THE ROYAL FAMILY AT BAYONNE
Immediately after the arrival of the royal parents, with Napoleon’s approval, Godoy being their principal and well-nigh only councillor, Ferdinand was summoned, and in the presence of the foreign sovereign Charles commanded him to restore the crown on the morning of the following day by means of a pure and simple abdication, threatening him that, in event of his refusal, he, his brothers, and all his suite should from that moment be treated as exiles.
Napoleon supported him with energy, and when Ferdinand was about to reply, his august father sprang from his seat, and attempted to strike him, accusing him of wishing to deprive him of life as well as of his crown. The queen, silent up to then, became enraged, outraging her son with insulting affronts, being carried away to such a point by her ungovernable anger that, according to Napoleon, she herself begged him to bring Ferdinand to the scaffold, which demand, if true, coming from a mother, strikes one with horror. Her son remained mute, and sent in his abdication, dated May 1st, on these conditions: that the king his father should return to Madrid, whither Ferdinand should accompany him, to be treated as his most dutiful son; that in presence of an assembly of the cortes Ferdinand should formally renounce the crown, explaining his motives for so doing; that King Charles should not take back with him to Spain any persons who had justly incurred the nation’s hatred.
Charles IV, as might be supposed, did not accede to his son’s conditions, and on the 2nd sent him a written reply, in which, in the midst of various severe though just reflections, Napoleon’s hand is discerned, and even his expressions—such as: “Everything must be done for the people, and nothing for himself; I cannot consent to any convocation of an assembly; a new suggestion of your inexperienced followers.” Such was Bonaparte’s invariable aversion to popular assemblies, although without them he might have remained in the obscurity in which fate had placed him.
On the 5th of May, the report reached Bayonne of what had occurred in Madrid on the Dos de Mayo. It was five in the afternoon; all were seated save the prince. Charles repeated his former accusations, insulted Ferdinand with asperity, blamed him for the rising and for the consequent deaths; and, calling him a perfidious traitor, again warned him that unless he resigned the crown he should be declared a usurper without delay, and he and all his household looked upon as conspirators against the life of their sovereign. On the 6th Ferdinand, being intimidated, made a pure and simple abdication in favour of his father in the terms set down by the latter. Charles had not waited for his son’s abdication to conclude a treaty with Napoleon by which he ceded to him the crown without any other restriction than that of preserving the integrity of the kingdom and the Catholic religion to the exclusion of all others. Small and petty even to the last, Don Manuel Godoy only haggled obstinately over an article relating to pensions. For the rest, the manner in which Charles gave up the crown covered with shame the father, who with one blow indirectly deprived all his sons of their succession to the throne. Arranged in a foreign land, in the eyes of the world this abdication lacked the indispensable circumstance of having been executed freely and willingly, above all being in favour of the sovereign within whose territory this important article had been inserted in the treaty.
So ended the reign of Charles IV; and no one better than himself gives us an exact and true idea of his life than, when dining with Napoleon in Bayonne, he expressed himself as follows: “Every day, winter and summer, I went hunting until twelve o’clock; then I dined, and immediately returned to my hunting until twilight. Manuel [Godoy] gave me the news, and I went to bed, to begin the same life on the following day, unless some important ceremony prevented me.” Such was the manner in which the king had governed for the space of twenty years. According to the sketch which he draws of himself, he merits the same title [fainéant] as that applied to various kings of France of the Merovingian dynasty. Nevertheless, Charles possessed qualities which might have made him shine as a king, and fulfil all the duties of his high calling, but for his idleness and the weakness which caused him to blindly give way to the queen’s will and irregular caprices. With another wife than Maria Louisa, his reign would not have compared unfavourably with that of his august predecessor, and although the situation of Europe was very different, as a result of the French Revolution, yet, well governed and without interior discord, Spain might perhaps have peacefully continued her industries and advancement without upheavals and confusion. The abdication of Ferdinand in favour of Charles IV, and of the latter in favour of Napoleon being formally drawn up, there yet lacked Ferdinand’s renouncement of his rights as prince of Asturias, because although he had restored the crown to his father on the 6th of May, he had not by this act renounced his rights as immediate heir. It appears according to Don Pedro Cevallos[g] that upon Ferdinand refusing to accede to this last concession Napoleon said, “There is no medium, prince, between renouncement and death.” Others deny this threat, and indeed it would seem strange that such rigorous measures should have been resorted to with a person who had so clearly shown his weakness.
The queen of Etruria, in spite of the flattering attention she had bestowed on Murat and the French, was no happier in her negotiations than the rest of her family. The Treaty of Fontainebleau could not be kept with her son because Napoleon had promised the deputies of Portugal to maintain the integrity of that kingdom; nor could indemnification be granted her in Italy, as to allow any branch of the Bourbons to reign in that country was contrary to Napoleon’s great views; the queen was compelled to be satisfied with this reply, accept the pension allotted her, and submit to the same fate as her parents.
During the stay of the prince of Asturias and the infantes in Bayonne various plots were set on foot for their escape. A resident of Cevera de Alhama received money from the supreme junta of Madrid for that purpose. The duke of Mahon had sent the offer of a large sum from San Sebastian for the same object. Ferdinand’s counsellors received the money in his name and by his orders, but the flight never took place, although several plans were proposed. They would have required less vigilance on the part of the French government and more courage on the part of the Spanish princes to bring them to a successful ending.
The renouncements being formally executed, Napoleon lost no time in despatching the members of the royal family of Spain to the interior of France. Charles IV and his wife, the queen of Etruria and her children, the infante Don Francisco, and the Prince of the Peace, left for Fontainebleau on the 10th of May, and thence proceeded to Compiègne. On the 11th Ferdinand VII, his brother and uncle, the infantes Don Carlos and Don Antonio, left Bayonne; the palace of Valençay, the property of Prince Talleyrand, being assigned as their residence.[h]