Tags
Abdication, King Charles III of Spain, King Charles IV of Spain, King Ferdinand VII of Spain, Napoleon Bonaparte
Carlos IV (November 11, 1748 – January 20, 1819) was King of Spain and ruler of the Spanish Empire from 1788 to 1808.
Early life
Carlos IV was the second son of King Carlos III of Spain and his wife, Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony, the daughter of King Augustus III of Poland, (Prince-Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony) and Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, herself daughter of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor. Her mother was the first cousin of Empress Maria Theresa.
Infante Carlos was born in Naples (November 11, 1748), while his father was King of Naples and Sicily. His elder brother, Don Felipe, was passed over for both thrones, due to his learning disabilities and epilepsy.
His father was also Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Carlo I (1731–1735); King of Naples, as Carlo VII; and King of Sicily, as Carlo III (1735–1759). He was the fourth son of King Felipe V of Spain and the eldest son of Felipe’s second wife, Elisabeth Farnese.
In Naples and Sicily, Infante Carlos was referred to as the Prince of Taranto. He was called El Cazador (meaning “the Hunter”), due to his preference for sport and hunting, rather than dealing with affairs of the state. Carlos is considered by historian Stanley G. Payne as “good-hearted but weak and simple-minded.”
In 1762, Princess Maria Luisa of Parma became engaged to her cousin Infante Carlos, Prince of Asturias, later King Carlos IV of Spain. Maria Luisa of Parma the youngest daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma, the fourth son of King Felipe V of Spain, and Princess Louise Élisabeth of France, the eldest daughter of King Louis XV of France and Navarre and his Polish-born wife, Queen Marie Leczinska.
When Princess Maria Luisa’s elder sister, Princess Isabella died in 1763, there were suggestions that Princess Maria Luisa marry her sister’s widower, Emperor Joseph II, but the proposal was refused and her engagement to the Infante Carlos, Prince of Asturias was confirmed. The wedding took place on September 4, 1765 in La Granja Palace.
Infante Carlos succeeded to the Spanish throne in 1759 upon the death of his childless half-brother King Fernando VI. As King Carlos III of Spain, he made far-reaching reforms to increase the flow of funds to the crown and defend against foreign incursions on the empire.
In 1788, King Carlos III of Spain died and his second son, Infante Carlos, succeeded to the throne as King Carlos IV of and ruled for the next two decades. Even though he had a profound belief in the sanctity of the monarchy and kept up the appearance of an absolute, powerful king, Carlos IV never took more than a passive part in his own government.
The affairs of government were left to his wife, Maria Luisa, and the man he appointed first minister, Manuel de Godoy. Charles occupied himself with hunting in the period that saw the outbreak of the French Revolution, the executions of his Bourbon relative Louis XVI of France and his queen, Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Riots, and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez, in 1808 forced the king to abdicate on March 19, in favor of his son. Infante Fernando, Prince of Asturias, took the throne as King Fernando VII of Spain, but was mistrusted by Napoleon, who had 100,000 soldiers stationed in Spain by that time due to the ongoing War of the Third Coalition.
The ousted King Carlos IV, having appealed to Napoleon for help in regaining his throne, was summoned before Napoleon in Bayonne, along with his son, in April 1808. Napoleon forced both King Carlos IV and his son, King Fernando VII to abdicate, declared the Bourbon dynasty of Spain deposed, and installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as King Joseph I of Spain, which began the Peninsular War.