What Was The Liberal Triennium And What Were Its Characteristics?
At the time of writing this article, two hundred years have passed since the end of the Liberal Triennium (1820-1823), a three-year constitutional parenthesis that represented an oasis of modernity in the absolutist framework of the Spain of Ferdinand VII. The French Revolution, which began in 1789, marked a political path whose strength could no longer be reversed. Europe would never be the same after the emergence of national consciousness and people’s power, ideas from which current political regimes would emerge.
What happened during the period known as the Liberal Triennium? Why is it so important in the historical future of Spain? What were its characteristics, and who carried it out?
In this article we will try to make a summary of the first constitutional period in the history of Spain.
History is a coming and going of events and characters who carry out actions and make decisions that, in one way or another, end up having resonance in new times. Spain is no exception; To understand in depth the turbulent 20th century in Spain (and also its present day) it is necessary to go back to the 19th century, when the dual reality that has dominated the nation since then was forged.
This dual reality (known as the two Spains) was not forged, as many believe, at the dawn of the Civil War (1936-1939). To begin with, there were several civil wars, of which that of ’36 is only the final chapter. The Spanish 19th century was dotted with the Carlist wars that, supposedly, had their origin in a succession issue And, although this is true, in these contests what would later be called the Spain dual waves Two Spainsidentified, roughly speaking, with a conservative, Catholic and monarchical side, and another of a more liberal nature that, over time, became identified with republicanism.
The Liberal Triennium was the result of the constitutional wave that had begun in the 18th century with the French Revolution, and whose reverberations still dotted Europe. In fact, the world was never the same from then on. The concept of popular sovereigntywhich ended, with a stroke of the pen, with the absolutist regime that dominated not only Spain, but the entire continent, since the beginning of the Modern Age.
The background: The Cortes of Cádiz and the Absolutist Sexennium
The Spanish political panorama at the dawn of the 19th century was dominated by absolutism, the typical regime of the Modern Age that was characterized by a strong and centralist monarchy, where the king, as anointed by God, was the depositary of all the political legitimacy. In such a regime, of course, there was no room for popular sovereignty; The members of the town were not citizens, but subjects
As we have already said, after the French Revolution everything begins to change. Nations are beginning to be aware of their political and cultural reality and, furthermore, they are beginning to see the people as the only repository of political power. In Spain, these ideas were seen as “dangerous” by the reigning monarchs, who tried to stop the constitutional maelstrom by relying, once again, on their divine legitimacy.
We cannot expand here on the events that represented the prologue of the Triennium. Yes, we will say that, after the fall of Napoleon and the return of Ferdinand VII to Spain, an absolutist regime was once again established that eliminated the constitutional progress achieved by the Cortes of Cádiz, which had developed, during the French war, the first constitution. Spanish. With the restoration of Ferdinand to the throne, a period of absolute monarchy began, which has become known as the Absolutist Sexennium (1814-1820).
A fever of uprisings
The image that we commonly have of military pronouncements is of uprisings of a conservative nature, at least. This was the nature of the military coup that occurred in 1936 and that gave rise to the Spanish Civil War. However, During the first decades of the 19th century these uprisings had a clear liberal character The objective of all of them was to restore the authority of the Constitution of Cádiz and force Fernando VII to swear the Magna Carta and govern, thus, as a constitutional king.
The first of these uprisings took place shortly after Ferdinand’s restoration to the throne, in September 1814. The protagonist was Francisco Espoz y Mina (1781-1836) who, after the failure of his action, was forced to flee to Spain. neighboring France to avoid reprisals. Later, in 1815, Juan Díaz Porlier, better known as The Little Marquis (1788-1815), was built in Galicia. Like his predecessor, the coup fails, but, in this case, Porlier is executed in La Coruña.
The Absolutist Sexennium will be punctuated by several more uprisings (practically one per year). All these military coups fail, and their protagonists are executed (Vicente Richart, Luis Lacy, Joaquín Vidal). Until, on January 1, 1820, a young soldier revolted in the town of Cabezas de San Juan, in Seville. His name is Rafael del Riego, he is thirty-six years old and he commands the Asturias battalion who, at that time, was preparing to go to America to repress the uprising in the colonies.
Swearing in of the king and beginning of the Liberal Triennium
Historians have often wondered why Commander Riego’s uprising was so successful that previous pronouncements had not been. It seems that the main reason was the passivity of the authorities who, although they had to repress the armed uprising, did not react quickly enough.
So, While they hesitated in Madrid, the uprisings were replicated in different Spanish squares, like a domino effect In February, La Coruña proclaims itself in favor of the Constitution. Later El Ferrol and Vigo were added.
At the beginning of March, Zaragoza joins the constitutional movement, as well as Barcelona (March 11) and Pamplona and Cádiz (March 10). By the end of the month, almost all major cities have joined Riego’s statement and his men. The king understands, from Madrid, that he is alone. On March 9, Fernando VII swears in the Constitution of 1812, and thus begins the first constitutional government in the history of Spain.
Twelver, realistic and exalted
In June, the first cabinet of the Triennium was opened, the “Government of convicts”, as the king baptized it, since the majority of its deputies were former liberals who had ended up in prison after the restoration of Ferdinand to the throne. With the advent of the constitutional monarchy, they left prison and joined the new cabinet, led, among others, by the incombustible Agustín de Argüelles (1776-1844), one of the key figures of the Triennium.
In all the cities and towns of Spain the arrival of the Constitution is celebrated with great celebrations, in which the constitutional tombstone is carried out in a procession to the ringing of bells, as if it were a religious festival. However, not everyone is happy with the new regime, starting with the king himself. Fernando has not been nor will he ever be liberal; The only thing he is doing by swearing the Constitution is protecting himself (the example of neighboring France is still very present) and buying time to conspire at his whim and in silence to overthrow the government that he himself has accepted in a solemn act.
Spain is divided between the royalists, supporters of the king and the old absolutist monarchy, and the liberals, who cheer for the Constitution and their national hero, Rafael del Riego. But soon, the liberal side shows signs of internal division. On the one hand, there are the moderates or twelveañistas, so called because of their participation in the Cortes of Cádiz in 1812, who consider that the revolution has ended and that it is time to consolidate the new government.
On the other hand, there are the exalted ones, of which Riego is one of their biggest leaders, who do not accept the end of the rebellion in any way and who press for more changes. Just One year after the proclamation of the new liberal government, the division is so pronounced that the specter of a civil war hangs over Spain
The zenith came in July 1822, with the events in Madrid, masterfully collected by Benito Pérez Galdós in his National Episodes and which pitted realists against exalted liberals. In the shadows, Fernando VII conspires with the royalists to overthrow the liberal government, but officially he shows himself addicted to the constitutional regime. Soon, European powers will come to his aid.
The Hundred Thousand Sons of San Luis and the end of the Triennium
It is known that Ferdinand VII contacted the Emperor of Russia, Alexander I, by letter, to help him put an end to the liberal government and restore him to the throne as absolute king. On the other hand, clandestine negotiations were also initiated with France, which at that time had recovered the monarchy in the figure of Louis XVIII, the brother of the guillotined king.
In October 1822, the Congress of Verona, in which the main European absolutist powers participated, agreed that France would help Ferdinand VII militarily if he wanted it. Russia, the other great absolutist power, supported the action. So, the following year, 1823, the Duke of Angoulême set out with a battalion of soldiers that received the name of the One Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis. The objective: end the constitutional monarchy and restore Ferdinand VII as absolute king.
Angoulême and his men crossed the Bidasoa in April 1823, and soon saw that no one in Spain offered them any resistance. Thus, with the invaluable support of the realists, The One Hundred Thousand Sons of San Luis advanced through Spanish territory shouting Vive le roi!, and the liberal government had to flee south, towards the always constitutional city of Cádiz. They did it with the king in tow, who never lost the role of his victim.
At the end of the summer of 1823, Angoulême and his people arrived at the Port of Santa María. The liberal government finally falls, and Ferdinand VII restores the absolutist regime. Despite the fact that the monarch promised to forget everything that had happened, that same year an unprecedented repression began that led hundreds of liberals to exile and to the scaffold, among them the one who had once been the hero of Las Cabezas, Rafael del Riego, who was hanged in the Plaza de la Cebada in Madrid in November 1823. A new absolutist period began in the history of Spain, known by the sad name of the Ominous Decade, which did not end until the death of Ferdinand VII, in 1833.
