Ferdinand, with his suite, crossing the frontiers, hastened to Bayonne, and entered the city on the morning of the 20th of April. He was received by the Emperor with distinguished marks of attention and kindness, but not with regal honors. The Prince of Peace, whose liberation Murat had secured, came hurrying on to Bayonne, to plead his cause before the Emperor; and he was followed, in a few hours, by Charles IV. and the Queen. Thus the whole family was assembled at Bayonne. The result of several stormy interviews, in which the King, the Queen, and their son exhausted upon each other the language of vituperation, and in which the enraged old King was with difficulty restrained from a violent personal attack upon his son, the parties all agreed to cede to Napoleon the crown of Spain. Ferdinand first renounced his rights in favor of his father, and Charles IV. transferred the sceptre to Napoleon. The imperial palace of Campiegne, its parks and forests, were placed at the disposition of Charles IV. for himself, his Queen, and Godoy, during his life, with an annual pension of thirty million reals. He was also given the proprietorship of the chateau of Chambord, with its parks, forests, and farms, to dispose of as he pleased. Upon the death of the King, the Queen was to receive a pension of two million reals. The two princes, Ferdinand and Don Carlos, were assigned to the castle of Valençay, its park, forests, and farms, with an income amounting to about half a million dollars.
It is said that Napoleon obtained at Bayonne such developments of the character of Ferdinand that he saw that it was utterly in vain to attempt to make a respectable king of him; one upon whom he could repose the slightest reliance; and he could no longer think of sacrificing the daughter of Lucien to so worthless a creature. Speaking upon this subject at Saint Helena, Napoleon said to Las Casas:
Remarks of Napoleon.
"Ferdinand offered, on his own account, to govern entirely at my devotion, as much so as the Prince of Peace had done in the name of Charles IV. And I must admit that if I had fallen into their views I should have acted much more prudently than I have actually done. When I had them all assembled at Bayonne, I found myself in command of much more than I could have ventured to hope for. The same occurred there, as in many other events of my life, which have been ascribed to my policy, but in fact were owing to my good-fortune.
"Here I found the Gordian knot before me. I cut it. I proposed to Charles IV. and the Queen that they should cede to me their rights to the throne. They at once agreed to it, I had almost said voluntarily; so deeply were their hearts ulcerated toward their son, and so desirous had they and their favorite now become of security and repose. The Prince of Asturias did not make any extraordinary resistance. Neither violence nor menaces were employed against him. And if fear decided him, which I well believe was the case, it concerns him alone."
Proclamation of Charles IV.
On the 8th of May Charles IV. issued a proclamation to the Spanish nation, informing them that he had ceded the crown to Napoleon, and enjoining it upon them to transfer their homage to him. "We have," said he, "ceded all our rights over Spain to our ally and friend the Emperor of the French, by a treaty signed and ratified, stipulating the integrity and independence of Spain and the preservation of our holy religion, not only as dominant, but as alone tolerated in Spain."
Joseph Proclaimed King of Spain.
As the throne was thus transferred without any action of the people whatever, Napoleon felt the necessity of obtaining something like a national sanction of the deed, and an expression of the national will in respect to the sovereign who should be placed over them. Murat, at Madrid, announced to the council-general of Castile, to the junta or council of the Government, and to the municipality, that the Emperor desired to know their opinion in reference to the choice of a sovereign from the princes of his own family. All these three bodies united in the expression of the wish that the choice should fall upon Prince Joseph, King of Naples. A deputation of distinguished men was sent to convey this wish to the Emperor. Fortified by these documents, Napoleon, on the 6th of June, proclaimed that the crown of Spain was transferred to his brother Joseph.
Joseph was at that time on the road to Bayonne, not yet knowing the decision of his brother, and in heart very reluctant to assume the crown of Spain. Napoleon rode out from Bayonne to meet Joseph, whom he sincerely loved, and who was so ready to sacrifice his inclinations and his happiness to aid the Emperor in his gigantic plans. The Emperor made the following statement to Joseph as they rode back together to Bayonne: