Kingdom of Spain

The first short reign (March–May 1808)

On March 19, 1808, King Charles IV abdicated in favor of his son Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias, under pressure during the Aranjuez uprising orchestrated by the aristocratic faction, or Fernandinos, which also led to the fall of Manuel Godoy, the king's favored minister. Napoleon Bonaparte, whose troops had entered Spain under the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1807) to invade Portugal but whose intention to dominate Spain became increasingly evident, decided to intervene in the Spanish dynastic crisis. Marshal Joachim Murat's troops had entered Madrid on March 23. Napoleon secured the presence of Charles IV, Ferdinand VII, and other royal family members in Bayonne. Ferdinand arrived on April 20, followed by his parents on April 30. News of the royal family's departure to Bayonne sparked the antifrench uprising in Madrid on May 2, later known as the "Dos de Mayo Uprising." This rebellion spread to other regions, where juntas or councils assumed power, marking the start of what would become the Peninsular War (Spanish War of Independence).

In Bayonne, under pressure and threats, Charles IV and Ferdinand VII relinquished their rights to the Spanish throne to Napoleon, who transferred them to his brother Joseph Bonaparte. Ferdinand, his brother Charles, and their uncle Antonio-Pascual were confined to the Château of Valençay. From there, Ferdinand expressed loyalty to Joseph Bonaparte, congratulated Napoleon on his victories in the Peninsular War, and sought recognition as one of Napoleon's "adoptive sons." The historian Michael Glover remarked, "The Spanish Bourbons never sank lower than this."

Meanwhile, Charles IV, his wife, and their youngest son, Francisco de Paula, were taken from Bayonne to the Palace of Compiègne and later moved to Marseille, eventually settling in Rome, where Charles IV died in 1819.

The "absent king" and the Cortes of Cádiz

The abdication at Bayonne was not recognized by the juntas, which pledged allegiance to Ferdinand VII, while a minority—the afrancesados—supported Joseph I. Joseph took up residence in the Royal Palace of Madrid after the approval of the Bayonne Constitution, which governed his reign. The "patriotic" juntas, on the other hand, formed a Supreme Central Junta, later replaced by a Regency that assumed the functions of the "absent king," Ferdinand VII. In response to the French military advance, the Cortes were convened in Cádiz on September 24, 1810. On the same day, they agreed to recognize and proclaim "the one and only king, Lord Don Ferdinand VII of Bourbon" and declared the cession of the crown allegedly made in favor of Napoleon "null, void, and without any value or effect, not only due to the violence involved in these unjust and illegal acts but primarily because they lacked the consent of the Nation," in which, they affirmed, "national sovereignty" resided.

Subsequently, the Cortes of Cádiz drafted and approved a Constitution—opposed by the so-called "servile" deputies, supporters of absolutism—promulgated on March 19, 1812. Article 179 reaffirmed that the "King of the Spains" was Ferdinand of Bourbon. By instituting a constitutional monarchy and approving other decrees, the Cortes brought an end to the Ancient Regime of Spain and initiated "the long cycle of the Spanish liberal revolution."

The governing juntas exercised their own sovereignty in the name of the absent Ferdinand VII, both in the Iberian Peninsula and in the American territories. In Spain, after the disorder experienced by the juntas in 1808, the peninsular deputies imposed the majority model of a unitary monarchy, contrasting with the federalist model advocated by the American deputies.

The Absolutist Six Years (Sexenio Absolutista)

After the signing of the Treaty of Valençay in December 1813, Ferdinand VII was able to return to Spain. The following year, he carried out the Coup d'état of May 1814, which ended the constitutional regime and restored absolutism. Liberals were imprisoned, exiled, or left the country voluntarily.

During the subsequent six years (1814–1820), the king and his ministers failed to resolve the crisis of the Crisis of the Ancient Regime, which had begun in 1808 and been significantly worsened by the War of Independence (1808–1814). The conflict had destroyed the main engines of the economy, and trade with the Americas had declined as a result of the independence movements in the Spanish colonies, which began in 1810. This led to a severe economic crisis, characterized notably by deflation. The monarchy's treasury went bankrupt: American capital was no longer arriving in quantities comparable to those before 1808—causing a further decline in customs revenues—and it became impossible to rely on royal debt securities, whose value had plummeted due to repeated failures to pay annual interest. A budget reform attempt was undertaken by Martín de Garay but failed in the face of opposition from privileged classes—nobility and clergy—as well as from peasants, who rejected the tax increases because they would add to the burdens they already bore, especially at a time when the prices of agricultural products were beginning to collapse.

Faced with the ministers of Ferdinand VII's inability to resolve the crisis, the liberals—many of whom were members of Freemasonry to operate clandestinely—attempted to restore the constitutional monarchy by resorting to pronunciamientos. These aimed to secure allies among "constitutionalist" military officers (or those simply dissatisfied with the situation) to rise up against the government and trigger a chain reaction of uprisings from other military units, thereby forcing the king to recognize the Constitution of 1812.

The repeal of the reforms introduced by the Cortes of Cádiz provoked significant discontent among many officers, further aggravated by delays in salary payments—some were even forced to accept pay cuts to receive regular payments—and the lack of promotion opportunities due to the oversupply of officers resulting from the War of Independence. Additionally, thousands of unemployed officers held the government's policies responsible for their dire situation, as these policies devalued those who had come from guerrilla warfare, had been promoted from lower ranks, or were perceived as liberals. Consequently, "many officers became receptive to liberal ideas as a result of the absolutist policies, which alienated a significant portion of its support base. Economic hardships and limited advancement opportunities did the rest." The bankruptcy of the Treasury necessitated multiple successive reductions in military personnel. The final reduction, in June 1818, once again disproportionately affected unemployed officers, particularly those who had served during the War of Independence.

Liberal triennium

Restoration of the Constitution of Cádiz

After the triumph of the 1820 revolution, initiated by Pronunciamiento de Riego on January 1, Ferdinand VII issued a royal decree on March 7, stating: "[This] being the will of the people, I have decided to swear the Constitution promulgated by the General and Extraordinary Cortes in the year 1812." Thus began the second liberal experiment in Spain. Two days later, the king took an oath on the Constitution for the first time at the Royal Palace (the formal oath took place in July before the newly elected Cortes, according to the formula established by them), Abolition of the Spanish Inquisition the Inquisition, and appointed a provisional Junta chaired by Cardinal Bourbon, Archbishop of Toledo and the king's cousin, who had previously led the constitutional regency in 1814.

On March 10, the king issued a public manifesto announcing that he had sworn to uphold the Constitution, of which he would be "always the firmest supporter." The manifesto's final paragraph later became famous — as Ferdinand VII did not keep the promise made within it, "almost immediately after swearing on the Constitution, he began to work to overturn it":

Let us march forward frankly, I leading the way, along the constitutional path; and by showing Europe a model of wisdom, order, and perfect moderation during a crisis that, in other nations, has been accompanied by tears and misfortunes, let us inspire admiration and reverence for the Spanish name, while cultivating our happiness and glory for centuries to come.

The monarch appointed a government made up of moderate liberals, many of whom took a long time to assume their posts because they had to travel from the prisons or exile where they had spent much of the Sexenio Absolutista. For this reason, the king privately and disdainfully referred to it as the "government of the prisoners" (gobierno de los presidiarios). Most of them had already participated in the Cortes of Cádiz, which had approved the 1812 Constitution, earning them the name "doceañistas." The most notable members of this first government of the Triennium included Agustín Argüelles, who held the Secretariat of State for the Government of the Peninsula and adjacent islands, and José Canga Argüelles, who headed the Treasury.

After the general elections of 1820 — conducted through indirect male universal suffrage at three levels: parish, district, and finally provincial assemblies — the Parliament was formed. Its inaugural session took place on July 9, 1820, during which the king solemnly swore to uphold the Constitution.

Division of liberals: "moderates" vs. "exaltados"

During the early months of the new constitutional regime, a division emerged among the liberals who supported it: the moderates, representing the most conservative wing of Spanish liberalism, and the exaltados, who were more progressive. Both groups shared the same political project, initiated by the Cortes of Cádiz, to end absolute monarchy and the Ancient Regime and replace them with a new liberal regime, politically and economically. However, they primarily differed in the strategies to achieve this shared goal. The moderates — also called doceañistas because their most prominent members had been deputies in the Cortes of Cádiz — believed that the "revolution" was complete and that the priority was now to ensure order and stability by attempting to integrate the old dominant classes, such as the nobility, through compromise. The exaltados, on the other hand, thought the "revolution" needed to be further developed through measures aimed at garnering support from the popular classes.

They also differed in their approach to the 1812 Constitution itself: the moderates sought to reform it in a conservative direction, while the exaltados preferred to maintain it as it had been approved by the Cortes of Cádiz. The moderates, particularly their most conservative faction known as the Sociedad del Anillo and led by Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, wanted to introduce property-based suffrage and a second chamber where the territorial aristocracy would be represented as a counterbalance to the Congress of Deputies. They also advocated for fewer restrictions on royal power to grant more leeway to the executive branch.

The definitive break between the two factions occurred in October 1820 during parliamentary debates on the proposal to ban the sociedades patrióticas (Patriotic society). Since the summer of 1820, the moderates had come to view these societies "more as a threat to public order than as allies in defending the constitutional order," as the exaltados perceived them. The moderates saw these societies as "a kind of illegitimate counterpower that the exaltados used to offset their weak parliamentary representation," and thus incompatible with constitutional representation. Ultimately, the moderates, who held a majority in the Cortes, succeeded in passing a decree on October 21, 1820, banning the sociedades patrióticas as they had functioned until then. They were allowed to continue in a limited form—such as evening gatherings or patriotic meetings—under local authorities, who could suspend them at any time.

Abolition of the Ancient Regime

The Provisional Consultative Junta, appointed by Ferdinand VII on March 9, 1820—the same day he first swore on the Constitution—had already approved decrees aimed at dismantling the Ancient Regime. The Cortes continued this work. The first significant measure was the abolition of traditional hereditary practices—such as entailments and trusts—through a decree on September 27, 1820.

The following month, on October 25, the Cortes approved the reform of the regular clergy, aiming primarily to reduce its excessively large numbers. This included the suppression of monastic and military orders and many convents of mendicant orders—by 1822, nearly half of Spain's convents had been closed. The decree also stipulated that no town could have more than one convent of the same order. The properties of dissolved monasteries and convents—like those of the Inquisition and the Jesuits—were subject to disentailment, passing to the state and then being sold at public auctions. However, no measures were taken to help peasants acquire these lands, which were mostly bought by the wealthiest landowners. In some cases, the situation of peasants worsened as new landowners raised rental fees or evicted them under the "property rights" they had acquired. The disentailment of monastic and mendicant properties was one of the main reasons why the majority of the clergy—especially regular clergy, who were the biggest losers under liberal policies—joined the counterrevolutionary camp. Along with some of the peasantry, they formed the "great anti-liberal alliance," whose most notable expression was the Partidas realistas, guerrilla groups acting as its armed wing, which began their activities mainly in 1821.

The liberal governments and the Cortes also addressed the issue of tithes but did not abolish them entirely, as the peasants had demanded. Such a decision would have left the Catholic Church in a precarious economic situation. Instead, they reduced tithes by half and required taxes to be paid to the state in cash. This latter requirement explains the paradox whereby the reduction of tithes (decreed on June 29, 1821) not only failed to alleviate the peasants' burdens but worsened them. The governments made a flawed assumption: they believed that by halving tithes, peasants would accumulate more surplus, which they could sell on the market. With the money obtained, they would then be able to pay the new state taxes (which, on paper, were lower than the halved tithe that had previously been paid in kind), thereby increasing their income. However, for the peasants, "the elimination of half the tithe might have meant more grain for their own consumption, but not more money—any increase in supply was immediately offset in these local markets [dominated by speculation from large landowners] by falling prices." When tax collectors arrived with new demands, the peasants found themselves unable to pay and came to perceive the new regime as an even greater form of fiscal oppression.

Consolidation of the independence of American colonies

The processes of emancipation in Spanish America began around 1809. When Ferdinand VII swore allegiance to the Constitution on March 9, 1820, the Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru remained loyal to the monarchy. However, the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata and much of New Granada had already declared independence, becoming, respectively, the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and Gran Colombia, the latter presided over by Simón Bolívar.

In Spain, where the Hispanic-American wars of independence and the overall situation in Spanish America were followed with great anticipation by both the government and the Cortes, as well as the general public, there was widespread belief that the proclamation of the 1812 Constitution would end the insurrections and independence movements—and thus the war. A declaration from the Provisional Consultative Junta stated, "The pacification of America is now more a matter of policy than force... only the Constitution can restore the fraternal bonds that united it with the motherland."

On March 31, 1820, King Ferdinand VII issued a proclamation to overseas inhabitants, setting out the official position on the "American question." The Constitution guaranteed their rights, but insurgents were required to lay down their arms to receive a royal pardon. Otherwise, the war would continue, albeit "without the ferocity and barbarism seen until now, but in accordance with the laws of nations," as stated in the report by the Council of State. The Secretary of the Overseas Department, Antonio Porcel, arranged for representatives to be sent to America with instructions to achieve pacification, but this initiative came too late. The coup d'état of May 1814, which had restored absolutism and colonialism, was interpreted by many in the Americas as the end of a possible third path—between absolutist colonialism and outright insurrection—that the doceañista autonomist option had represented.

Shortly after the second session of the Cortes began on March 1, 1821, American deputies proposed establishing a provincial deputation in each of the American intendencias (administrative divisions), as part of their strategy to fully leverage the autonomy possibilities offered by the Constitution. The proposal was approved and promulgated by a decree dated May 8. However, other proposals by the American deputies were rejected and labeled "federalist"—a term synonymous with "republican" at the time—such as allowing the provincial deputations to appoint the Senior political leader instead of the central government or granting them the ability to collect and manage all taxes. Everything changed in mid-May or early June 1821 when news arrived of the Plan of Iguala, proclaimed by Agustín de Iturbide in February, which declared the independence of New Spain, soon to become the short-lived First Mexican Empire.

Advance of the counter-revolution: Ferdinand VII's double game and the failure of the July 1822 coup

The "counter-revolution" began as early as March 9, 1820, when Ferdinand VII swore allegiance to the Constitution of 1812 for the first time. The king himself led the counter-revolutionary efforts, as he never accepted the constitutional regime. Although he never outright broke with it, he conspired from the very beginning to overthrow it. "Ferdinand VII positioned himself at the center of initiatives against constitutionalism, not only for those involved in these actions to take his name as a banner, along with religion, but also because the king personally and directly led the most important actions intended to favor regime change."

The Partidas realistas began operating early—traces of the first ones can be found in Galicia as early as April 1820—organized by absolutists exiled in France and connected with the royal palace. The methods and tactics used by the partidas were very similar to those of the guerrilla fighters during the War of Independence. Some former guerrillas would later join the royalist camp.

For his part, Ferdinand VII made use of his constitutional powers, such as the suspensive veto, up to two times, to block, delay, or, in some cases, prevent the promulgation of certain laws approved by the Cortes. This occurred with the law on monastic orders and the reform of the regular clergy, which the king refused to sanction, citing issues of conscience, although he ultimately signed them after significant unrest in the streets of Madrid. Moreover, he frequently clashed with government members. On one occasion, he told them: "You are the only defenders the constitution gives me, and yet you abandon me... You consent to these patriotic societies and other disorders, with which it is impossible to govern, and in a word, you abandon me, the only one who faithfully follows the constitution." The historian Josep Fontana comments: "He was lying, of course, because he was conspiring behind the back of his government, encouraging the partidas realistas, attempting to create regencies abroad, and begging the monarchs of the Holy Alliance to come and free him from this horrible captivity. The Ferdinand who protests about respecting the constitution is the same one who secretly corresponded with Louis XVIII of France and the Tsar of Russia."

On the other hand, Ferdinand VII was involved in the absolutist conspiracy led by Father Matías Vinuesa, the king's chaplain, which was discovered in January 1821. When the sentence condemning Vinuesa to ten years in prison was made public on May 4, an alleged group of "exalted" liberals, who found the sentence too lenient, stormed the prison where he was held and murdered him with hammers.

The civil war of 1822-1823: The "regency of Urgell"

Starting in the spring of 1822, the royalist uprising, organized from exile and supported in Spain by a dense counter-revolutionary network, with the king at its helm, spread in such a way that "during the summer and autumn in Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Navarre, a true civil war was waged in which it was impossible to stay neutral, and both sides paid the price: reprisals, requisitions, war contributions, looting, etc." The royalists managed to form an army that numbered between 25,000 and 30,000 men.

The event that definitively sparked the civil war was the capture of the La Seu d'Urgell fortress on June 21 by the leaders of the partidas realistas, Romagosa, and El Trapense. The following day, the Provisional Superior Junta of Catalonia was established there, focusing its efforts on creating a regular army and establishing an administration in the royalist-occupied areas of interior Catalonia. A month and a half later, on August 15, the so-called "Urgel Regency" was formed, "established at the request of the people" and "wishing to liberate the Nation and its King from the cruel situation they found themselves in." The regency was formed by the Marquis of Mataflorida, the Baron of Eroles, and Jaume Creus i Martí, Archbishop of Tarragona. The justification for the regency was based on the royalists' belief that the king was "captive" and "kidnapped" by the liberals, just as he had been by Napoleon during the War of Independence.

Following the formation of the Regency of Urgell, the royalists consolidated their control over significant areas in the northeast and north of Spain, establishing their own institutions to administer these territories. Meanwhile, King Ferdinand VII maintained secret correspondence with the courts of various European monarchs—including the Tsar of Russia—who approved of the formation of the regency and offered their assistance.

The government and the Cortes adopted a series of military measures to deal with the royalist rebellion, such as declaring a state of war in Catalonia on July 23. These measures proved effective, and during the autumn and winter of 1822-1823, after a tough six-month campaign, the constitutional armies, led by one of the generals, the former guerrilla fighter Espoz y Mina, turned the tide and forced the royalists in Catalonia, Navarre, and the Basque Country—about 12,000 men—to flee to France, and those in Galicia, Old Castile, León, and Extremadura—about 2,000 men—to flee to Portugal. The regency itself was forced to abandon Urgell, which had been besieged by Espoz y Mina's army since October, after the fall of Cervera the previous month, and cross the border.

End of the revolution: Expedition to Spain

The Congress of Verona, convened by the Quadruple Alliance — which had de facto become the Quintuple Alliance after the incorporation of the Kingdom of France in 1818 — and held between October 20 and December 14, 1822, specifically addressed the dangers posed by the Spanish revolution to monarchic Europe. The staunchest advocates for military intervention in Spain to end the constitutional regime were Tsar Alexander I of Russia and King Louis XVIII of France, the latter seeking to restore international prestige to the Bourbon Restoration regime. For his part, Austrian Chancellor Metternich proposed sending "formal notes" to the government of Madrid urging it to moderate its positions, and, in the absence of a satisfactory response, to break diplomatic relations with the Spanish state.

The diplomatic notes were received in Madrid between late 1821 and early 1822 — the French note concluded with the threat of invasion in case "the noble Spanish nation does not find a remedy to its ills by itself, ills whose nature so worries the governments of Europe that it forces them to take always painful precautions." — and were categorically rejected by the strongman of the Spanish government, Evaristo San Miguel, Secretary of the State Bureau, who received support from the Cortes, public opinion, and even the king. San Miguel responded: "The Spanish nation will never recognize in any power the right to intervene or interfere in its affairs." As a result, the ambassadors of the "northern powers" (Austria, Prussia, and Russia) left Madrid; shortly thereafter, on January 26, the French ambassador did the same. The only remaining ambassador in Madrid was the British one, whose government had not sent any notes and had withdrawn from the Congress of Verona. Spain thus found itself isolated internationally, awaiting the form that the threat would take and uncertain about the stance of the United Kingdom.

At the Congress of Verona, Austria, Prussia, and Russia committed to supporting France if it decided to intervene in Spain, but only in three eventualities:

If Spain directly attacked France or attempted to do so through revolutionary propaganda.

If the King of Spain was deposed from the throne, or if his life or the life of his family was in danger.

"Liberation" of Ferdinand VII and restoration of absolute monarchy

On September 30, 1823, after nearly four months of siege, the liberal government decided, with the approval of the Cortès, to let King Ferdinand VII depart. The next day, he met with the Duke of Angoulême and the Duke del Infantado, president of the absolutist regency appointed by the French, in El Puerto de Santa María, on the opposite side of the Bay of Cadiz. Many of the liberals in Cadiz fled to England via Gibraltar, believing that the king would not keep his promise, made just before being "liberated," to promote reconciliation and forgiveness between the two sides, with "a general, complete, and absolute forgetfulness of everything that had happened, without any exception." They were not wrong.

As soon as Ferdinand regained his freedom, and against the advice of the Duke of Angoulême, who urged him to "extend the amnesty as much as possible" and avoid a return to a situation similar to that of 1820—whom he simply responded to with "Long live the absolute king!"—he issued a decree upon disembarking that annulled all the legislation of the Liberal Triennium. In doing so, he also broke the promise he had made to the King of France and the Tsar of Russia that he would not "reign again under the regime known as absolute."

Later, Ferdinand VII wrote recalling this October 1st, when he arrived at El Puerto de Santa María:

Happy day for me, for the royal family, and for the entire nation; since from that moment we regained our long-desired and rightful freedom, after three years, six months, and twenty days of the most ignominious slavery, which a handful of conspirators and obscure and ambitious soldiers managed to impose on me, who, not even knowing how to write their names, made themselves the regenerators of Spain, imposing on us the force of laws that suited them best to achieve their sinister goals and make their fortunes, destroying the nation.

On November 30, 1823, the Duke of Angoulême gave his last general order from Oiartzun, near the border, in which he considered the campaign a complete success and praised his troops for their zeal. The next day, he crossed the border at Bidassoa. The Spanish campaign, which lasted seven and a half months, ended as an authentic triumph for Ferdinand VII.

Ominous Decade

The term "Ominous Decade" (Década Ominosa) was coined by the liberals who suffered repression and exile during these ten years. The French Hispanist Jean-Philippe Luis added nuance to this view of the period: "On the one hand, the abominable decade is not just the end of the world but participates in the construction of the liberal state and society. On the other hand, the regime is both tyrannical and, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, reformist."

Repression and exile

As soon as Ferdinand VII regained his absolute powers on October 1, contrary to his promise of pardon and the advice of the Duke of Angoulême, repression was fierce and arbitrary, far harsher than in 1814 during the Coup d'état of May 1814, partly because in 1823 there were many more liberals than nine years before. During the following years, French troops remaining in Spain due to the agreement between the two monarchies intervened on numerous occasions to protect the liberal-leaning population from the harassment and repressive excesses of absolutism.

The symbol of the harsh repression led by Ferdinand VII was the hanging of General Rafael de Riego, an icon of liberalism, on the Plaza de la Cebada in Madrid on November 7, 1823. Another example was Juan Martín Díez, El Empecinado ("The Obstinate"), a guerrilla leader and hero of the War of Independence, who spent over twenty years in prison under inhumane conditions before being hanged on August 19, 1825, after a sham trial.

A month before the detention of El Empecinado, death penalties and prison sentences were decreed for those who had declared themselves supporters of the 1812 Constitution. Commissions were set up to purge the state administration or the army of those who had supported the constitutional regime or opposed the absolutist regime shortly after the restoration of absolutism. Likewise, some dioceses created Junta de la Fe (Councils of the Faith), which assumed part of the functions and methods of the Inquisition, which was not restored despite pressure from "ultra-absolutists." One of their victims was the deist schoolteacher from Valencia, Cayetano Ripoll, accused of being a "stubborn heretic" (hereje contumaz) and executed on July 31, 1826. To centralize repression and avoid "popular excesses," the General Police Superintendency was created in January 1824 — the first police force in Spain — which also assumed the ideological control previously exercised by the Inquisition.

The liberal clergy — or even those who simply did not oppose the constitutional regime — were another victim of the repression, which was primarily carried out by the Church itself.

In December 1823, the king ordered his government the "Dissolution of the army and the formation of a new one." Thus, hundreds of officers were subjected to purging trials, with many resulting in their expulsion from the Army, either temporarily or permanently.

Division among absolutists: "reformists" vs. "ultras" (or "Apostolics")

Thus, just as during the Liberal Triennium (1820–1823) there was a split among liberals between "moderates" and "exalted," during the Abominable Decade it was the absolutists who divided between "reformists" — those in favor of "softening" absolutism following the warnings of the Quadruple Alliance and the France of the Restoration — and the "ultras" [...], who defended the complete restoration of absolutism, including the reinstatement of the Inquisition, which Ferdinand VII, under pressure from European powers, had not re-established after its abolition by the liberals during the Triennium. The ultras — also called "apostolics," "ultra-royalists," or "ultra-absolutists" — had in the king's brother, Charles of Bourbon — Carlos de Borbón, heir to the throne since Ferdinand VII, after three marriages, failed to have descendants — their main protector, which is why they were sometimes called "Carlists." The most serious conflict they were involved in was the War of the Aggrieved, which took place between March and October 1827, with its epicenter in Catalonia.

Three decisions made by the "reformist" government appointed by Ferdinand VII, supported by him, led to a split among the absolutists between the "reformists" and the "ultras." The first decision, which was the most radically rejected by the ultras as they considered it an unacceptable concession to liberalism, was the non-restoration of the Inquisition abolished by the liberals in March 1820. The "ultras" viewed the Holy Office as the most important symbol of the Ancient Regime in Spain. The second decision was the creation in January 1824 of the General Police Superintendency, which would become a key institution in the repressive policy of the absolutist regime and assume many of the functions previously performed by the Inquisition, such as book censorship. The ultras rejected this measure for the same reason, believing that public order should be controlled by the Holy Office and the Royalist Volunteers, not by a centralized state body of suspicious "French origin." The third measure was the granting of a very limited amnesty ("grace and general pardon") to the liberals, which was also rejected by the ultras, despite the fact that it contained so many exceptions that it was practically ineffective.

There was a fourth reason for the split. The agreement signed in February 1824 with the French monarchy under which 45,000 men from the 1823 expeditionary force remained in Spain, deployed in 48 strongholds (Madrid, Cádiz, La Coruña, Badajoz, Cartagena, Vitoria, and various Catalan towns, including Barcelona, along the Cantabrian coast and the Pyrenean border), each with a French commander responsible for public order. The economic cost was borne by the Spanish Treasury, according to a convention renewed annually until 1828. Ultras frequently proclaimed, "Out with the French!" A fifth reason was the approval, at the end of February 1824, by the Secretary of State for War, General José de la Cruz, of a new regulation for the Royalist Volunteers, which was poorly received by them and to which they refused to comply. This regulation excluded day laborers and those who could not provide for themselves and their families for the duration of their service. On August 26, General De la Cruz was dismissed, accused of conniving with the landing at Tarifa of the liberal Colonel Francisco Valdés Arriola, who held the position between August 3 and 19, after which 36 participants were executed. De la Cruz was replaced by the ultra José Aymerich. In 1826, a new regulation for the Royalist Volunteers was approved, accepting day laborers and instructing authorities to prioritize Royalist Volunteers in the granting of local jobs.

Failed liberal conspiracies

The liberals were convinced that it was possible to repeat the experience of the Pronunciamiento de Riego, meaning "it would only take a caudillo to step foot on Spanish soil and proclaim the good news of freedom to have the entire people follow him." According to Josep Fontana, "They did not understand that since 1823, terror had done its work effectively, and that the government, incompetent in areas like budgeting, was much more efficient in the arts of surveillance and repression."

The first attempt to realize this "insurrectional liberal utopia" took place on August 3, 1824. It was a pronunciamiento led by the exiled Colonel Francisco Valdés Arriola, who, starting from Gibraltar, took the city of Tarifa and held the position until August 19. Simultaneously, a second group led by Pablo Iglesias González landed in Almería, hoping to receive massive support. Both operations failed because, contrary to the liberals' expectations, they found no support from the population. More than one hundred people were captured—with the help of French troops in the detentions—and were immediately executed. Pablo Iglesias was hanged in Madrid on August 25 of the following year, while Colonel Valdés managed to escape to Tangier with fifty of his men.

The second insurrectional attempt was led by Colonel Antonio Fernández Bazán and his brother Juan, who organized a landing at Guardamar del Segura in February 1826. They were pursued by the Royalist Volunteers and captured along with their men. All were executed. Antonio Fernández Bazán, severely wounded, was tortured to obtain his confession about the conspiracy plot but was executed on March 4 in Orihuela, suffering from gangrene.

The triumph of the July Revolution of 1830, which ended absolutism in France and paved the way for the constitutional monarchy of King Louis-Philippe's July Monarchy, energized the insurrectionary plans of the Spanish liberals, who hoped to find support from the new French government. However, these hopes were ultimately disappointed: the new "King of the French," as soon as he received Ferdinand VII's recognition, not only provided no support to the liberals but even ordered the dissolution of their gatherings at the French-Spanish border.

On September 22, 1830, an insurrectional junta was formed in Bayonne, which was joined by General Francisco Espoz y Mina, a veteran of the War of Independence. In October and November, it organized several military expeditions into the Pyrenees, but all of them ultimately failed. He led the expedition at Bera, between October 20 and 24. Coinciding with the Bera operation was an attempted invasion through Catalonia, led by Colonel Antonio Baiges, who carried the French and Spanish tricolored flags. All of these attempts failed because they received no support from within the territory and were also hastily executed due to the pressure from the French gendarmerie stationed at the border, which forced them to rush their plans.

End of the reign and succession conflict

After the sudden death of his third wife, Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, on May 19, 1829, the king announced four months later—on September 26—that he was going to remarry, with the 22-year-old Neapolitan princess Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, his niece. They were married by proxy on December 9—the marriage was ratified on the 11th—and on March 31 of the following year, the monarch made public the Pragmatic Sanction of 1789, approved at the beginning of his father Charles IV's reign, which abolished the Inheritance regulations of 1713 that had established the Salic law in Spain, prohibiting women from inheriting the throne. Thus, Ferdinand VII ensured that, should he finally have an heir, his son or daughter would succeed him. In early May 1830, a month after the promulgation of the Pragmatic, Marie-Christine's pregnancy was announced, and on October 10, a daughter, Isabel II, was born, so the infant Charles of Bourbon was deprived of the succession, to the great consternation of his ultra-absolutist supporters, who were already known as "Carlists."

The Carlists, who were caught by surprise by the publication of the 1789 Pragmatic, did not resign themselves to the idea of the very young Isabel becoming the future queen and tried to take advantage of the worsening health of Ferdinand VII—who was convalescing at the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso (Segovia) on September 16, 1832. His wife, Queen Marie-Christine, under the pressure of the "ultra" ministers—Count of La Alcudia and Calomarde—and the ambassador from the Kingdom of Naples—supported by the Austrian ambassador, who conspired behind the scenes—and deceived by them, who assured her that the army would not support her regency when the king died, and seeking to avoid a civil war as she later claimed, influenced her husband to revoke the Pragmatic Sanction of March 31, 1830. On September 18, the king signed the annulment of the Salic Law.

Unexpectedly, the king regained his health and dismissed his government on October 1. On December 31, he annulled the derogatory decree in a solemn act that had never been published—the king had signed it on the condition that it would not appear in the official bulletin La Gaceta de Madrid until his death—but the Carlists had made it public. Thus, the two-year-old Princess Isabel became the heir to the throne once again.

The definitive break with the Carlists occurred following the government's decision on February 3, 1833, to expel the Princess of Beira from the court due to her direct involvement in ultra-conspiracies and the influence she exerted on her brother-in-law, Charles of Bourbon, encouraging him to assert his claims to the succession against the king's daughter. Unexpectedly, Charles communicated that, along with his wife Marie Françoise of Braganza and their children, he would accompany his sister-in-law on her journey to Portugal. They left Madrid on March 16 and arrived in Lisbon on the 29th. In doing so, Charles avoided recognizing Isabel as Princess of Asturias and heir to the throne. In the following weeks, Ferdinand VII and his brother Charles exchanged an extensive correspondence in which it became clear that Charles refused to recognize Isabel, sealing the definitive break between them. The king ultimately ordered him to settle in the Papal States and never return to Spain, offering him a frigate for the journey; however, Charles never complied with this order, giving various excuses. On June 20, 1833, the Cortes convened at the Church of Saint Jerome the Royal, as in 1789, for the Princess Isabella's oath as heir to the throne. Three months later, on Sunday, September 29, 1833, King Ferdinand VII died, and the First Carlist War began, a civil war for the succession of the crown between, on one side, the supporters of Isabel and Regent Marie-Christine, and on the other, the "Carlists," supporters of his uncle Charles.