England and the Orléans Monarchy

by John Hall

The condition of affairs rapidly assumed a most alarming appearance. The Constitution of 1812, was proclaimed in many of the chief towns. At Madrid, Quesada, the Captain-General, disarmed the national guards, and declared the city in a state of siege, whilst at La Granja, the Queen Regent announced her firm intention of resisting the demands of the revolutionists. But, on the evening of August 12, her guards mutinied, and, led by their sergeants, invaded the palace. On two nights in succession, the unfortunate Christina was compelled to receive deputations of non-commissioned officers, many of whom were under the influence of liquor. Circumstanced as she was, with no loyal troops at her disposal, she had no alternative but to yield. After promising to accept the Constitution of 1812, to raise the state of siege, and to re-establish the national guards, she was allowed to depart for the capital. But when the news of these events reached Madrid, the people rose, murdered Quesada, and carried his head in triumph through the streets. Order was, however, gradually restored by Calatrava, the Progressista minister, whom the revolted sergeants had imposed upon Christina.[385]

Some weeks before these events took place M. Thiers had had to abandon all hope of bringing his matrimonial negotiations to a successful conclusion. It was in vain that he had refused to join with England in protesting against the Austrian occupation of the free town of Cracow. It was to no purpose that he had forced the Federal government to expel all political refugees from Switzerland. The Duc d’Orléans’[386] proposal for the hand of an Austrian Archduchess was declined. In order to hide his discomfiture and to punish Metternich, M. Thiers resolved to take up the Spanish affair vigorously. Direct intervention, however, he looked upon as out of the question. Not only would the King oppose it, but it would be very unpopular with the country. Nevertheless, by a process to which he gave the name of “armed co-operation” he proposed to attain the desired result. He prepared, accordingly, largely to reinforce the French legion in Spain, which he intended should be commanded by some well-known general. Louis Philippe reluctantly assented to these initial proceedings, but, when the news arrived of the military revolt at La Granja, he promptly placed his veto upon all measures of that kind. Never, he declared, would he allow assistance to be supplied to the Jacobins in power at Madrid.[387] Thiers and his fellow-ministers, in consequence, resigned.

Under Molé, to whom the King confided the portfolio of Foreign Affairs and the formation of a new Cabinet, France for all practical purposes withdrew from the Quadruple Treaty. The depôts formed by Thiers were broken up and three battalions, which he had raised for the service of Queen Isabella, were sent to Algiers. It would be highly dangerous, Molé informed the British ambassador, to expose French soldiers to the influence of the revolutionary societies in Spain.[388] In vain Lord Palmerston protested that in no way could the spirit of anarchy be combated so effectually as by the expulsion of Don Carlos from the Peninsula.[389] That argument and his contention that the stability of the Orleans monarchy depended upon the triumph of the constitutional cause in Spain were alike unheeded.[390] In order to show their displeasure at the manner in which the French government was thus evading its engagements, Lord Melbourne and his colleagues decided to omit the customary reference to France from the King’s Speech at the opening of Parliament in 1837. But the “no mention” incident, although it caused Louis Philippe the keenest annoyance and created a great sensation in Paris,[391] had no effect upon Molé’s resolution to refuse assistance of any kind to the government at Madrid. The only safe policy for France, the King informed Granville a few months later, was to look upon Spain as infected with the plague and to have as little communication with her as possible.[392]

Although Calatrava, whom the sergeants at La Granja had raised to the head of the Queen Regent’s government, was invariably spoken of by Louis Philippe and Comte Molé as a dangerous revolutionist, he was far from deserving that appellation. Not only was he successful in infusing a certain vigour into the conduct of the war, but he contrived, in addition, to frame a constitution which, in spite of its imperfections, effected a happy compromise between the Jacobinical code of 1812 and the ultra-monarchical Estatuto Real. The year 1836 closed with a brilliant success for the arms of the Queen Regent. Powerfully assisted by the bluejackets and marines of Lord John Hay’s squadron, the Christinos stormed the formidable lines of Luchana and relieved the city of Bilbao. Henceforward the name of Baldomero Espartero, the victorious general, was to figure very prominently in Spanish politics. Nevertheless, during the campaign of the ensuing year, complete success appeared to be within the grasp of the Pretender. Eluding Espartero, who was preparing to attack him in the Basque provinces, Don Carlos, who had been liberally supplied with money by the Tsar and the Kings of the Netherlands[393] and of Sardinia, marched southwards on Madrid. But, when the capital lay at their mercy, his generals were ordered to retrace their footsteps, recross the Ebro and re-enter the northern provinces.

Various reasons have been given for the sudden retreat of the Carlists from before Madrid.[394] The most probable explanation appears to be that Don Carlos had secretly arranged with Christina that, upon the arrival of his army in the vicinity of the capital, the gates were to be thrown open, and that the marriage of his son with Isabella was to be announced and peace proclaimed.[395] It would seem, however, that at the last moment Christina decided that this scheme was impracticable and the Pretender, finding, in consequence, that no movement in his favour was likely to break out in Madrid, gave the order to retreat. The remainder of the year 1837 was spent by the Carlist leaders in fierce quarrels and bitter recriminations. But the condition of the Queen’s armies was still more pitiable. Officers and men were unpaid and wholly without confidence in their generals. Horrible excesses were committed by the mutinous regiments. Generals Escalera and Sarsfield were murdered by their men, and, although Espartero upon his arrival from Madrid, succeeded in restoring some semblance of discipline, he dared not undertake offensive operations with troops so completely demoralized.

The Pretender’s advance upon Madrid proved fatal to the Calatrava Cabinet. That government, which had been created by the action of the sergeants at La Granja, was destroyed by a pronunciamento on the part of the officers of a brigade which had been hurried south, when Don Carlos was threatening the capital.[396] The downfall of the Progressista Cabinet was, doubtless, one of the reasons which led the Queen Regent to break her compact with the Pretender. A transition ministry was formed, whilst Christina cautiously prepared to recall the Moderados. Throughout the country party differences were submerged in the general desire for peace, and the opinion was rapidly gaining ground that, without French assistance, the Pretender could never be expelled. This idea was sedulously encouraged by the Court party, and, as was suspected, by agents of the French government. These conditions at the elections, at the close of the year 1837, produced an overwhelming majority for the Moderados. It was soon evident, however, that the electors had been completely deluded in imagining that the triumph of the Conservative party would be followed by French intervention. The political effacement of the Progressistas had not altered the determination of Louis Philippe and Comte Molé to withhold all assistance from the government of the Queen Regent.[397]

Villiers, the British minister at Madrid, was now convinced that in the dissensions of the Carlists lay the only hope of preserving the crown for Isabella. The animosity was extreme between the Provinciales, whose chief object in supporting the Pretender was to ensure the maintenance of their highly prized Fueros, and the Castillanos, as that section of the party was called which followed the lead of the fanatical Bishop of Léon.[398] In order to widen this breach Villiers instructed Lieutenant Turner, a British officer attached to the division of the Queen’s army at Pampeluna, to open up a secret communication with the discontented Navarrese chiefs. Turner experienced little difficulty in executing his mission, and was soon able to report that the men of Biscay and Navarre would be prepared to discuss terms of peace upon the basis of the recognition of their local rights and privileges. But all the leaders with whom he had conferred had stipulated that any compromise which, might be arrived at, must have the guarantee of Great Britain.[399]

The news of these proceedings was most agreeable to Lord Palmerston, who forthwith drew up precise instructions for the future conduct of the negotiations. Whilst suggesting that on the subject of the Fueros the Queen Regent’s government would be well advised to make concessions, he laid it down distinctly that Great Britain could not guarantee the conditions of peace.[400] A copy of this despatch was sent to Lord Granville in Paris, who was directed to invite the French government to act with England in the affair. In Palmerston’s opinion it was most important to draw France “into an open and avowed mediation for the purpose of reuniting the northern provinces to the rest of the Spanish dominions.”[401] He was convinced that Louis Philippe cherished secret hopes that the civil war might lead to the secession of Biscay and Navarre and their incorporation into France. There can be little doubt that he was entirely mistaken in imagining that either the King of the French or his ministers entertained any views of this kind. It is possible, however, that the separatist movement, which unquestionably existed in Catalonia, may have been encouraged by French agents, with the object of preventing the conclusion of a commercial treaty with England. The threat of the manufacturers of Barcelona that the Catalans would proclaim their independence, should the duty upon English cotton goods be lowered, was one of the chief reasons which deterred the Cabinet of Madrid from accepting Palmerston’s commercial proposals.[402]

Louis Philippe, however, would not hear of allowing the French ambassador to be the organ of any communications with the discontented Carlist chieftains. He had been accused most unfairly, he told Lord Granville, of sympathizing with Don Carlos, and to accede to the British request would expose him to further suspicion.[403] A new French ambassador was at this moment about to proceed to Madrid, who appears to have been admirably adapted for the part which the King desired that his envoy should play at Christina’s Court, whilst the issue of the struggle between constitutionalism and absolutism was so extremely uncertain. “A more inoffensive person,”wrote the British chargé d’affaires about a year later, “than the Duc de Fezensac does not exist. He has no political principles and has never taken the slightest interest in the questions which agitate the country. I have observed that, as a soldier, he would now and then demonstrate some curiosity about the movements of the armies and seem glad when the advantage had been on the side of the Queen’s troops.”[404]

In the meantime Mr. Turner’s secret relations with the Navarrese chiefs had been betrayed. The sudden imprisonment of the disaffected officers and the murder of one of his emissaries compelled him to suspend his proceedings.[405] A counter-insurrection, however, broke out against Don Carlos to the cry of “Peace and the Fueros,” under the leadership of an individual named Muñagorri. From Bayonne, where “the French authorities coldly permitted him to remain,” he endeavoured to foment disaffection in, and to encourage desertion from, the Pretender’s armies.[406] Villiers at one time expected great results from this new development, but, before long, he was forced to realize that Muñagorri, a Basque lawyer, had not the influence required for bringing the enterprise to a successful conclusion.[407]