But, during the interval, events had progressed; for after the French king’s flight and his arrest at Varennes, the situation had become most serious. Royalty was dead, but the king still lived, and an imprudent step might compromise the threatened life. Florida-Blanca realised this and refused to associate Spain with a counter-revolutionary plot which was being organised in the south of France. But at the same time he sent the national assembly a letter and pleaded the cause of the fugitive king, prisoner in his own palace, in a tone which sounded more like a threat than a prayer. The assembly, its dignity hurt, replied with a scornful order of the day; and the breach between the two governments, whose principles were so opposed, widened more than ever.
Not daring to declare war upon France, the imprudent minister declared it at least upon the French in his own country; a decree ordered all foreigners resident in Spain to take an oath of allegiance to the Catholic faith, to the monarch and laws of the country, and to renounce their nationality and call themselves Spaniards. This tyrannical measure, apparently directed at all foreigners, was in fact aimed at the French alone, who were established in the peninsula to the number of thirteen thousand. The assembly was not deceived, and realised that, from that time on, it had an avowed enemy in the Spanish minister.
The Pyrenees were frequently crossed by French emissaries charged with the spreading of revolutionary doctrines to the peninsula. Florida-Blanca, hard pressed, finally established a quarantine on the frontier with the object of protecting Spain against the incendiary propaganda. Under this pretext he was able to keep a sufficiently large body of troops on the whole line of the Pyrenees to gain France’s respect, lend a hand to anti-revolutionary plots in the south, and, in case of invasion by northern powers, keep up a useful diversion in the south and complete the blockade of France.[c]
THE RISE OF GODOY
[1788-1792 A.D.]
It becomes now necessary to disclose a scene of licentious turpitude, such as we have long been spared in the annals of the court of Madrid. Maria Louisa the queen of Charles IV had, from the very moment of her marriage, betrayed a total disregard for the laws of conjugal fidelity, and her notorious gallantries could scarcely be checked even by the austerity of Charles III. That king, however, uniformly banished his daughter-in-law’s lovers, as soon as the rumour of a new intrigue was brought to him, whilst the prince of Asturias remained so blind to his wife’s guilt that he frequently, though always in vain, supplicated his father to recall persons whose society was peculiarly agreeable to the princess. One of the paramours thus exiled was Luis de Godoy, the eldest son of a noble but decayed family of Estremadura, who was serving with his brothers in the ranks of the horse guards; and this young man, anxious not to lose in absence the affections of the princess, employed his brother, Don Manuel, to deliver secretly letters expressing his constant passion and his lamentations over his banishment.
Don Manuel availed himself of the opportunity his office as letter-carrier afforded him, to supplant his absent brother, and thenceforward he held the exclusive possession of Maria Louisa’s heart. She introduced her new favourite to the prince of Asturias, who soon appeared to share his wife’s attachment for him; and when the death of Charles III removed the only restraint upon her conduct, the queen hoped to place Godoy at the head of the government. Charles IV would not, however, violate the respect he owed to the memory of his father, by displacing his minister. Florida-Blanca, as has been stated, retained the supreme authority, and, for a while, Godoy was obliged to rest content with inferior honours, unbounded influence over the queen, and the wealth lavished upon him by both herself and her royal consort.
This state of affairs lasted till 1792, and during those three years Florida-Blanca’s caution combined with Charles’ fears for Louis XVI’s safety, to preserve peace between France and Spain. But the restrictions imposed upon the intercourse between the two countries, by inconveniencing trade, had created great dissatisfaction amongst the Spaniards; and the queen and Godoy took care that not only their murmurs, but various accusations, true or false, of malversation and oppression, laid to the minister’s charge, should reach the king’s ear. In February, 1792, Florida-Blanca, upon these imputations, was deprived of his high office, and thrown into prison. As soon as it was thought no danger existed of his recovering the king’s favour, he was released from confinement.
Charles IV