Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/370

 346 SPAIN [LANGUAGE. with the Carlists, who at first gained considerable successes under Zumalacarregui and Cabrera. But the death of Zumalacarregui in 1335 and the support of France and England ultimately gave the regent the upper hand, and in 1839 her general, Espartero, forced the Basque Pro- vinces to submit to Isabella. Don Carlos renounced his claims in favour of his eldest son, another Carlos, and retired to Trieste, where he died in 1855. Christina now tried to sever herself from the progresistas, and to govern with the help of the moderate party who enjoyed the patronage of Louis Philippe. But England, jealous of French influence at Madrid, threw the weight of her in- fluence on to the side of the radicals, who found a powerful leader in Espartero. In 1840 Christina had to retire to France, and Espartero was recognized as regent by the cortes. But his elevation was resented by the other officers, while his subservience to England made him un- popular, and in 1843 he also had to go into exile. Isabella was now declared of age. Christina returned to Madrid, and the moderados under Narvaez obtained complete control over the government. This was a great victory for France, and Louis Philippe abused his success by negotiating the infamous " Spanish marriages." A husband was found for Isabella in her cousin, Francis of Assis, whose recommenda- tion in French eyes was the improbability of his begetting children. On the same day the queen's sister, Maria Louisa, was married to Louis Philippe's son, the duke of Mont- pensier. By this means it was hoped to secure the reversion of the Spanish throne for the house of Orleans. The scheme recoiled on the heads of those who framed it. The aliena- tion of England gave a fatal impulse to the fall of Louis Philippe, while the subsequent birth of children to Isabella deprived the Montpensier marriage of all importance. Spanish history during the reign of Isabella II. presents a dismal picture of faction and intrigue. The queen herself sought compensation for her unhappy marriage in sensual indulgence, and tried to cover the dissoluteness of her private life by a superstitious devotion to religion and by throwing her influence on to the side of the clerical and reactionary party. Every now and then the proyre- sistas and moderados forced themselves into office, but their mutual jealousy prevented them from acquiring any permanent hold upon the government. In 1866 Isabella was induced to take vigorous measures against the liberal opposition. Narvaez was appointed chief minister; and the most prominent liberals, Serrano, Prim, and O'Donnell, had to seek safety in exile. The cortes were dissolved, and many of the deputies were transported to the Canary Islands. The ascendency of the court party was main- tained by a rigorous persecution, which was continued after Narvaez's death (April 1868) by Gonzales Bravo. Common dangers succeeded at last in combining the various sections of the liberals for mutual defence, and the people, disgusted by the scandals of the court and the contemptible camarilla which surrounded the queen, rallied to their side. In September 1868 Serrano and Prim returned to Spain, where they raised the standard of revolt and offered the people the bribe of universal suffrage. The revolution was speedily accomplished, and Isabella fled to France, but the successful rebels were at once confronted with the difficulty of finding a successor for her. During the interregnum Serrano undertook the regency, and the cortes drew up a new constitution, by which an hereditary king was to rule in conjunction with a senate and a popular chamber. As no one of the Bourbon candidates for the throne was acceptable, it became neces- sary to look round for some foreign prince. The offer of the crown to Leopold of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen excited the jealousy of France, and gave Napoleon III. the oppor- tunity of picking a quarrel, which proved fatal to himself, with the rising state of Prussia. At last a king was found Amadeus. (1870) in Amadeus of Aosta, the second son of Victor Em- manuel, who made an honest effort to discharge the diffi- cult office of a constitutional king in a country which was hardly fitted for constitutional government. But he found the task too hard and too distasteful, and resigned in 1873. A provisional republic was now formed, of which Castelar was the guiding spirit. But the Spaniards, trained to regard monarchy with superstitious reverence, had no sympathy with republican institutions. Don Carlos seized the opportunity to revive the claim of inalienable male succession, and raised the standard of revolt in the Basque Provinces, where his name was still a power. The dis- orders of the democrats and the approach of civil war threw the responsibility of government upon the army. The cortes were dissolved by a military coup d'etat Castelar threw up his office in disgust ; and the administra- tion was undertaken by a committee of officers. Anarchy was suppressed with a strong hand, but it was obvious that order could only be restored by reviving the monarchy. Foreign princes were no longer thought of, and the crown was offered to and accepted by Alfonso XII., the young Alfonso son of the exiled Isabella (1874). His first task was to ^H terminate the Carlist War, which still continued in the north, and this was successfully accomplished in 1876. Time was required to restore the prosperity of Spain under a peaceful and orderly government and to consolidate by prescription the authority of the restored dynasty. Unfortunately a premature death carried off Alfonso XII. in 1885, before he could complete the work which circum- stances laid upon him. The regency was entrusted to his widow, Christina of Austria, and the birth of a post- humous son (May 17, 1886), who is now the titular king of Spain, has excited a feeling of pitying loyalty which may help to secure the Bourbon dynasty in the last kingdom which is left to it. Literature. Lafuente, Ilietoria General de Espana ; Ortiz, Compendia General de la Ilistoria de Efpana; Muiiann, Ilistoria General de Espafia (cont. from 1516 to 1GOO by Miiiana) ; Uesunneuux, Abrege Chronoloyique de rilistoire d'Espagne. For shorter periods see Prescott, Ferdinand aud Isabella ; Baum- gaiten, Geschic/ite Karls V. (the first volume, the only one which lias appeared, contains the best account of the rising of the communes) ; 1'rescott, History of Philip 11.; Forncron, Histoire de Philippe 11. ; Weiss, VEspagne depuis I'/ti/ippe 11. ; Kanke, Itie Usinanen und dit Spani&che Munarctiie ; Slignet, Kego- tiations relatives a la Succession d'Etpagiie sons Louis XIV. Hippeuu, Are'nemetit des Bourbons au trone d'Espagne; Coxe, Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon; Banmparten, Gcschichte Spaniens KOM Ausbruch derfranziis. Involution; Lauser, Gcsc/iichte Spaniens von dm Sturz Isabellas. (U. L.) PAET III. LANGUAGE. The Iberian Peninsula is not a linguistic unity. Not to speak of the Basque, which still forms an island of some importance in the north-west, three Romance languages share this extensive territory: (1) Portuguese-Galician, spoken in Portugal, Galicia, and a small portion of the province of Leon ; (2) Castilian, covering about two-thirds of the Peninsula in the north, centre, and south ; (3) Catalan, occupying a long strip of territory to the east and south-east. These three varieties of the Romana. Rustica are marked off from one another much more distinctly than is the case with, say, the Romance dialects of Italy ; they do not interpenetrate one another, but where the one ends the other begins. It has only been possible to establish at the points of junction of two linguistic regions the exist- ence of certain mixed jargons in which certain forms of each language are intermingled; but these jargons, called into existence for the necessities of social relations by bilinguists, have an essentially individualistic and artificial character. The special development of the vulgar