King Ferdinand VIII of Spain has spent the last ten years in what the persecuted liberals call the “ominous decade” (and what will later be called an “orgy of repression”).

After the defeat of an attempt to force Queen Consort María Cristina to recognize the rights of Don Carlos, Ferdinand’s brother, during the king’s illness (September 1832), María Cristina's faction had become dominant at court.

She has succeeded in securing every important military command in the hands of supporters of the claims of Isabella.

Ferdinand recovers, banishes Don Carlos, and looks for moderate liberal support for his little daughter.

However, when, on September 29, the forty-nine-year-old Ferdinand dies, his three-year-old daughter becomes Queen Isabella II, with his twenty-seven-year-old widow ruling as regent.

María Cristina is obliged to lean on the liberals as Don Carlos asserts his royal claims from Portugal.

Conservative elements, the Catholic Church, and much of Navarre, Aragon, and Catalonia rebel against the government in support of Don Carlos; thus begins the so-called First Carlist War, which will last until 1839.

As regent for the young Isabella II of Spain, María Cristina, whose alliances with liberalism has arisen out of military necessity, not from conviction, would prefer to grant administrative reforms rather than consent that her daughter should become a constitutional monarch.

However, the liberals alone can save her daughter's throne from the Carlists, and the minimum demand of all liberals is a constitution.

As regent, she therefore consistently supports conservative liberals against the radicals.

The Royal Statute of 1834, a conservative constitution, represents this alliance between respectable upper-middle-class liberals and the crown.

In this year, the Spanish Inquisition, which began in the fifteenth century, is suppressed by royal decree on July 15, 1834.

The First Carlist War (1833–1839) – A Struggle Between Isabelline Liberalism and Carlist Traditionalism

The First Carlist War (1833–1839) was a brutal civil war in Spain, fought between supporters of Queen Isabella II and those of the Carlist pretender, Don Carlos, Count of Molina. It was not just a dynastic conflict but also a deeper ideological battle between:

• Urban liberalism vs. rural traditionalism
• The centralized liberal government vs. local fueros (regional autonomy)
• A secularizing, constitutional monarchy vs. a strongly Catholic, absolute monarchy

The war was particularly savage, fought between the poorly paid and equipped liberal army defending Isabella IIand the semi-guerrilla Carlist forces, who had strong local support in the Basque Country, Navarre, and northern Spain.

---

The Carlist Strongholds in the North

• The Carlist movement was strongest in the Basque provinces and Navarre, where local populations resisted liberal centralization and fought to defend the fueros (regional rights and privileges).
• The Carlists also promoted an ultra-conservative, Catholic monarchy, rejecting the liberal secularization policies of Madrid.
• However, despite their strongholds in the north, the Carlists failed to capture a major city, which prevented them from gaining wider recognition as a legitimate government.

---

The Death of Tomás de Zumalacárregui (June 1835) – A Turning Point

• Tomás Zumalacárregui y de Imaz, the great Carlist military leader, was a brilliant guerrilla commander, who had turned the Carlist forces into a formidable army.
• In June 1835, he led a campaign to capture Bilbao, hoping to secure a major urban center for the Carlist cause.
• However, he was mortally wounded during the siege, depriving the Carlists of their most capable strategist.
• His death weakened Carlist prospects, as subsequent leaders struggled to match his tactical genius.

---

Strategic Consequences – Carlist Stalemate

• After Zumalacárregui’s death, the Carlists failed to take any major cities, leaving their forces isolated in the north.
• The liberal government, despite its weaknesses, maintained control over Spain’s major cities and economic centers.
• The war dragged on in brutal guerrilla fighting, with no decisive victory for either side, leading to years of attrition.

---

Conclusion – A Prolonged and Bloody War

The First Carlist War was one of the most bitterly fought conflicts of 19th-century Spain, reflecting deep divisions within Spanish society. While the Carlists had strong support in rural areas, their failure to capture a major city prevented them from establishing a viable government. The death of Zumalacárregui in June 1835 marked a turning point, weakening the Carlist cause and leading to a long, grinding war of attrition that would last until 1839.

The Royal Statute, with its property franchise and the great powers it gives the crown in the choice of ministers, cannot stop the drift toward the left implicit in liberalism itself.

The radicals, who are the heirs of the exaltados of 1820-23, had been installed in power first by a series of provincial town risings in 1835 in Andalusia, ...

...Aragon, ...

...Catalonia, and ...

...Madrid.

In response, Maria Christina, as regent for her daughter Isabella II, restores the Constitution of 1812 and appoints a progressive ministry on August 10, 1836.

Florida Territorial governor John Eaton becomes ambassador to Spain in this year.

Infante Carlos, Count of Molina leads a failed expedition to Madrid in September, defeated by liberal forces loyal to Queen Isabel II of Spain in the Battle of Aranzueque, ending the Carlist campaign known as the Expedición Real.

The radical politicians, meanwhile, accept the more moderate compromise constitution of 1837.

Of more enduring importance is the sale of church lands to finance the war.

The great disentailment carried out by Prime Minister Juan Alvarez Mendizábal and his successors alters profoundly the social structure of Spain by nationalizing and putting on the market large quantities of church lands, most of which are bought by large landowners or prosperous peasants, thereby creating new landowners who support the political conservatives known as the Moderates.

Supporters of Don Carlos are victorious in a battle near the Aragonese town of Maell on October 1, 1838.

Spanish regent Maria Christina had secretly married an ex-sergeant from the royal guard, Augustín Fernández Muñoz, Duke of Riansares, who had been given the title Duke of Riansares, on December 28, 1833, shortly after the death of Ferdinand VII.

Maria Christina and Muñoz will have several children together while trying to keep their marriage a secret, including four born between 1834 and 1838.

Eventually, news of Maria Christina's marriage to this low-ranking soldier had become public, making Maria Christina deeply unpopular.

Her position is undermined by news of her remarriage and concerns that she is not actually supportive of her liberal ministers and their policies.

Eventually, the army, which is the backbone of Isabella II's support, and the liberal leadership in the Cortes combines to demand that Maria Christina stand aside from the regency.