March 19, 1808: Abdication of King Carlos IV of Spain

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Abdication, Emperor of the French, King Charles III of Spain, King Charles IV of Spain, King Louis XV of France and Navarre, King Louis XVI of France and Navarre, Napoleon Bonaparte, Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy, Princess Maria Louisa of Bourbon-Parma, Queen of Spain

Carlos IV (November 11, 1748 – January 20, 1819) was King of Spain and ruler of the Spanish Empire from 1788 to 1808.

Infante Carlos was the second son of King Carlos III of Spain and his wife, Maria Amalia of Saxony. She was born a Princess of Poland and Saxony, daughter of King Augustus III of Poland (Elector Friedrich August II of Saxony) and Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, the eldest child of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor and Princess Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

King Carlos IV of Spain

Infante Carlos was born in Naples (November 11, 1748), while his father was King Carlo VII of Naples and King Carlo V of Sicily. His elder brother, Infante Felipe, was passed over for both thrones, due to his learning disabilities and epilepsy. In Naples and Sicily, Carlos was referred to as the Prince of Taranto.

Carlos married his first cousin Princess Maria Louisa of Bourbon-Parma, She was the youngest daughter of Filippo, 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 Marie Leszczyńska of Poland.

Born in Parma, she was christened Luisa María Teresa Ana after her maternal grandparents and her mother’s favourite sister Anne Henriette of France, but is known to history by the short Spanish form of this name: María Luisa, while Luisa was the name she used in private.

María Luisa’s mother tried to engage her with Louis, Duke of Burgundy, heir to the French throne. However, the young duke died in 1761. In 1762, Maria Luisa instead became engaged to her cousin Carlos, Prince of Asturias. When her elder sister Isabella died in 1763, there were suggestions that Maria Luisa marry her sister’s widower, Emperor Joseph II, but the proposal was refused and her engagement to Carlos, Prince of Asturias was confirmed.

María Luisa was notoriously reputed to have had many love affairs. The most infamous of them was with the Prime Minister Manuel de Godoy, whom contemporary gossip singled out in particular as a long-time lover; in 1784 a member of the guard, he was promoted through several ranks when Carlos and Maria Luisa succeeded to the throne, and was appointed prime minister in 1792. Godoy was also rumored to be the natural father of several of her children.

Princess Maria Louisa of Bourbon-Parma, Queen of Spain

In 1788, Carlos III died and Carlos IV succeeded to the throne 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 never took more than a passive part in his own government.

The affairs of the government were left to his wife, Maria Luisa, and the first minister, Manuel de Godoy who was appointed by King Carlos IV himself. King Carlos IV occupied himself with hunting in the period that saw the outbreak of the French Revolution, the executions of his Bourbon relative King Louis XVI of France and his queen, Marie Antoinette, and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Ideas of the Age of Enlightenment had come to Spain with the accession of the first Spanish Bourbon, Felipe V.

Spain’s economic problems were of long standing, but deteriorated further when Spain was ensnared in wars that its ally France pursued. Financial needs drove his domestic and foreign policy. Godoy’s economic policies increased discontent with King Carlos IV’s regime.

The Economic troubles, the rumors about a sexual relationship between the Queen and Godoy, and the King’s ineptitude, caused the monarchy to decline in prestige among the population. Anxious to take over from his father, and jealous of the prime minister, Infante Fernando, Prince Asturias attempted to overthrow the King in an aborted coup in 1807. He was successful in 1808, forcing his father’s abdication following the Tumult of Aranjuez.

King Carlos IV of Spain

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 took the throne as King Fernando VII, 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, 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 Carlos IV and his son Fernando VII to abdicate, declared the Bourbon dynasty of Spain deposed, and installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as King José I of Spain, which began the Peninsular War.

Following Napoleon’s deposing of the Bourbon dynasty, the ex-King, his wife, and former Prime Minister Godoy were held captive in France first at the château de Compiègne and three years in Marseille (where a neighborhood was named after him).

After the collapse of the regime installed by Napoleon, King Fernando VII was restored to the throne. The former King Carlos IV drifted about Europe until 1812, when he finally settled in Rome, in the Palazzo Barberini. His wife died on January 2, 1819, followed shortly by Carlos, who died on January 20 of the same year.

November 22, 1602: Birth of Princess Elisabeth de Bourbon of France, Queen of Spain and Portugal

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Elisabeth de Bourbon of France, Henri IV of France and Navarre, Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain, Louis XIV of France and Navarre, Maria de Medici, Philip IV of Spain, Queen of Portugal, Queen of Spain

Elisabeth de Bourbon of France (November 22, 1602 – October 6, 1644) was Queen of Spain from 1621 to her death and of Portugal from 1621 to 1640, as the first spouse of King Felipe IV-III. She served as regent of Spain during the Catalan Revolt in 1640-42 and 1643–44. She was the eldest daughter of King Henri IV of France and his second spouse Marie de’ Medici.

Elisabeth, Madame Royale, was born at the Château de Fontainebleau on 22 November 1602; according to the court, her mother showed a cruel indifference to her, because she had believed the prophecy of a nun who assured her that she would give birth to three consecutive sons.

Shortly after her birth, she was betrothed to Philip Emmanuel, Prince of Piedmont, son and heir of Carlo Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy by Catherine Michelle , a daughter of King Felipe II of Spain. Philip Emmanuel died in 1605.

As a daughter of the King of France, she was born a Fille de France. As the eldest daughter of the king, she was known at court by the traditional honorific of Madame Royale. The early years of Madame Royale were spent under the supervision of the royal governess Françoise de Montglat at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a quiet place away from the Parisian court in which she shared education and games with her legitimate siblings (besides Dauphin, the other Enfants de France were Christine Marie, later Duchess of Savoy; Nicholas Henri, Duke of Orléans, who died in infancy; Gaston, Duke of Orléans; and Henrietta Maria, later Queen of England) and the bastard children that her father had from his constant love affairs.

When King Henri IV was assassinated outside the Palais du Louvre in Paris on May 14, 1610, her brother the Dauphin (with whom Élisabeth had a very close relationship) succeeded him to the throne as King Louis XIII of France under the Regency of their mother Marie de’ Medici.

When Elisabeth was ten years old, in 1612, negotiations were begun for a double marriage between the royal families of France and Spain; Elisabeth would marry the Prince of Asturias (the future Felipe IV of Spain) and her brother Louis the Spanish Infanta Anne.

Marriage

After her proxy marriage to the Prince of Asturias and Louis’s proxy marriage to the Infanta Anne, Elisabeth and her brother met their respective spouses for the first time on November 25, 1615 on the Pheasant Island in the river Bidassoa that divides France and Spain between the French city of Hendaye and the Spanish city of Fuenterrabía.

This was the last time Louis would see his sister. In Spain, Elisabeth’s French name took on the Spanish form of Isabel. The religious ceremony took place in the Saint Mary Cathedral in Burgos. At the time of her marriage, the thirteen-year-old Isabel became the new Princess of Asturias.

This marriage followed a tradition of cementing military and political alliances between the Catholic powers of France and Spain with royal marriages. The tradition went back to 1559 with the marriage of King Felipe II of Spain with the French princess Elisabeth of Valois, the daughter of King Henri II of France, as part of the Peace of Cateau-Cambrésis. The Exchange of the Princesses at the Spanish Border was painted by Peter Paul Rubens as part of his Marie de’ Medici cycle.

Queen

In 1621, by the time of the birth of the couple’s first child, the couple had ascended to the throne of Spain upon the death of Felipe III of Spain. The new Queen of Spain was aware that her husband had mistresses {Memoirs of Madame de Mottville}

Elisabeth herself was the subject of rumors about her relations with the noted poet Peralta (Juan de Tassis, 2nd Count of Villamediana), who was her gentleman-in-waiting. On May 14, 1622, a fire broke out while the Peralta masque La Gloria de Niquea was being acted before the court. Peralta carried the queen to a place of safety, which caused suspicion about their relationship to deepen.

Peralta neglected a significant warning that his life was in peril, and “he was murdered as he stepped out of his coach. The responsibility for his death was divided between Felipe IV and Olivares” (at the time, prime minister and king’s favorite).

Elisabeth’s last child, Infanta Maria Theresa of Spain, would later become Queen of France as the wife of her nephew, the future Louis XIV. Unlike her husband and sister-in-law, she would not see the wedding that cemented the peace between her homeland and adopted country, Spain; the countries would be at war until 1659.

Elisabeth was renowned for her beauty, intelligence and noble personality, which made her very popular in Spain.

She was regent of Spain during the Catalan Revolt and supported the Duke of Nochera against the Count-Duke of Olivares in favor of an honorable withdrawal from the Catalan Revolt. Prior to 1640, the queen does not appear to have had much influence over state affairs, which was largely entrusted to Olivares. Elisabeth did not get along with Olivares, who reportedly assisted her spouse in his adultery and prevented her from achieving any political influence and once famously remarked, when she presented a political view to the king, that priests existed to pray as well as queens existed to give birth.

Between 1640 and 1642, Elisabeth served as regent for the king in his absence during the Catalan revolt, and was given very good critic for her efforts. She was reputed to have influenced the fall of Olivares as a part of a “women’s conspiracy” alongside the duchess of Mantua, Ana de Guevara, María de Ágreda and her chief lady-in-waiting Luisa Manrique de Lara, Countessess Paredes de Nava.

The fall of Olivares made the king consider her his only political partner, and when the king left again for the front in 1643, Elisabeth was again appointed regent assisted by Chumacero. Her second regency was also given good reviews, and she was credited by the king for her efforts to provide vital supplies for the troops as well as for her negotiations with the banks to provide finances for the army, offering her own jewelry as security.

It was rumored that she was intending to follow the example of queen Isabella the Catholic and lead her own army to retake Badajoz.

The Queen died in Madrid on October 6, 1644 at the age of forty-one, leaving two small children: Balthasar Carlos and Maria Theresa. After her death, her husband married his niece Archduchess Mariana of Austria. One of her great-grandsons, Philippe, Duke of Anjou, became King Felipe V of Spain, and through him, Elisabeth is an ancestor of all the subsequent Spanish monarchs.

May 16, 1696: Death of Maria-Anna of of Austria. Queen Consort of Spain and Portugal, Regent of Spain. Part II.

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Carlos II of Spain, Felipe IV of Spain, Juan of Austria the Younger, Maria-Anna of Austria, Maria-Anna of Neuburg, Marie-Louise d'Orléans, Queen of Spain, Regent

By the time of the death of King Felipe IV on September 17, 1665, the Spanish Empire had reached approximately 12.2 million square kilometers (4.7 million square miles) in area but in other respects was in decline, a process to which Felipe IV contributed with his inability to achieve successful domestic and military reform.

The Portuguese Crown was lost in 1640 with the Accession of the Duke of Braganza as King João IV of Portugal (1604-1656) and marked the end of the 60-year-old Iberian Union, by which Portugal and Spain shared the same monarch.

Felipe IV, King of Spain

Regency

When King Felipe IV died on September 17, 1665, the new King Carlos II of Spain was only three; Maria-Anna was appointed regent, advised by a Regency Council, until he became a legal adult at the age of 14. She adopted the system of using a valido or ‘favourite’ established by Felipe IV in 1620 and widely used elsewhere in Europe. The first was Juan Everardo Nithard, an Austrian Jesuit and her personal confessor who came with her from Vienna; as Felipe IV’s will excluded foreigners from the Regency Council, he had to be naturalised, causing immediate resentment.

A ‘foreigner’ herself, the two men habitually identified as her ‘favourites’ were also outsiders; Nithard and Fernando de Valenzuela, 1st Marquis of Villasierra Valenzuela, who came from the lower rank of Spanish nobility. Even modern English-language sources are often based on contemporary sources that viewed women as incapable of ruling on their own and thus imply a sexual relationship.

In reality, Maria-Anna used a variety of advisors, including Castilian nobles such as Count Peñaranda and the Marquis de Aytona. Historian Silvia Mitchell disputes whether either Nithard or Valenzuela can truly be considered a ‘valido’, since Mariana retained power, rather than delegating it to them.

Carlos II, King of Spain

Due to Queen Maria-Anna’s son, King Carlos II, being in such poor health and lack of an heir led to a constant struggle between Maria-Anna’s ‘Austrian’ faction, and a ‘French’ faction, nominally led by his illegitimate half-brother, Juan of Austria the Younger. Spain was also divided into the Crowns of Castile and Aragon, whose very different political cultures made it almost impossible to enact reforms or increase taxes. Government finances were in perpetual crisis, the Crown declaring bankruptcy in 1647, 1652, 1661 and 1666.

The external situation facing Maria-Anna would have challenged even the most competent ruler; Spain was financially exhausted by almost a century of continuous war. Her reign also coincided with the Little Ice Age, a period of cold and wet weather that affected the whole of Europe in the second half of the 17th century. Between 1692 to 1699, an estimated 5-10% of the European population starved to death.

Juan of Austria the Younger

In 1672, Spain was dragged into the Franco-Dutch War; Valenzuela, advisor to the Regent, was dismissed when Carlos came of age in 1675, but Spanish policy continued to be undermined by the struggle for power. Queen María-Anna reinstated the regency in 1677 on the grounds of Carlos’ ill-health and Valenzuela was restored, before Juan of Austria the Younger finally gained control in 1678. His control of the government was short lived for he died in September 1679 and Maria-Anna became regent once again. One Juan of Austria’s final acts was arranging the marriage of Carlos II to 17-year-old Marie-Louise of Orléans.

Enamel miniature of Marie-Louise of Orléans by Jean Petitot, circa 1678

Marie-Louise d’Orléans was born at the Palais Royal in Paris. She was the eldest daughter of Philippe of France, Duke of Orléans and of his first wife, Princess Henrietta of England. As a petite-fille de France she was entitled to the attribute of Royal Highness, although, as was customary at court at the palace of Versailles, her style, Mademoiselle d’Orléans, was more often used.

Charming, pretty and graceful, Marie-Louise, who was her father’s favourite child, had a happy childhood, residing most of the time in the Palais Royal, and at the château de Saint-Cloud situated a few kilometres west of Paris.

On November 19, 1679, Marie-Louise married King Carlos II in person in Quintanapalla, near Burgos, Spain. This was the start of a lonely existence at the Spanish court. Her new husband had fallen in love with her and remained so until the end of his life. However, the confining etiquette of the Spanish Court (e.g., touching the Queen was forbidden), the King’s mental and physical infirmities and her unsuccessful attempts to bear a child caused her distress.

After 10 years of marriage with no children, Marie-Louise died in February 1689. As with many deaths of the period, limited medical knowledge led to allegations she was poisoned. Modern assessments of her symptoms conclude it was almost certainly an appendicitis, possibly from the treatments undertaken to improve fertility.

Her replacement was Maria-Anna of Neuburg, (1667-1740) the twelfth child of Philipp-Wilhelm, then Duke of Berg and Jülich and Elisabeth-Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt. The family had a reputation for fertility and it made them popular choices for royal marriages. Of her sisters, Maria-Sophia married King Pedro II of Portugal, while Eleonore was the third wife of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. Queen Maria-Anna (of Newburgh) was aunt to future emperors Joseph I and Charles VI, making her an ideal choice for the Austrian faction.

Maria-Anna of Neuburg

King Carlos II remained childless; by that time, he was almost certainly impotent, his autopsy later revealing he had only one atrophied testicle. As his health declined, internal struggles over the succession became increasingly bitter, leadership of the pro-French faction passing to Fernández de Portocarrero, Cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo.

Under the influence of the ‘Austrians,’ in 1690 Spain joined the Grand Alliance in the Nine Years’ War with France. It declared bankruptcy again in 1692 and by 1696, France occupied most of Catalonia; Carlos II’s mother, Queen Maria-Anna retained power with the support of German auxiliaries under Maria-Anna’s brother Charles-Philipp of Austria, many of whom were expelled after María-Anna’s death.

Maria-Anna of Austria, Queen Consort and Regent of Spain

Maria-Anna of Austria, Queen Consort and Regent of Spain died on May 16, 1696 at the Uceda Palace in Madrid, at the age of sixty-one; the cause is thought to have been breast cancer.

Legacy

Maria-Anna supported the 1668 mission led by Diego Luis de San Vitores and Saint Pedro Calungsod to convert the indigenous Chamorro people of Guam and the Mariana Islands to Christianity.

The Portrait of Maria-Anna painted by Diego Velázquez was commissioned by Felipe IV and is the only known full-length painting of her. The original is in the Prado Museum in Madrid; a copy was sent to her father Ferdinand and is held by the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Several other portraits of her were made, including Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo’s Queen Mariana of Spain in Mourning, 1666. She also appears as a detail in Velasquez’ masterpiece Las Meninas which features her daughter Margaret-Theresa.