On September 8, 1845, Queen Victoria paid a second visit to Louis Philippe at the Château d’Eu. Her Majesty, Prince Albert, Aberdeen and Peel had been considerably disturbed by the news brought by Bulwer from Paris. But on the very day of the arrival of the Royal party at Eu, both the King and M. Guizot declared to Lord Aberdeen, “in the most positive and explicit manner, that until the Queen was married and had children, they should consider the Infanta precisely as her sister, and that any marriage with a French prince would be entirely out of the question. . . . I distinctly understood,”wrote Aberdeen to Peel a few hours after he had received these assurances, “that it was not only a marriage and a child, but children that were necessary to secure the succession. I thought this was as much as we could desire at present, and that the question of a marriage with a French prince might safely be left to be considered, whenever the contingency contemplated should arrive. Many things may happen in the course of a few years.”[812]
On the very day that Queen Victoria arrived at Eu, the Duc and the Duchesse de Nemours and the Duke d’Aumale left Pampeluna, where they had been the guests of the Spanish Royal family. The real object of their visit would never appear to have transpired.[813] Bulwer, for reasons which in due course he explained to Aberdeen, was not present at Pampeluna, and delayed returning to Spain until the French princes had recrossed the frontier. The interview, he understood, had been arranged for the purpose of “pushing on the marriage with Count Trapani, a marriage most unpopular in the country.” He had, therefore, decided to stay away. By absenting himself, his government would not incur “the odium which must stigmatize all those by whom the Neapolitan match may be conceived to have been brought about.” On the other hand, should the visit of the French princes not achieve the desired result, they would be unable to impute its failure “to the intrigues of the British minister.” Upon his return to Madrid, Bulwer experienced great difficulty in obtaining any information about the state of affairs. Bresson assured him that Isabella’s health “was declared to be such as to render her marriage for the present inopportune.”[814] Christina gave him to understand that matters were still undecided. “But her language was not that of entire confidence, and she seemed divided between the wish to say nothing and the desire to say enough to prevent any subsequent charge of want of frankness.” Upon the whole, he was inclined to think that some plan was contemplated, “which it was not yet judged expedient to avow.”[815] From divers sources he learnt that the Queen-Mother, Bresson and Carini, the Neapolitan ambassador, were suspected of an intention “privately to betroth Isabella to Trapani, and to force his acceptance upon the Cortes.” Narvaez had been induced to support their unconstitutional designs, “in the belief that he would be more necessary with an unpopular, than with a popular prince.”[816]
Meanwhile, M. Bresson at Madrid and M. Guizot in Paris were greatly dissatisfied with the aspect of affairs. The King of Naples had always been reluctant to allow his brother to be put forward as a suitor for the hand of the Queen of Spain. He distrusted Louis Philippe exceedingly, he was fearful of offending the Court of Vienna, he was on bad terms with his sister Christina, and, in point of fact, had not officially acknowledged the sovereignty of Isabella. Nevertheless, under the vigorous pressure brought to bear upon him from Paris, he agreed to renew diplomatic relations with the Court of Madrid, and to empower his ambassador to discuss his brother’s marriage. But, having surmounted the difficulties at Naples, Louis Philippe and M. Guizot were confronted by more serious obstacles at Madrid. As time went on, the unpopularity of the Neapolitan match tended rather to increase than to diminish. So universal was the dislike to this connection that Guizot judged it prudent to warn Bresson to maintain friendly relations with Don Francisco de Paula,[817] seeing that it might be necessary before long to insist upon Isabella’s marriage with one of his sons. As the prospects of the Bourbon candidates grew less favourable the Coburg marriage, greatly to the annoyance of Louis Philippe, began to be discussed as a necessary alternative. The impending visit of Prince Leopold to his brother the King of Portugal gave rise to many rumours. There was an intrigue on foot, reported Bresson, to promote the chances of that prince, and Bulwer, he was convinced, was more or less concerned in it.[818]
Under these circumstances M. Guizot decided to direct M. de Jarnac to confer upon the situation with Lord Aberdeen. He was to intimate to him that, in fulfilment of the compact at Eu, he should now bestir himself actively on behalf of the Bourbon candidates, and make it perfectly clear to the Coburgs that no member of their family could be allowed to marry Isabella. This was more than Aberdeen was prepared to undertake. He, however, assured M. de Jarnac upon his honour that the Coburgs should receive no encouragement either from the Court or from the government, and promised him that they would be advised to abandon their supposed intention of visiting Madrid.[819] Aberdeen was at this time in receipt of Bulwer’s despatch of October 30, 1845, informing him of his suspicion that Christina and Narvaez were purposing to accomplish the Trapani marriage, in violation of the article of the constitution which prescribed that the sovereign must communicate his intention of contracting a matrimonial alliance to the Cortes. He at once replied by charging him to express to the general the sincere hope of the British government that no such plan was under consideration. “Say to him,”he wrote in conclusion, “that you are instructed to offer no opposition to the marriage of the Queen to Trapani, provided it be openly accomplished according to legal forms, still less are you authorized to espouse the cause of any other candidate.”[820]
Mere friendly neutrality, however, could be of little service to Louis Philippe and M. Guizot. A further disappointment, moreover, was in store for them. At the end of January, 1846, General Narvaez, who, as a supporter of the Neapolitan alliance, had been growing very unpopular, resigned office after a violent quarrel with his fellow-ministers.[821] When the news reached Paris that the one man who might have effected the Trapani marriage was no longer at the head of affairs, it was decided to make another, and a more direct, attempt to force the British government to take action on behalf of the Bourbon candidate. Jarnac was, accordingly, supplied with a document, which he was to read to Lord Aberdeen. This extraordinary paper, known as the Memorandum of February 27, 1846, set forth the following conclusions: “The Count Trapani is greatly compromised: 1. By the demonstration which has been made against him; 2. By the fall of General Narvaez. The sons of Don Francisco de Paula are greatly compromised: 1. By their mistaken conduct; 2. By their intimacy with the Radical party; 3. By the dislike of the Queen-Mother and of the young Queen herself to them. The sons of Don Carlos are for the time out of the question. The actual situation of the descendants of Philip V. is consequently bad. Efforts are being made to marry Prince Leopold of Coburg either to the Queen Isabella or to the Infanta Fernanda. Lisbon is the chief seat of these machinations. It is said that Prince Leopold, who is to leave Lisbon on February 24, intends to visit Madrid. Many circumstances appear to confirm the truth of this rumour. If the present state of affairs be prolonged we may find ourselves compelled, in order that our policy in Spain may not receive a check which we are determined not to suffer, to declare ourselves liberated from all engagements with regard to either marriage. Such a situation would arise, were the marriage of the Queen or the Infanta with Prince Leopold of Coburg or with any other prince, not a descendant of Philip V., to appear probable or imminent. In that case we should take immediate steps to ward off the blow by demanding the hand of either the Queen or the Infanta for the Duc de Montpensier. We are sincerely desirous of averting the necessity of resorting to so extreme a measure. We see only one way in which the crisis can be avoided. The English Cabinet must co-operate actively with us in promoting the claims of one of the descendants of Philip V., no matter which, and in arranging his marriage with Queen Isabella, and in preventing, in the meanwhile, the marriage of the Infanta either with Prince Leopold or with any other prince, not a descendant of Philip V.”[822]
Aberdeen appears to have listened in silence and to have made no protest against the unwarrantable assumptions contained in this document. No copy of it was given to him, nor would he seem to have asked for one.[823] Meanwhile, strange events were taking place in Spain. The Miraflores Cabinet was quickly overthrown and, on March 17, 1846, Narvaez was once more at the head of the government. His return to power was quickly followed by the promulgation of decrees restricting the liberty of the press and suspending the sittings of the Cortes.[824] Bulwer was convinced that it was decided forthwith to betroth Isabella to Trapani, regardless of public opinion and of legal forms.[825] But, if Narvaez ever contemplated a coup d’état of this nature, he soon relinquished the idea. His tenure of office was of very brief duration. On April 5 he was dismissed and ordered to quit Madrid immediately. The mystery which surrounds these sudden changes of government has never been satisfactorily unravelled. It is certain that they were connected, more or less directly, with Isabella’s marriage. At first sight it would seem as though Christina had resolved to discard Narvaez, because she perceived that he was powerless to effect the Trapani marriage. Nevertheless, this apparently obvious explanation is probably erroneous. The Queen-Mother was never really desirous that her daughter should marry her uncle, Trapani. But she wished to ruin Narvaez, whose secret aim it was to diminish the influence of the Court and of the Church.[826] It is possible, therefore, that she may have insisted upon his supporting the Neapolitan alliance in order simply to discredit him. In this crafty fashion she may have hoped to rid herself of the man who, she had once declared, “was more arrogant than Espartero.”[827]
On April 8, 1846, the following message[828] was received in Paris from M. Bresson, who, doubtless, had some person in his employ in close attendance upon Isabella. “La reine est nubile depuis deux heures.”[829] Whether or not this news was communicated to Lord Cowley by M. Guizot, it was certainly known at once at the British embassy. Christina could no longer invoke physical reasons for delaying her daughter’s marriage. But, meanwhile, the number of Bourbon candidates was rapidly diminishing. Trapani was too unpopular, and Don Enrique, Duke of Seville, the younger son of Don Francisco de Paula, had recently been concerned in an insurrection in Gallicia, and had been ordered to leave Spain. The only available husband for Isabella among the descendants of Philip V. was, therefore, Don Enrique’s elder brother, Don Francisco, Duke of Cadiz, whom both she and her mother disliked and despised. Christina, under these circumstances, resolved to revert to the matrimonial combination which she had constantly regarded as the best. The moment was not unfavourable for openly defying Louis Philippe. Narvaez, the minister who had always been looked upon as the chief tool of the French Court, was in disgrace, and Isturiz, his successor, was her devoted servant. She accordingly determined to propose to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg that Isabella should marry his son, Prince Leopold. After informing him of its contents, she gave the letter containing this offer to Mr. Bulwer, asking that it might be conveyed to Lisbon by his messenger. The British minister complied with her request and reported the affair to his chief.
Lord Aberdeen was seriously annoyed, and at once informed M. de Sainte-Aulaire of what had passed, assuring him that he should administer a severe rebuke to Mr. Bulwer. Bulwer, he considered, had violated his instructions, both in undertaking to transmit the offer to Lisbon and in concealing Christina’s proceedings from M. Bresson. In consequence of the strictures passed upon his conduct, Bulwer offered to resign. Aberdeen, however, in a friendly letter insisted upon his remaining at his post.[830] A few days later, on June 29, 1846, Sir Robert Peel announced that he and his colleagues had retired from office, and that Lord John Russell had undertaken to form a government. On June 25, on the very day on which their Corn Bill had been carried through the House of Lords, ministers had been defeated in the Commons by a Radical and Protectionist coalition. In the new administration the seals of the Foreign Office passed into the keeping of Lord Palmerston.