The triumph of Espartero was accentuated by the banquet given in his honour on August 30, when he was given a crown of gold laurel-leaves.
From Valencia Maria Cristina strove to form a new Ministry, but, though she would not accept the Progressists’ programme, she was finally obliged to put the reins of power in Espartero’s hands, who was proclaimed in Madrid sole Regent of Spain; whilst Maria Cristina left her land for France. The well-known General O’Donnell accompanied his royal mistress into exile, and remained with her till Espartero’s overthrow in 1843.
So it was on October 12, 1840, that the royal children returned to Madrid for the opening of Parliament under the new condition of affairs, in which Espartero was Regent. It was said that he had the same solicitous affection for the little Queen and her sister as he had for his own children. He certainly did well in appointing Don Manuel José Quintana, the illustrious poet, as preceptor to the Queen his charge, Agustin Argüelles as tutor-guardian, and Martin de los Heros as steward of the royal household.
When Espartero had the Regency in his hands, he was practically ruler of the whole country, and this supremacy of an officer whose ideas of military rule left little room for constitutional liberty was bitterly resented by some of the other generals. La Concha, Leon, and O’Donnell, formed the bold idea of getting possession of the persons of the young Princesses, so as to use them as a lever for a less autocratic form of government. Espartero was also opposed by the Carlists, and before many months had gone the bold design was formed, by the disaffected chief, of getting hold of the royal children, and putting them in the hands of the Moderate party, under Maria Cristina, who was under the protection of the French.
CHAPTER VII
QUEEN ISABELLA’S GIRLHOOD, AND THE DANGERS WHICH BESET IT
1840–1846
The little Princesses now lived in the imposing Palace of Madrid, with all the retinue befitting their position, but far from the mother who, with all her faults, loved her little girls, and had only left them to save them from the greater losses with which they were threatened. Espartero, who was now a sort of Dictator of Spain, took up his residence in the Palace of Buena Vista, in the Alcalá in Madrid, which is now the Ministry of War.
The secret influence which was working in Madrid in favour of Luisa Carlota and her husband led to their being suggested as guardians to the royal children, in a little book called “The Maternal Guardianship of H.M. Isabel II. and Her Royal Highness’s Sister, Maria Luisa Fernanda.”
But Government declared against the appointment of personages who were known to nourish such hatred to the mother, who sent an indignant protest from Paris against the project. So Argüelles was appointed guardian, and in his choice of coadjutors certainly did his best to improve the environment of the little Princesses. Of course the appointment caused much discontent on some sides. The uncle and aunt declared that it was made in the desire to separate the Princesses from their relatives, and that it was wrong to put them under a man who had been an enemy of their father.