Ferdinand VII of Spain

Biography

Ferdinand VII was born on 14 October 1784 at the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial and died on 29 September 1833 at the Royal Palace of Madrid. He was King of Spain twice: briefly in 1808, and then from 1813 until his death. His reign was marked by fierce political strife between absolutists and liberals, making him one of the most controversial monarchs in Spanish history. Before 1813, his people called him el Deseado, or the Desired, hoping he would reform the corrupt court of his father, Charles IV. After regaining power, he was known as el Rey Felón, the Criminal King, due to his repeated betrayals of constitutional governance.

Ferdinand’s rise to the throne was rocky. His father, Charles IV, ruled under the great influence of the minister Manuel Godoy, who was disliked by Ferdinand and his supporters. After the Tumult of Aranjuez in March 1808, Charles IV had to abdicate, and Ferdinand briefly took the crown. However, Napoleon Bonaparte intervened, summoning both father and son to Bayonne, France, where he made them give up the Spanish throne. Napoleon then made his brother Joseph Bonaparte the King of Spain, while Ferdinand was kept at the Château de Valençay in France until 1813.

When Ferdinand returned to Spain in December 1813, he rejected the liberal Constitution of 1812, which had been created by the Cortes of Cádiz during the Peninsular War against French control. He reinstated absolute monarchy and worked to suppress liberal political movements, imprisoning journalists, editors, and political adversaries throughout his reign. In January 1820, a military revolt led by Colonel Rafael del Riego forced Ferdinand to reinstate the constitution and accept a liberal government period known as the Liberal Triennium, lasting until 1823. That year, the Congress of Verona allowed a French military intervention, the so-called Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis, which overthrew the liberal government and restored Ferdinand’s absolute rule once more.

During Ferdinand's reign, Spain lost most of its American colonies, as independence movements took hold in Latin America. Countries like Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina gained independence in the 1810s and 1820s. Ferdinand's failure to negotiate or respond to these colonial challenges left Spain significantly weakened as a global power. Domestically, his harsh policies against liberals caused deep political divides that influenced Spanish politics for years.

Ferdinand married four times: to Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily, Queen Maria Isabel of Spain, Maria Josepha Amalia of Saxony, and Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies. His last marriage to Maria Christina produced a surviving heir, his daughter Isabella. Before he died, Ferdinand altered the Salic Law with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1830, allowing Isabella to succeed him. This was contested by his brother Carlos, whose supporters started the First Carlist War shortly after Ferdinand's death in 1833, leading Spain into a major civil conflict.