Editing Ferdinand VII (section)

==Second reign==
===Restoration===
{{see also|History of Spain (1810–1873)#Reaction (1814–1820)}}
Five years later after experiencing serious setbacks on many fronts, Napoleon agreed on 11 December 1813 to acknowledge Ferdinand VII as king of Spain, and signed the [[Treaty of Valençay]] so that the king could return to Spain. The Spanish people, blaming the policies of the Francophiles (''afrancesados'') for causing the Napoleonic occupation and the Peninsular War by allying Spain too closely to France, at first welcomed ''Fernando''.{{sfn|Clarke|1906|p=32}} Ferdinand soon found that in the intervening years a new world had been born of foreign invasion and domestic revolution.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=267}} In his name Spain fought for its independence and in his name as well [[wiktionary:junta|''juntas'']] had governed Spanish America. Spain was no longer the absolute monarchy he had relinquished six years earlier. Instead he was now asked to rule under the liberal [[Spanish Constitution of 1812|Constitution of 1812]]. Before being allowed onto Spanish soil, Ferdinand had to guarantee the liberals that he would govern on the basis of the constitution, but only gave lukewarm indications he would do so.<ref>{{harvnb|Carr|1982| pages= 105–119}}</ref>

On 24 March the French handed him over to the Spanish Army in [[Girona]], and thus began his procession towards Madrid.<ref>{{cite book|last=Artola|first=Miguel|title=La España de Fernando VII|location=Madrid|publisher=Espasa|year=1999|page=405|isbn=8423997421}}</ref> During this process and in the following months, he was encouraged by conservatives and the Church hierarchy to reject the constitution. On 4 May he ordered its abolition, and on 10 May had the liberal leaders responsible for the constitution arrested. Ferdinand justified his actions by claiming that the constitution had been made by a [[Cortes Generales|Cortes]] illegally assembled in his absence, without his consent and without the traditional form. (It had met as a unicameral body, instead of in three chambers representing the [[Estates of the realm|three estates]]: the clergy, the nobility and the cities.){{Citation needed|date=August 2022}} Ferdinand initially promised to convene a traditional Cortes, but never did so, thereby reasserting the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] doctrine that sovereign authority resided in his person only.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=267}}
[[File:Francisco Goya - Portrait of Ferdinand VII of Spain in his robes of state (1815) - Prado.jpg|thumb| ''[[Portrait of Ferdinand VII|Portrait of Ferdinand VII of Spain in his robes of state]]'' by [[Francisco Goya]] (1815), [[Museo de Prado|Prado]]]]
Meanwhile, the [[Spanish American wars of independence|wars of independence]] had broken out in the Americas, and although many of the republican rebels were divided and [[Royalist (Spanish American independence)|royalist]] sentiment was strong in many areas, the [[Spanish treasure fleet]]s – carrying tax revenues from the Spanish Empire – were interrupted. Spain was all but bankrupt.

Ferdinand's restored autocracy was guided by a small ''[[camarilla]]'' of his favorites, although his government seemed unstable. Whimsical and ferocious by turns, he changed his ministers every few months. "The king," wrote [[Friedrich von Gentz]] in 1814, "himself enters the houses of his prime ministers, arrests them, and hands them over to their cruel enemies;" and again, on 14 January 1815, "the king has so debased himself that he has become no more than the leading police agent and prison warden of his country."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=267}}

The king did recognize the efforts of foreign powers on his behalf. As the head of the Spanish [[Order of the Golden Fleece]], Ferdinand made the [[Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington|Duke of Wellington]], head of the [[British Army|British forces]] on [[Peninsular War|the peninsula]], the first [[Protestant]] member of the order.

During the aftermath of the [[Mexican War of Independence]], the general of the [[Army of the Three Guarantees]], [[Agustín de Iturbide]], and Jefe Superior [[Juan O'Donojú]], signed the [[Treaty of Córdoba]], which concluded the war of independence and established the [[First Mexican Empire]]. The imperial constitution contemplated that the monarch would be "a Spanish prince," and Iturbide and O'Donojú intended to offer the Mexican Imperial Crown to Ferdinand VII himself to rule Mexico in [[personal union]] with Spain. However, Ferdinand, refusing to recognize Mexican independence or be bound by a constitution, decreed that the Mexican constitution was "void", declined the Mexican crown, and stated that no European prince could accede to the Mexican throne.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.milenio.com/cultura/por-que-firmaron-iturbide-y-o-donoju-los-tratados-de-cordoba|title=¿Por qué firmaron Iturbide y O'Donojú los Tratados de Córdoba?|website=milenio.com|date=24 August 2017|access-date=4 February 2019}}</ref> The imperial crown was consequently given to Iturbide himself, but the Mexican Empire collapsed and was replaced by the [[First Mexican Republic]] a few years later.

===Revolt===
{{see also|Trienio Liberal}}
[[File:Fernando VII a caballo.jpg|thumb|Equestrian portrait of Ferdinand by [[José de Madrazo y Agudo]], 1821]]

[[File:Entrada triomfal de Ferran VII a València, 1815, Miquel Parra.jpg|thumb|300px|left|''Triumphal welcome of Ferdinand at [[Valencia, Spain|Valencia]], 1815'']]

There were several ''[[pronunciamiento]]s'', or military uprisings, during the king's second reign. The first came in in September 1814, three months after the end of the [[Peninsular War]], and was led by General [[Francisco Espoz y Mina|Espoz y Mina]] in Pamplona. [[Juan Díaz Porlier]] revolted at La Coruña in the following year. General [[Luis de Lacy|Luis Lacy]] led an uprising in Barcelona in 1817, and General [[Juan Van Halen]] did the same in Valencia in 1818.<ref name=ricketts>Ricketts, Monica (2017). [https://books.google.com/books?id=x24sDwAAQBAJ&dq=fontana+de+oro+spain&pg=PA175 ''Who Should Rule?: Men of Arms, the Republic of Letters, and the Fall of the Spanish Empire'', p. 175. Oxford University Press.] ''Google Books''. Retrieved 7 March 2023.</ref> In 1820 [[Rafael del Riego]] undertook the most successful ''pronunciamiento'', leading to the [[Trienio Liberal]].

In 1820 a revolt broke out in favor of the [[Spanish Constitution of 1812|Constitution of 1812]], beginning with a mutiny of the troops under Riego. The king was quickly taken prisoner. Ferdinand had restored the [[Jesuits]] upon his return, but now they had become identified with repression and absolutism among the liberals, who attacked them: twenty-five Jesuits were slain in Madrid in 1822. For the rest of the 19th century, liberal political regimes expelled the Jesuits, and authoritarian regimes reinstated them.

Ferdinand VII was an ardent opponent of [[Freemasonry in Spain]], seeing it as a vehicle for liberal revolutions, an enemy of the Spanish Crown and the Catholic faith, subordinated to foreign interests (the [[Grand Orient of France]] primarily).<ref name="mas">{{cite web |title=Death to the Intellectuals: The History and Persecution of Spanish Freemasonry|url=http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/history-spanish-freemasonry.html|publisher=Review of Freeemasonrt}} Retrieved on 9 November 2023.</ref> After reinstating the Spanish Inquisition and the Jesuits, on 4 May 1814 he publicly declared all Spanish freemasons to be traitors.<ref name="mas"/> The same year [[Pope Pius VII]] issued a decree against Freemasonry, approved by Ferdinand VII and became an edict of the Spanish Inquisition. Freemasons in high places in Spanish society were arrested and the Masonic Lodges suppressed. Ferdinand blamed Freemasonry for the 1820 coup, the ''[[Trienio Liberal]],'' as well as for the loss of [[Spanish colonies]] in [[Latin America]], with his return to the throne for the so-called "[[Ominous Decade]]", the [[Anti-Masonry|Anti-Masonic]] campaign stepped up and members who would not renounce Freemasonry were hanged.<ref name="mas"/> He had his police compile reports on Freemasons and former Freemasons active in Spanish society.<ref name="pres">{{cite web |title=Presidentes de gobierno masones (1808-1868)|url=https://www.uned.es/universidad/inicio/en/dam/jcr:e5d26e35-c214-45f1-8bc0-d1ed87f5ac9a/presidentes%20del%20gobierno%20masones%201808-1868.pdf|publisher=Museo Virtual de Historia de la Masonería}} Retrieved on 9 November 2023.</ref>

[[File:José Aparicio - Landing of Ferdinand VII in El Puerto de Santa María - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[The Landing of Ferdinand VII in El Puerto de Santa María]]'' by [[José Aparicio]]]]
In the spring of 1823, the restored Bourbon French King [[Louis XVIII]] of France [[Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis|invaded Spain]], "invoking the God of [[Louis IX of France|St. Louis]], for the sake of preserving the throne of Spain to a fellow descendant of [[Henry IV of France]], and of reconciling that fine kingdom with Europe." In May 1823 the revolutionary party moved Ferdinand to [[Cádiz]], where he continued to make promises of constitutional amendment until he was free.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=268}}

When Ferdinand was freed after the [[Battle of Trocadero]] and the fall of Cádiz, reprisals followed. The [[Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême|Duc d'Angoulême]] made known his protest against Ferdinand's actions by refusing the Spanish decorations Ferdinand offered him for his military services.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=268}}

During his last years, Ferdinand's political appointments became more stable.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=268}} The last ten years of his reign (sometimes referred to as the [[Ominous Decade]]) saw the restoration of absolutism, the re-establishment of traditional university programs and the suppression of any opposition, both by the Liberal Party and by the reactionary revolt (known as "[[War of the Aggrieved|War of the ''Agraviados'']]") which broke out in 1827 in [[Catalonia]] and other regions.

===Death and succession crisis===
In May 1830, Ferdinand VII published the [[Pragmatic Sanction of 1830|Pragmatic Sanction]], again allowing daughters to succeed to the Spanish throne as well as sons. This decree had originally been approved by the [[Cortes Generales|Cortes]] in 1789, but it had never been officially promulgated. On 10 October 1830, Ferdinand's wife gave birth to a daughter, [[Isabella II of Spain|Isabella]], who thereupon displaced her uncle, Carlos, in the line of succession.{{sfn|Clarke|1906|pages=82–83}} After Ferdinand's death in late September 1833, Carlos revolted and said he was the legitimate king. Needing support, Maria Christina, as regent for her daughter, turned to the liberals.{{sfn|Clarke|1906|p=91}} She issued a decree of amnesty on 23 October 1833. Liberals who had been in exile returned and dominated Spanish politics for decades, leading to the [[Carlist Wars]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=A. W.|last1=Ward|first2=G.P.|last2=Gooch|author-link2=G. P. Gooch|title=The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy 1783–1919|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zdo8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA186|date=1970|edition=reprint|publisher=CUP|pages=186–187}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=John Van der Kiste|title=Divided Kingdom: The Spanish Monarchy from Isabel to Juan Carlos|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oDc7AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT6|year=2011|publisher=History Press Limited|pages=6–9|isbn=9780752470832}}</ref>