Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/369

 IQTH CENTURY.] SPAIN 345 have been accomplished without the assistance of England. Wellington had already made two attempts to advance from Portugal into the adjacent kingdom, but had been foiled by superior forces. In 1812 he determined on a great effort. He secured his base of operations by the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, and at Salamanca he completely routed the opposing army of Marmont. This victory enabled the English general to enter Madrid (August 12), and Joseph retreated to Valencia. But further advance was prevented by the concentration of the French forces in the east, and Wellington found it advisable to retire for the third time to winter-quarters on the Portuguese frontier. It was during this winter that Napoleon suffered his first and greatest reverse in the retreat from Moscow and the destruction of his grand army. This was the signal for the outbreak of the " war of liberation " in Germany, and French troops had to be withdrawn from Spain to central Europe. For the first time Wellington found himself opposed by fairly equal forces. In the spring of 1813 he advanced from Ciudad Rodrigo and defeated Jourdan at Vittoria, the battle which finally decided the Peninsular War. Joseph retired altogether from his kingdom, and Wellington, eager to take his part in the great European contest, fought his way through the Pyrenees into France. Napoleon, who had suffered a crushing defeat at Leipsic, hastened to recognize the impossibility of retaining Spain by releasing Ferdinand VII., who returned to Madrid in March 1814. After the convulsions it had endured Spain required a period of firm but conciliatory government, but the ill-fate of the country gave the throne at this crisis to the worst of her Bourbon kings. Ferdinand VII. had never pos- sessed the good qualities which popular credulity had assigned to him, and he had learnt nothing in his four years' captivity except an aptitude for lying and intrigue. He had no conception of the duties of a ruler ; his public conduct was regulated by pride and superstition, and his private life was stained by the grossest sensual indulgence. Spain was still governed under the constitution of 1812, but the king's first act was to dissolve the cortes and to abrogate the constitution, promising, however, to grant a new one in its place. But no sooner was he established on the throne, and conscious of the strong reaction in favour of the monarchy, than he threw his promises to the wind and set himself to restore the old absolutism with all its worst abuses. The nobles recovered their privileges and their exemption from taxes; the monasteries were restored; the Inquisition resumed its activity; and the Jesuits returned to Spain. The liberals were ruthlessly per- secuted, together with all who had acknowledged Joseph Bonaparte. A camarilla of worthless courtiers and priests conducted the government, and urged the king to fresh acts of revolutionary violence. For six years Spain groaned under a royalist " reign of terror," and isolated revolts only served as the occasion for fresh cruelties. The finances were squandered in futile expeditions to recover the South American colonies, which had taken advantage of Napoleon's conquest of Spain to establish their independence. In his straits for money Ferdinand ventured to outrage national sentiment by selling Florida to the United States in 1819. Discontent found expres- sion in the formation of secret societies, which were especially powerful among the neglected and ill -paid soldiers. At last, in 1820, Riego and Quiroga, two officers of an expedition which had been prepared for South America, raised the standard of revolt in Cadiz. Ferdinand and his advisers proved as incapable as they were tyrannical, and their feeble irresolution enabled the movement to spread over the whole country. In March the king gave way and accepted the constitution of 1812. The royalists or serviles, as they were called, were dismissed from office and their places taken by liberals. The cortes met in July, and at once proceeded to dissolve the monasteries and the Inquisition, to confiscate the clerical tithes, to abolish entails, and to secure the freedom of the press and of popular meetings. Great results might have been achieved if the moderate party, under Martinez de la Rosa, had been able to grapple with the task of suppress- ing disorder and establishing a permanent constitution. But this was the last thing which the king desired, and the moderates were defeated by a factious combination of the serviles and the radicals. Risings took place among the loyal and bigoted peasants of the provinces, and their suppression contributed to the victory of the extreme party, which seemed to be secured in 1822 by the election of Riego as president of the cortes. But Spain was not allowed to work out its own salva- tion. Europe was dominated at this time by the Holy Alliance, which disguised a resolution to repress popular liberties and to maintain despotism under a pretended zeal for piety, justice, and brotherly love. At the con- gress of Verona (October 1822) France, Austria, Russia, and Prussia agreed upon armed intervention in Spain, in spite of the protest of Canning on the part of England. Spain was to be called upon to alter her constitution and to grant greater liberty to the king, and if an unsatis- factory answer were received France was authorized to take active measures. The demand was unhesitatingly refused, and a French army, 100,000 strong, at once entered Spain under the duke of Angouleme (April 1823). No effective resistance was made, and Madrid was entered by the invaders (May 23). The cortes, however, had carried off the king to Seville, whence they again retreated to Cadiz. The bombardment of that city terminated the revolution and Ferdinand was released (October 1). His first act was to revoke everything that had been done since 1819. The Inquisition was not restored, but the secular tribunals took a terrible revenge upon the leaders of the rebellion. The protest of the duke of Angouleme against these cruelties was unheeded. Even the fear of revolt, the last check upon despotism, was removed by the presence of the French army, which remained in Spain till 1827. But Spain had to pay for the restoration of the royal absolutism, as Canning backed up his protest against the intervention of France by acknowledging the independence of the Spanish colonies. Ferdinand VII. was enabled to finish his worthless and disastrous reign in comparative peace. In 1829 he married a fourth wife, Maria Christina of Naples, and at the same time he issued a "Pragmatic Sanction" abol- ishing the Salic law in Spain. No one expected any practical results from this edict, but a formal protest was made against it by the king's brothers, Carlos and Francisco, and also by the French and Neapolitan Bour- bons. In the next year, however, the queen gave birth Isabella to a daughter, Isabella, who was proclaimed as queen on IJ - her father's death in 1833, while her mother undertook the office of regent. Don Carlos at once asserted his intention of maintaining the Salic law, and rallied round him all the supporters of absolutism, especially the inhab- itants of the Basque Provinces. Christina was compelled to rely upon the liberals, and to conciliate them by the grant of a constitution, the estatuto real, which established two chambers chosen by indirect election. But this con- stitution, drawn up under the influence of Louis Philippe of France, failed to satisfy the advanced liberals, and the Christines split into two parties, the moderados and pro- gresistas. In 1836 the latter party extorted from the regent the revival of the constitution of 1812. All this time the Government was involved in a desperate struggle