The Hundred Thousand Sons of St. Louis
Encyclopedia
The Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis was the popular name for a French army mobilized by the Bourbon
King of France, Louis XVIII to restore King's Ferdinand VII of Spain absolute power of which he had been deprived during the Liberal Triennium. Despite the name, the actual number of troops was around 60,000. The force comprised some five army corps
(the bulk of the French regular army) and was led by Duke of Angoulême
, the son of the future King Charles X of France
.
, lobbied for the assistance of the other absolute monarchs of Europe, in the process joining the Holy Alliance
formed by Russia, Prussia, Austria and France to restore absolutism. In France, the ultra-royalists pressured Louis XVIII
to intervene. To temper their counter-revolutionary ardor, the Duc de Richelieu
deployed troops along the Pyrenees Mountains
along the France-Spain border, charging them with halting the spread of Spanish liberalism and the "yellow fever" from encroaching into France. In September 1822 this "cordon sanitaire" became an observation corps and then very quickly transformed itself into a military expedition.
(Russia
, Austria
and Prussia
) refused Ferdinand's request for help, but the Quadruple Alliance
(Britain
, France
, the Netherlands
and Austria
) at the Congress of Vienna
in October 1822 gave France a mandate to intervene and restore the Spanish monarchy. On 22 January 1823, a secret treaty was signed at the congress of Verona, allowing France to invade Spain to restore Ferdinand VII as an absolute monarch. With this agreement from the Holy Alliance, on 28 January 1823 Louis XVIII announced that "a hundred thousand Frenchmen are ready to march, invoking the name of Saint Louis
, to safeguard the throne of Spain for a grandson of Henry IV of France
". At the end of February, France's Chambres voted an extraordinary grant for the expedition. Châteaubriand and the ultra-royalists rejoiced - the royal army was going to prove its bravery and devotion in the face of Spanish liberals, fighting for the glory of the Bourbon monarchy.
The new prime minister, Joseph de Villèle, intended to oppose the war. The operation's cost was excessive, the army's organisation was defective and the troops' loyalty was uncertain. The superintendent of the military was unable to assure logistic support for the expedition's 95,000 men (as counted at the end of March) concentrated in the Basses-Pyrénées and the Landes with 20,000 horses and 96 artillery pieces. To remedy his doubts, he had to consult the munitions-supplier Ouvrard
, who quickly concluded that marches in Spain were as favourable to his own interests as to those of the army, even if they would be to the detriment of the public treasury.
without compromising the army's loyalty or efficiency. The solutions was to give the secondary commands to former émigré
s and Vendéens and the primary ones to former generals of the Revolution
and First Empire
. The Duc d'Angoulême, son of Charles X
, was made commander in chief of the Armée des Pyrénées
, despite his lack of military experience, but he agreed to hold it as a merely honorary role overseeing only the political direction of the expedition, leaving its military direction to his Major-General Guilleminot
, a tried-and-tested general of the First Empire. Four of the five army corps were placed under generals who had fought for Napoleon - Marshal Oudinot, Duc de Reggio, General Molitor
, Marshal Bon Adrien Jeannot de Moncey
, Duc de Conegliano and General Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux de Bordesoulle
. The Prince of Hohenlohe
commanded the Third Corps, the least-trusted of the five, with only two divisions and 16,000 (as opposed to the three or four divisions and 20 to 27 thousand men in the four other corps).
and so were disposed more kindly towards the liberals than the French and Spanish Bourbons. The liberals hoped to dissuade them from fighting "for monks, against liberty". Villèle was worried at their propaganda in bars and billets, where a song by Béranger spread throughout March and April inciting the soldiers to mutiny:
, they incited the soldiers not to cross the frontier. The King's infantrymen hesitated until General Vallin
rushed to them and ordered them to open fire. Several of the demonstrators were killed and the others dispersed. Many of them joined Englishmen under Colonel Robert Wilson, Belgians under Janssens and other French or Italian volunteers to form a liberal legion and a squadron of "liberty lancers" to fight beside the Spanish constitutional forces. The following day, on 7 April, the "100,000 Sons of Saint Louis" under the King's nephew Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême
entered Spain without opposition from the constitutional government's forces and with the support of the middle-classes and part of the urban population.
to retreat before rallying his troops. The French were left in control of Navarre
, the Asturias
and Galicia, however lacking siege equipment they were unable to blockade the towns where the liberals continued to resist for several more months. The city of Coruna only surrendered on 21 August, Pampelune on 16 September, and San Sebastián
on 27 September. To the east and southeast, Molitor
pushed back General Ballesteros
into Aragon, pursuing him as far as Murcia
and Grenada
, winning an engagement at Campillo de Arenas on 28 July and forcing his surrender on 4 August. At Jaén, he defeated the final columns of Rafael Riego, who was captured by the Absolutists on 15 September and hanged in Madrid on 7 November, two days before the fall of Alicante
. In Catalonia
, Moncey managed to quell General Mina
's regular and guerrilla forces, with Barcelona
only surrendering on 2 November.
, since this was the site of Cádiz, transformed into the Constitutionalists' provisional capital and thus the French force's main strategic objective. It contained the Cortes and the imprisoned king and was defended by a garrison of 14,000 men. At first Riego, then the generals La Bisbal
, Quiroga and Alava
led the action. Access to the city was protected by the batteries of fort Santa Catalina and fort San Sebastian to the west, fort Santi-Pietri to the east and above all by the fortified peninsula of Trocadéro, where colonel Garcés positioned 1700 men and 50 guns.
Under the command of general Bordesoulle
, soon joined by the duc d'Angoulême and Guilleminot, the infantry of generals Bourmont, Obert and Goujeon, the cavalry of Foissac-Latour, the artillery of Tirlet
and the engineers under Dode de La Brunerie
took up positions before Cádiz from mid-July. Forced to use several naval divisions for surveillance of Spain's Atlantic and Mediterranean ports and coasts (held by the Constitutionalists), the French navy was only able to spare a small squadron of 10 ships under counter admiral
Hamelin to blockade the city. This proved too small a force for Hamelin to succeed in this mission and so on 27 August he was replaced by counter-admiral des Rotours, then by Duperré
, who only arrive on 17 September, with meagre reinforcements.
and at the cost of 35 killed and 110 wounded (as opposed to 150 dead, 300 wounded and 1,100 captured on the part of the garrison) successfully captured it, turning its powerful guns towards Cádiz. On 20 September fort Sancti-Petri fell in its turn in a combined army-navy operation. On 23 September the guns of the Sancti-Petri and Trocadero forts and of Duperré's fleet bombarded the town and on 28 the constitutionalists adjudged the town lost. Thus the Cortes decided to dissolve itself, give back absolute power to Ferdinand VII and hand him over to the French. On 30 September Cádiz surrendered and on 3 October more than 4,600 French troops landed at its port. The French army fired its last shots in Spain at the start of November. On 5 November, the Duc d'Angoulême left Madrid and re-entered France on 23 November, leaving behind an occupying force of 45,000 men under the command of Bourmont. Spain was then progressively evacuated, and was only fully completed in 1828. Unexpectedly, Ferdinand took ruthless revenge on his opponents, revoked the 1812 constitution and restored absolute monarchy
to Spain.
and declared null and void all the acts and measures of the liberal government.
This war also seriously disturbed Spanish efforts to crush the independence struggles in Latin America.
Chateaubriand
, foreign minister in France's Villèle government (from 28 December 1822 to 6 June 1824), contrasted the expedition's success with France's failure in the Peninsular War
:
, the carabineros of Republican Spain were nicknamed 'The Hundred Thousand Sons of Negrín
.' It is ironic that this nickname was adopted since they were on the side opposing the Nationalists - who were supported by the Carlists
, the group which sought to restore the House of Bourbon to the Spanish throne.
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
King of France, Louis XVIII to restore King's Ferdinand VII of Spain absolute power of which he had been deprived during the Liberal Triennium. Despite the name, the actual number of troops was around 60,000. The force comprised some five army corps
Corps
A corps is either a large formation, or an administrative grouping of troops within an armed force with a common function such as Artillery or Signals representing an arm of service...
(the bulk of the French regular army) and was led by Duke of Angoulême
Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angouleme
Louis Antoine of France, Duke of Angoulême was the eldest son of Charles X of France and, from 1824 to 1836, the last Dauphin of France...
, the son of the future King Charles X of France
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
.
Context
In 1822, Ferdinand VII applied the terms of the Congress of ViennaCongress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
, lobbied for the assistance of the other absolute monarchs of Europe, in the process joining the Holy Alliance
Holy Alliance
The Holy Alliance was a coalition of Russia, Austria and Prussia created in 1815 at the behest of Czar Alexander I of Russia, signed by the three powers in Paris on September 26, 1815, in the Congress of Vienna after the defeat of Napoleon.Ostensibly it was to instill the Christian values of...
formed by Russia, Prussia, Austria and France to restore absolutism. In France, the ultra-royalists pressured Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII of France
Louis XVIII , known as "the Unavoidable", was King of France and of Navarre from 1814 to 1824, omitting the Hundred Days in 1815...
to intervene. To temper their counter-revolutionary ardor, the Duc de Richelieu
Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu
Armand Emmanuel Sophie Septimanie de Vignerot du Plessis, 5th Duke of Richelieu was a prominent French statesman during the Bourbon Restoration...
deployed troops along the Pyrenees Mountains
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
along the France-Spain border, charging them with halting the spread of Spanish liberalism and the "yellow fever" from encroaching into France. In September 1822 this "cordon sanitaire" became an observation corps and then very quickly transformed itself into a military expedition.
France considers intervention
The Holy AllianceHoly Alliance
The Holy Alliance was a coalition of Russia, Austria and Prussia created in 1815 at the behest of Czar Alexander I of Russia, signed by the three powers in Paris on September 26, 1815, in the Congress of Vienna after the defeat of Napoleon.Ostensibly it was to instill the Christian values of...
(Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
) refused Ferdinand's request for help, but the Quadruple Alliance
Quadruple Alliance
The term "Quadruple Alliance" refers to several historical military alliances; none of which remain in effect.# The Quadruple Alliance of August 1673 was an alliance between the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Spain, Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, in...
(Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
) at the Congress of Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in October 1822 gave France a mandate to intervene and restore the Spanish monarchy. On 22 January 1823, a secret treaty was signed at the congress of Verona, allowing France to invade Spain to restore Ferdinand VII as an absolute monarch. With this agreement from the Holy Alliance, on 28 January 1823 Louis XVIII announced that "a hundred thousand Frenchmen are ready to march, invoking the name of Saint Louis
Louis IX of France
Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death. He was also styled Louis II, Count of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was an eighth-generation descendant of Hugh Capet, and thus a member of the House of Capet, and the son of Louis VIII and...
, to safeguard the throne of Spain for a grandson of Henry IV of France
Henry IV of France
Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....
". At the end of February, France's Chambres voted an extraordinary grant for the expedition. Châteaubriand and the ultra-royalists rejoiced - the royal army was going to prove its bravery and devotion in the face of Spanish liberals, fighting for the glory of the Bourbon monarchy.
The new prime minister, Joseph de Villèle, intended to oppose the war. The operation's cost was excessive, the army's organisation was defective and the troops' loyalty was uncertain. The superintendent of the military was unable to assure logistic support for the expedition's 95,000 men (as counted at the end of March) concentrated in the Basses-Pyrénées and the Landes with 20,000 horses and 96 artillery pieces. To remedy his doubts, he had to consult the munitions-supplier Ouvrard
Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard
Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard was a French financier who was born in Moulins d'Antières at Cugand on October 11, 1770 and who died in London in October 1846.- Revolution :...
, who quickly concluded that marches in Spain were as favourable to his own interests as to those of the army, even if they would be to the detriment of the public treasury.
The French force
Command structure
The organisation of the expedition's command structure posed many problems. Pro-Bourbon commanders had to be given the chance to fully exercise the roles they had so recently been given by the restored French monarchyBourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
without compromising the army's loyalty or efficiency. The solutions was to give the secondary commands to former émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
s and Vendéens and the primary ones to former generals of the Revolution
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and First Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
. The Duc d'Angoulême, son of Charles X
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
, was made commander in chief of the Armée des Pyrénées
Armée des Pyrénées
One of the French Revolutionary armies, the Army of the Pyrenees was created by a decree of the National Convention dated 1 October 1792 and formed out of the right wing of the Armée du Midi...
, despite his lack of military experience, but he agreed to hold it as a merely honorary role overseeing only the political direction of the expedition, leaving its military direction to his Major-General Guilleminot
Armand Charles Guilleminot
Armand Charles, Count Guilleminot , was a French general during the Napoleonic wars....
, a tried-and-tested general of the First Empire. Four of the five army corps were placed under generals who had fought for Napoleon - Marshal Oudinot, Duc de Reggio, General Molitor
Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor
Gabriel-Jean-Joseph, comte Molitor , was a Marshal of France, born in Hayingen in Lorraine.Upon the outbreak of the French Revolution, Molitor joined the French revolutionary armies as a captain in a battalion of militia. In 1793 he was given command of a brigade and served under Hoche under whom...
, Marshal Bon Adrien Jeannot de Moncey
Bon Adrien Jeannot de Moncey
Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey , 1st Duke of Conegliano, 1st Baron of Conegliano, Peer of France , Marshal of France, was a prominent soldier in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....
, Duc de Conegliano and General Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux de Bordesoulle
Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux de Bordesoulle
Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux, comte de Bordesoulle was a French nobleman and soldier, who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the Spanish expedition.-Early career:...
. The Prince of Hohenlohe
Louis Aloy de Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein
Louis Aloy Prince de Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Bartenstein was a German prince and Marshal of France.- Early life :Hohenlohe was born at Bartenstein in Hohenlohe-Bartenstein.- Military service :...
commanded the Third Corps, the least-trusted of the five, with only two divisions and 16,000 (as opposed to the three or four divisions and 20 to 27 thousand men in the four other corps).
Loyalty
The expedition was made up of regiments in which many of the officers, NCOs and men had been marked by memories of the Napoleonic WarsNapoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
and so were disposed more kindly towards the liberals than the French and Spanish Bourbons. The liberals hoped to dissuade them from fighting "for monks, against liberty". Villèle was worried at their propaganda in bars and billets, where a song by Béranger spread throughout March and April inciting the soldiers to mutiny:
Outbreak
On 6 April, the doubts of some and the illusions of others dispersed. On the banks of the Bidassoa, 500 liberal French and Piedmontese men faced off against the forward-positions of the 9th Light Infantry Regiment. Brandishing a Tricolour flag and singing La MarseillaiseLa Marseillaise
"La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song, originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin" was written and composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in 1792. The French National Convention adopted it as the Republic's anthem in 1795...
, they incited the soldiers not to cross the frontier. The King's infantrymen hesitated until General Vallin
Louis Vallin
Louis Vallin was a French general. He was involved on the Royalist side in the French intervention in Spain. His name is inscribed in the 12th column on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.-Source:...
rushed to them and ordered them to open fire. Several of the demonstrators were killed and the others dispersed. Many of them joined Englishmen under Colonel Robert Wilson, Belgians under Janssens and other French or Italian volunteers to form a liberal legion and a squadron of "liberty lancers" to fight beside the Spanish constitutional forces. The following day, on 7 April, the "100,000 Sons of Saint Louis" under the King's nephew Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angoulême
Louis-Antoine, Duke of Angouleme
Louis Antoine of France, Duke of Angoulême was the eldest son of Charles X of France and, from 1824 to 1836, the last Dauphin of France...
entered Spain without opposition from the constitutional government's forces and with the support of the middle-classes and part of the urban population.
French advance
In the north, Hohenlohe's 3rd Corps (reinforced in July by Lauriston's 5th Corps) forced General MorilloPablo Morillo
Pablo Morillo y Morillo, Count of Cartagena and Marquess of La Puerta, aka El Pacificador was a Spanish general....
to retreat before rallying his troops. The French were left in control of Navarre
Navarre
Navarre , officially the Chartered Community of Navarre is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France...
, the Asturias
Asturias
The Principality of Asturias is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain, coextensive with the former Kingdom of Asturias in the Middle Ages...
and Galicia, however lacking siege equipment they were unable to blockade the towns where the liberals continued to resist for several more months. The city of Coruna only surrendered on 21 August, Pampelune on 16 September, and San Sebastián
San Sebastián
Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...
on 27 September. To the east and southeast, Molitor
Gabriel Jean Joseph Molitor
Gabriel-Jean-Joseph, comte Molitor , was a Marshal of France, born in Hayingen in Lorraine.Upon the outbreak of the French Revolution, Molitor joined the French revolutionary armies as a captain in a battalion of militia. In 1793 he was given command of a brigade and served under Hoche under whom...
pushed back General Ballesteros
Francisco Ballesteros
Francisco Ballesteros, emerged as a career Spanish General during the Peninsular War.Ballasteros served against the First French Republic in the 1793 War of the Pyrenees...
into Aragon, pursuing him as far as Murcia
Murcia
-History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village...
and Grenada
Grenada
Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...
, winning an engagement at Campillo de Arenas on 28 July and forcing his surrender on 4 August. At Jaén, he defeated the final columns of Rafael Riego, who was captured by the Absolutists on 15 September and hanged in Madrid on 7 November, two days before the fall of Alicante
Alicante
Alicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,418, estimated , ranking as the second-largest...
. In Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, Moncey managed to quell General Mina
Francisco Espoz y Mina
Francisco Espoz y Mina was a Spanish guerrilla leader and general.He was born at Idocin in Navarre. His father, Juan Esteban Espoz y Mina, and his mother, Maria Teresa Hundain y Ardaiz, belonged to the class of yeomen. Mina remained working on the small family inheritance until 1808...
's regular and guerrilla forces, with Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
only surrendering on 2 November.
Andalusian front
More decisive operations spread across AndalusiaAndalusia
Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, since this was the site of Cádiz, transformed into the Constitutionalists' provisional capital and thus the French force's main strategic objective. It contained the Cortes and the imprisoned king and was defended by a garrison of 14,000 men. At first Riego, then the generals La Bisbal
Henry Joseph O'Donnell, Count of La Bisbal
Don Henry Joseph O'Donnell y Mareschal , 1st Count of la Bisbal , Spanish soldier, was descended from Joseph O'Donnell y O´ Donnell, Colonel of the Spanish Regiment Irlanda, Lieu - Tenant General of the Spanish Army.O'Donnell was the brother of Carlos O´Donnell y...
, Quiroga and Alava
Miguel de Alava
Don Miguel Ricardo de Álava y Esquivel Order of Santiago, Order of Charles III, KCB, MWO was a Spanish General and statesman. He was born in the Basque Country of Spain, at Vitoria-Gasteiz, in 1770...
led the action. Access to the city was protected by the batteries of fort Santa Catalina and fort San Sebastian to the west, fort Santi-Pietri to the east and above all by the fortified peninsula of Trocadéro, where colonel Garcés positioned 1700 men and 50 guns.
Under the command of general Bordesoulle
Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux de Bordesoulle
Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux, comte de Bordesoulle was a French nobleman and soldier, who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the Spanish expedition.-Early career:...
, soon joined by the duc d'Angoulême and Guilleminot, the infantry of generals Bourmont, Obert and Goujeon, the cavalry of Foissac-Latour, the artillery of Tirlet
Louis Tirlet
Louis Tirlet was a French général de division and artillery specialist during the Napoleonic Wars...
and the engineers under Dode de La Brunerie
Guillaume Dode de la Brunerie
Guillaume Dode de la Brunerie was a Marshal of France. On February 12, 1812, he married the daughter of Marshal Pérignon, Agathe-Virginie.-Early life and French revolutionary wars:...
took up positions before Cádiz from mid-July. Forced to use several naval divisions for surveillance of Spain's Atlantic and Mediterranean ports and coasts (held by the Constitutionalists), the French navy was only able to spare a small squadron of 10 ships under counter admiral
Counter Admiral
Counter admiral is a rank found in many navies of the world, but no longer used in English-speaking countries, where the equivalent rank is rear admiral...
Hamelin to blockade the city. This proved too small a force for Hamelin to succeed in this mission and so on 27 August he was replaced by counter-admiral des Rotours, then by Duperré
Guy-Victor Duperré
Guy-Victor Duperré was a French admiral, Peer of France and thrice Naval Minister....
, who only arrive on 17 September, with meagre reinforcements.
Conclusion
On 31 August the French infantry assaulted Fort du TrocadéroBattle of Trocadero
The Battle of Trocadero, fought on 31 August 1823, was the only significant battle in the French invasion of Spain when French forces defeated the Spanish liberal forces and restored the absolute rule of King Ferdinand VII.-Prelude:...
and at the cost of 35 killed and 110 wounded (as opposed to 150 dead, 300 wounded and 1,100 captured on the part of the garrison) successfully captured it, turning its powerful guns towards Cádiz. On 20 September fort Sancti-Petri fell in its turn in a combined army-navy operation. On 23 September the guns of the Sancti-Petri and Trocadero forts and of Duperré's fleet bombarded the town and on 28 the constitutionalists adjudged the town lost. Thus the Cortes decided to dissolve itself, give back absolute power to Ferdinand VII and hand him over to the French. On 30 September Cádiz surrendered and on 3 October more than 4,600 French troops landed at its port. The French army fired its last shots in Spain at the start of November. On 5 November, the Duc d'Angoulême left Madrid and re-entered France on 23 November, leaving behind an occupying force of 45,000 men under the command of Bourmont. Spain was then progressively evacuated, and was only fully completed in 1828. Unexpectedly, Ferdinand took ruthless revenge on his opponents, revoked the 1812 constitution and restored absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy
Absolute monarchy is a monarchical form of government in which the monarch exercises ultimate governing authority as head of state and head of government, his or her power not being limited by a constitution or by the law. An absolute monarch thus wields unrestricted political power over the...
to Spain.
Consequences
The liberals thus negotiated their return in exchange for Ferdinand's oath to respect the Spanish laws - he accepted. However, on 1 October 1823, feeling bolstered by French forces, Ferdinand broke his oath and again repealed the Constitution of CádizSpanish Constitution of 1812
The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was promulgated 19 March 1812 by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly of Spain, while in refuge from the Peninsular War...
and declared null and void all the acts and measures of the liberal government.
This war also seriously disturbed Spanish efforts to crush the independence struggles in Latin America.
Chateaubriand
François-René de Chateaubriand
François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian. He is considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature.-Early life and exile:...
, foreign minister in France's Villèle government (from 28 December 1822 to 6 June 1824), contrasted the expedition's success with France's failure in the Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
:
Allusions
During the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, the carabineros of Republican Spain were nicknamed 'The Hundred Thousand Sons of Negrín
Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín y López was a Spanish politician and physician.-Early years:Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Negrín came from a religious middle-class family...
.' It is ironic that this nickname was adopted since they were on the side opposing the Nationalists - who were supported by the Carlists
Carlism
Carlism is a traditionalist and legitimist political movement in Spain seeking the establishment of a separate line of the Bourbon family on the Spanish throne. This line descended from Infante Carlos, Count of Molina , and was founded due to dispute over the succession laws and widespread...
, the group which sought to restore the House of Bourbon to the Spanish throne.
In French
- Encyclopédie Universalis, Paris, Volume 18, 2000
- Larousse, tome 1, 2, 3, Paris, 1998
- Caron, Jean-Claude, La France de 1815 à 1848, Paris, Armand Colin, coll. « Cursus », 2004, 193 p.
- Corvisier, André, Histoire militaire de la France, de 1715 à 1871, tome 2, Paris, Presses universitaires de France, "Quadrige" collection, 1998, 627 p.
- Demier, Francis, La France du XIXe 1814-1914, Seuil, 2000, 606 p.
- Dulphy, Anne, Histoire de l'Espagne de 1814 à nos jours, le défi de la modernisation, Paris, Armand Colin, "128" collection, 2005, 127 p.
- Duroselle, Jean-Baptiste, L'Europe de 1815 à nos jours : vie politique et relation internationale, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, "Nouvelle clio" collection, 1967, 363 p.
- Garrigues, Jean, Lacombrade, Philippe, La France au 19e siècle, 1814-1914, Paris, Armand Colin, "Campus" collection, 2004, 191 p.
- Lever, Evelyne, Louis XVIII, Paris, Fayard, 1998, 597 p.
- Jean Sarrailh, Un homme d'état espagnol: Martínez de la Rosa (1787–1862) (Paris, 1930)
In Spanish
- Miguel Artola Gallego, La España de Fernando VII (Madrid, 1968)
- Jonathan Harris, 'Los escritos de codificación de Jeremy BenthamJeremy BenthamJeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...
y su recepción en el primer liberalismo español', Télos. Revista Iberoamericana de Estudios Utilitaristas 8 (1999), 9-29 - W. Ramírez de Villa-Urrutia, Fernando VII, rey constitucional. Historia diplomática de España de 1820 a 1823 (Madrid, 1922)
In English
- Raymond Carr, Spain 1808-1975 (Oxford, 1982, 2nd ed.)
- Charles W. Fehrenbach, ‘Moderados and Exaltados: the liberal opposition to Ferdinand VII, 1814-1823’, Hispanic American Historical Review 50 (1970), 52-69
- Jonathan Harris, 'An English utilitarian looks at Spanish American independence: Jeremy Bentham's Rid Yourselves of Ultramaria', The Americas 53 (1996), 217-33
See also
- Concert of EuropeConcert of EuropeThe Concert of Europe , also known as the Congress System after the Congress of Vienna, was the balance of power that existed in Europe from the end of the Napoleonic Wars to the outbreak of World War I , albeit with major alterations after the revolutions of 1848...
- Congress of VeronaCongress of VeronaThe Congress of Verona met at Verona on October 20, 1822 as part of the series of international conferences or congresses that opened with the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15, which had instituted the Concert of Europe at the close of the Napoleonic Wars....
- Holly Alliance
- Ominous DecadeOminous DecadeThe Ominous Decade is a term used to define the last ten years of reign of King Ferdinand VII of Spain, dating from the abolition of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, on 1 October 1823, and his death on 29 September 1833....
- Peninsular WarPeninsular WarThe Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
External links
- http://www.onwar.com/aced/data/sierra/spain1820.htm
- http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Spanish+Civil+War