1823 French Invasion Of Spain

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Kansas Eiffel

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Aug 3, 2024, 6:00:31 PM8/3/24

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Napoleon in America takes place, in part, against the backdrop of a French invasion of Spain. This invasion was not invented for the novel. It actually happened, in 1823, to restore a Spanish Bourbon king to the throne. It was a huge deal at the time, both in Europe and the Americas. Newspapers, diplomatic reports, memoirs and letters of the period are full of commentary on the events leading up to the invasion, the resulting war, and its aftermath. Here is a very abbreviated account of what transpired.

I have done every thing to ensure the security of my subjects, and to preserve Spain from the extreme of misfortune. The blindness with which the propositions, sent to Madrid, have been rejected, leaves little hope of peace.

I have ordered the recall of my minister, and one hundred thousand Frenchmen, commanded by a prince of my family, are about to march and invoke the God of Saint Louis to preserve the throne of Spain for a descendant of Henri IV, to save that fine kingdom from ruin, and to reconcile her to Europe. (1)

In the villages where I had occasion to stop, I encountered no person who did not, at least, say that he was glad that the French had entered Spain. The poor people I heard it more than once observed, never liked the Constitution, because they never gained any thing by it. Since it was established, they had known no peace, and they liked the French, because they paid them well for every thing they consumed. It was also observed, that since the establishment of the Constitution, this part of the country was overrun with robbers; but that all that was now over, as the robbers had disappeared since the French came. (3)

Villle exploited the rush of grateful patriotism by appointing a new batch of ultra-royalist peers and calling a general election for early 1824. The left and centre were decimated, giving the ultra-royalists a clear majority.

Intervention is a word which was used, particularly since the congresses of Troppau, Laybach and Verona, to express the armed interposition (intervention armie) of one state in the domestic affairs of another. The right of armed intervention had never been so distinctly pronounced, and acted upon, as in modem times, since the congress of Vienna. It was a natural consequence of the Holy Alliance, and the congresses of rulers, or their representatives, assembled to prop the pillars of despotism. Such armed interventions as had taken place in Europe arose from the fellow-feeling of sovereigns, who claim the right of assisting each other against their subjects, and directly contravene the right of independent developement which belongs to the character of a nation.

Although small by recent European standards, the fight was decisive for bringing about the end to the war and for establishing the spirit of the new French Royal army and restoring France to a position as one of the leading world powers. This almost unknown military campaign was conducted by a French army, 100,000 men strong. The army was referred to by the French king as the 'Sons of St. Louis' and was pitted against parts of the regular Spanish army and a numerous militia. The cause of the war was a revolution in Spain in 1820 which brought in a 'Liberal' government and the Spanish parliament, the Cortez, held Ferdinand, the Spanish king, a virtual prisoner. Ferdinand appealed for help from the French who were supported by an army of Spanish Royalists. A few years earlier many of these Royalist volunteers had been France's bitter enemies and had fought Napoleon's generals to a standstill.

In Spain, Ferdinand was scarcely re-established on his throne, before he evinced his desire to restore the old state of things. The Cortes were not popular, they had taxed the people too highly to occasion any regret when that body was dissolved. But the king had promised a new constitution, liberty of the press, and other liberal measures; instead of which he re-established the inquisition, recalled the Jesuits, and revelled, for a time, in the full enjoyment of absolute power; this produced re-action. From 1814 to 1819, there was a succession of contests between him and his ministers, which, in the five years, occasioned no fewer than twenty-five changes in the personnel of his advisers, and led to several conspiracies at home ; whilst the loss of some of the American colonies added to the national feeling against the government.

On the 1st of January, 1820, this feeling took a decided form. Rafael del Riegoan officer who had distinguished himself in the war of independenceat the head of four battalions of the army, proclaimed the constitution of 1812, in the Isla de Leon, of which be took possession. So successful was the movement, that, on the 8th of March, Ferdinand agreed to accept that constitution, and summon the Cortes. The same day he caused a general amnesty to be proclaimed; and, on the 4th, a provisional junta of eleven members was nominated, to carry on the affairs of the government till the Cortes met. In the presence of this body, and of the municipal authorities of Madrid, the king took the oath to the constitution; the inquisition was again abolished; and other liberal measures, including the appointment of constitutional ministers, adopted. For some months tranquillity prevailed.

Then the contest between the friends of absolute government and the constitutionalists commenced afresh, which was heightened by the assertion of their independence by the other American colonies. As the royalists increased in numbers, the constitutionalists became more violent. In 1822, all power had fallen into the bands of the most extreme democrats; and the state of affairs was further complicated by quarrels between the royal guards and the troops of the line. Had Ferdiuand been really honest and sincere, in all probability the discontent might have been allayed without assuming the aspect of revolution; but, whilst professing to govern by the constitution, he intrigued with, and supported, those who were seeking to destroy it. At length, on the 7th of July, things were brought to a crisis, by an attempt made by the guards to get possession of the capital and the person of the king. They were defeated; and the government became still more revolutionary, most of the moderate employes resigning office.

These events led to the establishment, by the French government, of an army of observation, at the foot of the Pyrenees, near the frontier. There were now two parties struggling for the sovereigntythe communeros, as the popular party was styled, who held the king and the government captive in their hands; and the apostolicals, composed of the royalists and clergy.

These movements in Spain had attracted the attention of all the other governments of Europe, and more especially of those of France and England. Nor were the people of either country inattentive to the course of events. In both, there were those who sympathised with the men who were fighting, as was supposed, for liberty, and the constitution; but there were also those who thought, that the communeros, or constitutionalists, had put themselves in the wrong by many of their acts, and who were desirous of seeing the monarchy restored to a more independent position; though in England, there were none who had any faith in Ferdinand. It was in France, however, that the greatest interest was taken in the progress of the liberals, for there it threatened to produce the greatest danger; and the government was soon made aware of the extent of the evils against which it had to guard.

As the intelligence of the movements in Spain was received, the popular mind throughout France became greatly agitated. "Every audacious step of the revolution at Madrid was applauded, and proposed to the imitation of the French army. The most vehement speeches of the orators in the Cortes, the most violent articles in the revolutionary journals, were the subjects of enthusiasm in Paris; every triumph of the anarchists at Madrid over the throne or the clergy was publicly celebrated as triumph by the French revolutionists. Spain," it was thought, by the count d'Artois, and his friends, "was on the verge of a republic; and a republic proclaimed on the other side of the Pyrenees could not fail to overturn the Bourbons in France.

In England, there was a strong feeling against French intervention in the affairs of Spain; the other powers were decidedly against the spread of revolutionary principles, and the overthrow of legitimate governments. All the powers, England excepted, were anxious that France should send an army into Spain to put down the revolutionary movement, and support Ferdinand on the throne. The views of the prince Metternich and M. de Montmorency completely coincided; and the influence of the Austrian statesman was in other ways, very influential both with the French minister, and his royal patron, the count d'Artois.

The king closed the discussion, by saying " Louis XIV levelled the Pyrenees; I shall not allow them to be raised again. He placed my family on the throne of Spain; I cannot let them fall. The other sovereigns have not the same duties to fulfil. My ambassador ought not to quit Madrid, until the day when 100,000 Frenchmen are on the march to replace him."

All classes are represented as demanding hostilities; and the conduct of the Spanish government was such as to afford every prospect of their demand being complied with. He was supported by the public opinion of France, notwithstanding the effect on the Bourse, and on commerce, produced by the apprehensions that peace would be interrupted.

On the 28th of January, the session of the French chambers was again opened in the Louvre. The king was wheeled into the hall, as on former occasions; and he delivered a brief, but highly-important speech. "We enter upon the year 1823," he said, "with a balance of forty millions over the credits allotted for the past year. France owed to Europe the example of a prosperity, which people cannot obtain without a return to religion, to legitimacy, to order, j and to true liberty. France offers this salutary example at present; but divine justice permits, that, after having so long inflicted upon other countries the terrible effects of our discords, we should be ourselves exposed to the danger which similar calamities have produced in a neighboring country".