Editing Joseph Bonaparte (section)

==King of Spain and the Indies==
[[File:Josée Flaugier - Portrait of King Joseph I (ca. 1809) - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|Portrait by Joseph Flaugier, c. 1809]]
{{Main|Spain under Joseph Bonaparte|Peninsular War|Bayonne Constitution}}
{{Multiple image
| perrow=2
| total_width = 320
| image1= Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Naples.svg
| caption1= Coat of arms as King of Naples
| image2= Grand Coat of Arms of Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain.svg
| caption2= Coat of arms as King of Spain
| image3=Royal Monogram of Joseph I of Spain.svg
| caption3=Royal monogram as King of Spain
| image4=80 Reales en or à l'effigie de Joseph Napoléon.jpg
| caption4=Spanish gold coin from 1811
}}
Joseph somewhat reluctantly left Naples, where he was popular, and arrived in Spain, where he was extremely unpopular. Joseph came under heavy fire from his opponents in Spain, who tried to smear his reputation by calling him {{lang|es-ES|Pepe Botella}} (Joe Bottle) for his alleged heavy drinking, an accusation echoed by later Spanish historiography, despite the fact that Joseph was abstemious. His arrival as a foreign sovereign sparked a massive Spanish revolt against French rule, and the beginning of the [[Peninsular War]]. Thompson says the Spanish revolt was, "a reaction against new institutions and ideas, a movement for loyalty to the old order: to the hereditary crown of the [[Rex Catholicissimus|Most Catholic kings]], which [[Napoleon]], an excommunicated enemy of the Pope, had put on the head of a Frenchman; to the Catholic Church [[Dechristianization of France during the French Revolution|persecuted by republicans]] who had desecrated churches, murdered priests, and enforced a {{lang|fr|loi des cultes}} (law of religion); and to [[fuero|local and provincial rights and privileges]] threatened by an efficiently centralized government.<ref>J. M. Thompson, ''Napoleon Bonaparte: His Rise and Fall'' (1951) 244–245</ref>

Joseph temporarily retreated with much of the French Army to northern Spain. Feeling himself in an ignominious position, Joseph then proposed his own abdication from the Spanish throne, hoping that Napoleon would sanction his return to the Neapolitan Throne he had formerly occupied. Napoleon dismissed Joseph's misgivings out of hand, and to back up the raw and ill-trained levies he had initially allocated to Spain, the Emperor sent heavy French reinforcements to assist Joseph in maintaining his position as King of Spain. Despite the easy recapture of [[Madrid]], and nominal control by Joseph's government over many cities and provinces, Joseph's reign over Spain was always tenuous at best, and was plagued with near-constant conflict with pro-Bourbon [[guerrilla]]s. Joseph and his supporters never established complete control over the country, and after a series of failed military campaigns, he would eventually abdicate the throne.

King Joseph's Spanish supporters were called {{lang|es-ES|josefinos}} or {{lang|es-ES|[[afrancesados]]}} (frenchified). During his reign, he ended the [[Spanish Inquisition]], partly because Napoleon was at odds with Pope [[Pius VII]] at the time. Despite such efforts to win popularity, Joseph's foreign birth and support, plus his membership of a [[Freemasonry|Mason]]ic lodge,<ref>Ross, Michael The Reluctant King, 1977, pp. 34–35</ref> virtually guaranteed he would never be accepted as legitimate by the bulk of the Spanish people. During Joseph's rule of Spain, [[First Republic of Venezuela|Venezuela]] declared independence from Spain. The king had virtually no influence over the course of the ongoing [[Peninsular War]]: Joseph's nominal command of French forces in Spain was mostly illusory, as the French commanders theoretically subordinate to King Joseph insisted on checking with Napoleon before carrying out Joseph's instructions.

King Joseph abdicated the Spanish throne and returned to [[First French Empire|France]] after the main French forces were defeated by a [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|British]]-led coalition at the [[Battle of Vitoria]] in 1813. During the closing campaign of the [[War of the Sixth Coalition]], [[Napoleon|Napoleon I]] left his brother to govern [[Paris]] with the title Lieutenant General of the Empire. As a result, he was again in nominal command of the [[French Imperial Army (1804–1815)|French Imperial Army]] that was defeated at the [[Battle of Paris (1814)|Battle of Paris]].

He was seen by some [[Bonapartists]] as the rightful [[Emperor of the French]] after the death of Napoleon's own son [[Napoleon II]] in 1832, although he did little to advance his claim.