy to be under
the supervision of the Immaculate Conception. St. James, the former
protecting genius of Spain, was formally deposed from office, and the
Virgin Mary duly invested with his authority and jurisdiction. The truth
of the Immaculate Conception was demonstrated beyond prudent dispute by
the oaths of the emperor and the estates; and similar oaths were made
the indispensable condition of all who should henceforth receive a
university degree, or become a member of any corporation or association.
As reverence for the clergy had become the substance of the Catholic
religion, so now invocations to the Virgin Mary became the principal act
of devotion.
In 1788 Charles IV. was invested with the imperial dignity. In 1808 the
troops of Bonaparte having entered his dominions, he welcomed them as
allies, and shortly afterwards resigned the crown in favor of his son,
Ferdinand VII. A month had not elapsed before he secretly revoked his
resignation, and finally ceded his right to the crown to Napoleon,
who placed Joseph Bonaparte on the throne. Although the ministers
of Ferdinand VII., and the greater part of the educated classes of
Spaniards, acknowledged without hesitation the authority of Joseph, yet
the monks and priests, whose principles and interests are identified
with despotism, in conjunction with the absolutists, and supported by
England, found sufficient available material in the change of dynasty,
in the arrogance of the French, and in the national hostility to foreign
domination, to excite a general insurrection against the French regime,
and in favor of Ferdinand VII. as king. A junta was established at
Seville which proclaimed war against France, and announced an alliance
between England and Spain. A desperate struggle was now inaugurated,
which, through six bloody campaigns, raged from 1808 to 1814; during
which every important city was successively taken and lost, and every
province was desolated and drenched in blood. Armies after armies, on
both sides, were created and destroyed with melancholy rapidity. The
papal machinery held the people in such absolute control that, though
the French gained victory after victory, abolishing as they triumphed
the feudal privileges, the inquisition, the monkish order, and
endeavored by the most liberal concessions to conciliate the popular
prejudices, yet they retained no place which they did not garrison.
Their ranks were constantly thinned by the secret dagger, their
communications cut off by guerillas, and their wounded murdered in cold
blood. Insurgent bands everywhere carried on the bloodiest struggles,
and women took a fiendish delight in torturing and assassinating the
captives of war. A length the dreadful tragedy was closed, by the
victory of the English at Toulouse.
Peace being restored to the nation the cortes assembled, and shortly
afterwards passed a resolution, declaring that before Ferdinand should
be acknowledged as king, he should be required to swear to support the
constitution which had been drawn up by the cortes of 1812, and which
had been acknowledged by the allies of Spain. When interrogated as to
his disposition of complying with the demands of the cortes, he replied
in a tone of insolent indifference: "I have not thought about it." To
fortify the absolute power he intended to usurp he professed to abhor
despotism, and solemnly pledged his honor to grant the people a new
constitution, founded on liberal principles, and which would afford
ample protection to the rights of person and property, and to the
freedom of the press. But the motives which induced him to make these
promises did not urge him to fulfil them. While he nullified the old
constitution, he did not restrict his authority by a new one; but in the
exercise of absolute power arrested the officers who served under Joseph
Bonaparte, and banished them with their wives and children; abolished
freemasonry; restored the Jesuists; re-established the inquisition;
put liberals to the rack; executed all who opposed the domineering
pretensions of the priests; imprisoned those who ventured to remonstrate
against his measures; incarcerated in monastic dungeons the members of
the cortes; and domineered with absolute despotism over the lives
and fortunes of his subjects. These severe proceedings, intended to
intimidate insurgents, produced disloyalty, confusion and anarchy. The
army became dissatisfied; the people insubordinate; the country infested
with plundering and murdering guerillas; and, encouraged by this
turbulent state of affairs, four battalions, in 1819, under Riago,
declared for the constitution of 1812. The progress of this revolution
was strenuously opposed by the allied forces of the monks, the priests,
and the absolutists. The bishop of Cienfuegos defeated it at Cadiz. But
the people inhaling the patriotic enthusiasm, arose in masses in its
favor, and even the apostolics deserted their commanders. Ferdinand
deprived of troops, and almost of adherents, found himself obliged to
submit to the demands of the people. A provisional junta was established
to conduct-the public affairs, before which Ferdinand appeared and swore
to support the constitution of 1812. The inquisition was abolished. The
cortes assembled, and in a session of four months, endeavored by the
means of moderate measures to conciliate the prejudices and interests of
contending factions, and to restore harmony and vigor to the nation. The
clergy and absolutists, whom no concession could satisfy, except that of
unrestricted monarchy, organized a conspiracy for the overthrow of
the constitution; and as the cortes had in their reformatory measures
abolished some convents, and banished all non-juring priests, they
appealed to the religious frenzy of the people, and succeeded in
creating considerable opposition to the constitutions. In the interest
of this counter revolution an apostolic junta was established on
the frontiers of Portugal, for the avowed design of destroying the
privileges of the crown and the clergy. Numerous bands of armed monks
and peasants appeared in the different provinces; and their bold
assassinations and barbarous acts produced such universal consternation,
that the cortes declared the whole country in a state of siege. It was
now evident that the priests and monks who had stimulated the peasants
to insurrection had been instigated by the French government. But the
cortes met the conspirators with skilful and vigorous measures, and
having vanquished them in every engagement, succeeded finally in
effecting the disbandment of their forces.
In 1822 another attempt was made to subvert the constitution. At Soi
d'Urgel, on the confines of France, the absolutists established a
regency under the Marquis Mataflounds. France was the instigator of this
regency, and supported it with her influence and money. The army of the
absolutists, composed of apostolic soldiers, and soldiers of the faith,
were met by the united strength of the nation, and overwhelmed with
defeat. The regency fled to France. But this evidence of the capability
and determination of Spain to maintain a constitutional government,
awakened into opposition every element of despotism, not only within her
borders, but within all Europe. The pope refused to receive the Spanish
ambassadors. The nuncio left Madrid; France, Austria, and Prussia
demanded of the cortes that they should restore to Ferdinand full
sovereign powers, and England advised a compliance with the demand. The
Duke Angouleme, the commander of the French forces, established a
junta which formed a provisional government on absolute principles, and
declared the acts of the cortes null and void. France raised an army of
the soldiers of the faith, who were received by the Spanish clergy
with acclamations of joy, and termed by them "Good Christians."
The peasantry, controlled by the priests, espoused the cause of the
absolutists, but the army, the educated classes, and the
people residing in cities generally adhered to the party of the
constitutionalists.
The dictatorial interference of foreign powers in the internal affairs
of a sovereign nation, and their attempts to defeat a governmental
reform which they had sanctioned, and which, to achieve had cost the
nation so much treasure, and so many valuable lives, fired the native
pride and heroism of the Spanish character, and united the different
factions of the constitutionalists in a solid body in favor of their
country and its liberty. Though few in number, without allies, and
without pecuniary resources, yet they were full of energy and heroic
courage. The cortes repelled with patriotic indignation the insolent
interposition of foreign powers, and prepared for the doubtful contest
with consummate skill. As the church had been the chief cause of the
national calamity, they appropriated its surplus plate to the necessity
of the public treasury. The soldiers of the faith, and their guerilla
bands, exclusively requiring the attention of the national guards and
of the soldiers of the line, the cortes found themselves without
an efficient army to oppose the march of the French troops, and the
apostolic forces. This serious disadvantage enabled the absolutists to
march oh from victory to victory; and though some places made a good
defence, and others a stubborn and desperate resistance, yet others
submitted with scarcely a struggle. The gloom which now overshadowed
the prospects of the constitutionalists, was ominously deepened by the
defection of some of their generals. But the undaunted firmness of
the remaining leaders, and the unequalled boldness and skill which
characterized their manoeuvres, desperately disputed inch by inch the
progress of the monarchists, until the fall of Valencia terminated
the eventful struggle, so honorable to the constitutionalists, so
disgraceful to Europe, and so full of admonition to freemen. The bloody
contests in which the liberals had been engaged greatly depleted their
ranks, and now dungeons, exile, and the secret dagger nearly completed
their annihilation. Under these depressing circumstances, the cortes
invested Ferdinand with absolute power. The apostolics, the soldiers
of the faith, the clergy and the uneducated classes, hailed him with
acclamations of "Long live the absolute king;" "Long live religion;"
"Death to the nation;" "Death to the negroes." Ferdinand then declared
null and void all the acts of the constitutional government, and all the
public approvals by which he had sanctioned them. An attempt was made
to introduce the inquisition, but the liberals, supported by France, and
even approved by the pope, successfully resisted the obnoxious measure.
In 1832, the infirmities of Ferdinand having rendered him the dupe of
designing favorites, he created Christina, the queen, regent for the
infanta Isabella, his daughter. In 1837 the regent was obliged, by an
insurrection, to proclaim the constitution of 1812. In 1843, Isabella
having attained her majority, was declared queen. The constitution,
revised and deprived of its democratic provisions, was substituted for
that of 1837. After the adoption of this constitution the municipal
privileges were abridged, the sale of the sequestered church property
suspended, and extraordinary provisions devised for the support of the
clergy.