CHAPTER XII. SPAIN AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
[1788-1808 A.D.]
Charles IV ascended the throne at the mature age of forty. The nation entertained great expectations from their new king. His first measures confirmed the hopes of those who confined their views to a continuation and increase of the benefits conferred during Charles III’s reign, if not the expectations of those who desired bolder innovations or of those who regretted the days of inquisitorial omnipotence. He confirmed Florida-Blanca in his post, and, at his suggestion, remitted considerable arrears of taxes incurred by indigence, suspended the alcabala upon wheat, and adopted economical reforms for the purpose of saving out of the annual expenditure of the country the means of liquidating the still unpaid debts of the crown.
Charles further showed his good sense by amicably settling a dispute that had arisen with England, at the price of partially abandoning a useless extension of the monopoly claimed by Spain along the western coasts of America. But from this period the history of Spain, as of every other country in Europe, becomes involved with the extraordinary events taking place in France on account of the French Revolution.[b] For a full account of these events one must look in the history of France, only those being recounted here which have a close bearing on Spain.[a]
[1789-1792 A.D.]
The relations of these neighbouring and long-allied countries, France and Spain, were now of the strangest character. Hereditary affection attached the two royal families to each other, and they were furthermore united by ties of blood and community of interests. The king and especially the Spanish ministers poured their fear-mingled hatred upon the national assembly and the principles of the Revolution on every occasion.
France and the assembly which personified it had no more deadly enemy than Florida-Blanca. He allied himself in turn with the emperor Leopold in order to dictate to the French people the measure of reform they required, and with the northern cabinets to force the assembly to destroy its work with its own hands, and re-establish the absolute monarchy as it existed before the Revolution. Finally he tried to reconcile the Grand Turk with the empress Catherine to permit of Russia’s joining the other continental monarchies in building a dike to resist the rush of the revolutionary torrent.