First Carlist War
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Background
- Main article: Carlism
In the beginning of the 18th century, King Philip V of Spain promulgated the Salic Law, thus declaring illegal the inheritance of the Spanish crown by women. The idea was to avoid having the Habsburgs recover the throne by way of the female dynastic line.
A century later, the King Ferdinand VII of Spain had a great problem: he didn't have a male descendant. He only had two daughters, Isabella (later known as Isabella II of Spain) and Louise Ferdinand (grandmother of the later king Alfonso XIII of Spain). So he promulgated the Pragmática Sanción, to allow their oldest daughter, Isabella, to become Queen after his death. But, unfortunately, it would not end there as Carlos María Isidro de Borbón y Parma, the king's brother, would be king without the Pragmatic. So he and his followers (e.g., minister Calomarde) pressed Ferdinand to change his mind. But the ill Ferdinand kept his decision and when he died, 29th September 1833, Isabella was the legitimated queen. But she only was a child, and somebody had to assume the regency: her mother, María Cristina de Nápoles.
This could be just another story of family fights; but in the beginning of the 19th century, the political situation in Spain was very problematic. During the independence war against Napoleon, the Cortes met in Cádiz (1812) and elaborated the first Spanish constitution, probably the most modern and most liberal one in the world. After the war, when Ferdinand VII returned to Spain, he decided not to accept that and in the Manifest of Valencia, he annulled the constitution. Ferdinand VII became then an absolute king, governing by decrees and restoring the Spanish Inquisition, abolished by Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon.
Toward the end of his life, Ferdinand made some concessions to liberals that gave them hopes of a liberal rule. But there was a strong absolutist party that didn't want to lose its position. Their members knew that María Cristina and Isabella would make liberal reforms, so they looked for another candidate to the throne; and their natural choice, with the background of the Salic Law, was Carlos María Isidro.
On the other hand, there was a continuous movement to try to suppress the Basque Fueros and to move the customs borders to the Pyrenees. Since the 1700s a new emergent class had an interest in weakening the powerful Basque nobles and their influence and commerce, including that extending throughout the world with the help of the Jesuit order. Also Biscay was successfully divided giving its own sea port to Castile through the newly created Santander province, split from Biscay, and there were made considerable efforts to bring the commerce from Bilbao to Santander.
The newly appointed Spanish courtiers supported any exterior great powers against the Basques at least since abolition of the Jesuit order and the Godoy regime. First they sided with the French Bourbons to suppress the Jesuits, with the formidable changes in America and the subsequent loss of influence of Spain. Then Godoy sided with the English against the Basques in the Convention War and immediately afterwards with the French of Napoleon also against the Basques. Obviously the English interest was in destroying as long as possible Spanish commercial routes and power which was mainly sustained by the Basque ports, comercial navy and companies (Compañía Guipuzcoana de Caracas). The Spaniards only helped in such a destructive effort, bringing the Spanish empire to total annihilation.
The contenders
The church, a privileged class, was as ambiguous as ever, but many priests fought for Carlos.
The people of the Basque Provinces and Navarre elected the side of Carlos because the traditionalism and the historical respect to the Catholic Church; ideologically, Carlos was clearly near them. There have been many authors that believed that the carlist cause in the Basque Country was a foralist cause. But it probably is an interested version with the clear intention of creating indices of a Basque nationalism before the Arana brothers (an inspired and quite neutral version in "The Basque Nationalism", by Stanley G. Payne). Of course, the people though a traditionalist rule would respect better the ancient Foral institutions, and surely they were right. But the main reason of the massive mobilisation of the Basque Provinces and Navarre for the Carlist cause must be searched in the great influence of the Basque clergy in the society. Salvador de Madariaga, in his book "Memories of a Federalist" (Buenos Aires, 1967), accused the Basque clergy to be "the heart, the brain and the root of the intolerance and the tough line" of the Spanish Catholic Church; there are also another social and economical causes that have not been properly studied. In fact, there are more narrative books about Carlist War in Basque Provinces than historical works. This means a "romantic" vision of the Basque people fighting for their rights against the foreign rule of Castile. For example, this article by Karl Marx (New York Daily Tribune, 1854): "The carlism is not a simple retrograde and dynastic movement that any well-paid and liar liberal historians tried to explain us. It's an spontaneous and popular movement in defence of traditions more liberals and regionalists than the absorbent official liberalism... The carlist traditionalism owns an authentically popular and national base formed by peasants, little land owners and the low clergy".
Meanwhile, in Catalonia and Aragón, the people saw the chance of recovering their foral rights, that were lost after Spanish Succession War when Philip V defeated their armies that fought for Archduke Karl of Austria, the other candidate to the throne after the death of Charles II of Spain. It is quite ironic that the Catalans went to war to defend the Salic Law, promulgated by a King that they still hate.
In the other side, the liberals and moderates united to defend the "new order" represented by María Cristina and her daughter, Isabella. They controlled the institutions, almost the whole army and the cities; the Carlist movement was stronger in the country. They had the important support of United Kingdom, France and Portugal, support that was shown in the important credits to Cristina's treasure and the military help from British (British Legion, General Lacy Evans) (Westminster Legion) and Portuguese (a part of the regular army, General Baron Das Antas). The Liberals had force enough to win the war in two months, but an inefficient government and the dispersion of the Carlist forces gave time Carlos to consolidate his forces and resist almost seven years in the northern and eastern provinces.
The war
The war was long and hard, and the carlist forces achieved important victories in the north under the direction of a genial general called Tomás de Zumalacárregui. Opposing his advisers, Carlos V decided to conquer a Bilbao defended by the British navy. With such an important city at his hands, the Prussian or Russian Tsarist banks would give him credit to win the war: one of the most important problems for Carlos was a lack of funds. In the siege of Bilbao, Zumalacárregui was wounded in the leg by a lost bullet. The wound was not important, but it did not correctly heal and finally General Zumalacárregui lost his life on June 25, 1835. Many historians think it was a very strange death, and remind that the general had too many enemies in the Carlist court; but nothing has been proven about that.
In the European theatre all superpowers backed the Isabeline army as many British observers wrote in their reports. Meanwhile, in the east, Carlist general Ramón Cabrera had the initiative in the war, but his forces were too few to achieve a decisive victory over liberal forces. In 1837 the Carlist effort culminated in the Royal Expedition, which reached the walls of Madrid, but subsequently retreated
- From Stephens, Edward Bell (1837?) (http://www.euskadi.net/q56/q56ControladorServlet?mapping=detalleMonografia.do&accion=2&idObjeto=2252739&idLibro=09600036508). The Basque provinces: their political state, scenery, and inhabitants; with adventures amongst the Carlists and Christinos.
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The end of the war
After the death of Zumalacárregui, the liberals slowly recovered the initiative but were not able to win the war until 1839. The war ended with the "Abrazo de Vergara" (the embrace in Vergara), 31st August 1839, between the liberal general Baldomero Espartero and the carlist General Rafael Maroto. Any authors have written that General Maroto was a betrayer that forced Carlos to accept the peace, but it is clear that the carlists were too tired and the liberal government too consolidated to continue with the war. In the east, General Cabrera kept on fighting but he was alone and finally had to flee to France. Though, Cabrera was considerated a hero and returned for the Third Carlist War.es:Primera Guerra Carlista
