First Carlist War 1833-1839

Espartero, Baldomero, Prince (príncipe) De Vergara [b. Oct. 27, 1793, Granátula, Spain; d. Jan. 8, 1879, Logroño] also called (FROM 1839) DUKE (DUQUE) DE LA VICTORIA, OR (FROM 1837) COUNT (CONDE) DE LUCHANA, BYNAME THE PEACEMAKER OF SPAIN, SPANISH EL PACIFICADOR DE ESPAÑA, Spanish general and statesman, victor in the First Carlist War, and regent... The son of working-class parents, Espartero entered the army at age 15 and fought with Spanish forces in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and in the rebellious Americas. On the death of Ferdinand VII he showed himself a strong supporter of the queen regent María Cristina and enthusiastically joined the forces opposed to Don Carlos (Carlos María Isidro de Borbón). He was made commander in chief and, for his victory over the Carlists at the Battle of Luchana (December 1836), was created Count de Luchana. Later he opened up the negotiations that led to the Convention of Vergara (1839) and ended the civil war. This success earned Espartero the popular sobriquet "the Peacemaker of Spain" and the title Duke de la Victoria. He had begun to dabble in politics in 1836; on his return to Madrid (1840) he became head of the government and selected a cabinet of ministers who agreed with his progressive ideas. María Cristina preferred to resign the regency (October 1840) rather than accept his program of reforms. Espartero was then himself appointed regent by the Cortes (May 1841), or Spanish parliament.

Carlos María Isidro De Borbón, Count (conde) De Molina [b. March 29, 1788, Madrid, Spain; d. March 10, 1855, Trieste, Austrian Empire [now in Italy] ] byname DON CARLOS, the first Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne (as Charles V) and the second surviving son of King Charles IV... He went to Portugal in March 1833 to meet his brother-in-law Dom Miguel, the pretender to the Portuguese throne, and, in consequence of the civil war there, was cut off from Spain when Ferdinand VII died in September 1833. Don Carlos could return to Spain, where his supporters proclaimed him king as Charles V, only via England, and it was not until July 1834 that he put himself at the head of his partisans in the Basque provinces. Tomás de Zumalacárregui, his commander in chief, was a general of genius, but Don Carlos' lack of judgment prevented any early solution to the first Carlist War. After Zumalacárregui's death (1835) and the Carlists' failure to take Bilbao, the initiative passed increasingly to the liberals. When, in August 1839, the Carlist general Rafael Maroto signed the Convention of Vergara, by which the liberals recognized Basque legal privileges, most of the fighting ceased and Don Carlos went into exile. He abdicated his pretensions in 1845, taking the title Count de Molina, in the vain hope that his son Carlos Luis de Borbón might heal the breach within the Bourbon family by marrying Isabella II.

Cabrera, Ramón [b. Dec. 27, 1806, Tortosa, Spain; d. May 24, 1877, London] in full RAMON CABRERA Y GRINO, influential Spanish Carlist general and later one of the party's most controversial figures... After the death (1833) of Ferdinand VII, those who supported the claim to the throne of Ferdinand's brother, Don Carlos, against that of Ferdinand's daughter, Queen Isabella II, rose in rebellion; Cabrera became a leading insurgent, soon dominating the Carlist bands in Catalonia and inspiring terror by his relentless cruelty, which rose to a climax after the liberals shot his mother (1836). He gained several notable victories, including that of Morella (1838), for which he was created Count de Morella. Cabrera refused to recognize the Convention of Vergara (1839), which ended the war in the Basque provinces, but in 1840 was driven with 10,000 soldiers over the French border.

Spain under Isabella II, 1833-68 fought the Carlist wars. The dynastic war between Isabelline liberalism and Carlism was a savage civil war between urban liberalism and rural traditionalism, between the poorly paid and equipped regular army of the liberal governments, supporting Isabella, and the semi-guerrilla forces of the Carlists. The Carlist strength lay in the north, especially in the Basque provinces and Navarre, where there was strong support for the fueros against liberal centralism and for the traditional Roman Catholic order represented by the religious bigotry of Don Carlos and his circle. But the Carlists could not break out of their bases in the north to capture an important city. The great Carlist leader Tomás Zumalacárregui y de Imaz was killed in an attempt to capture Bilbao, and Don Carlos' expedition to Madrid failed (1837). In 1839 the Carlist commander staged a mutiny against the clerical court of Don Carlos and came to terms with Baldomero Espartero, the most successful of Isabella's generals.

During the 19th century the Carlists frequently resorted to armed rebellion: a second Carlist War was unsuccessfully waged in the late 1840s, an abortive attempt made at a military coup d'etat in 1860, and full-scale war resumed between 1872 and 1876 during the political upheavals following the deposition (1868) of Isabella II. Yet another defeat, and the restoration (1874) of Isabella's son Alfonso XII, brought decline to Carlism, until Spain's humiliation in the Spanish-American War stimulated new growth and a brief return to insurgency during the years 1900-02.

References

How to Stop a War; Carlism; The Carlist Wars; Ramon Cabrera; Don Carlos; Baldomero Espartero.

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