Parties and factions in Isabelline Spain

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There were numerous political parties and factions in Isabelline Spain (

political clientelism.[1]

Carlists and Christinos

When Isabella first became queen, she was only three years old. The

Roman Catholic Church, and generally clericalist.[6] The latter were generally supporters of constitutional monarchy (although some, including Maria Christina herself, were more inclined toward enlightened absolutism);[6] they were liberals of one stripe or another, ranging from liberal conservatives and those whose liberalism was strictly economic to social liberals.[7] In the 1830s, these two groups faced off in the First Carlist War, which the Cristinos won.[3] The terms of surrender—notably the Convention of Vergara[3][8]—left an opportunity for relatively moderate Carlists to continue to play a role in the country's politics,[9] and many did so over the ensuing decades.[10]

Another term strongly associated with the Carlist faction is apostólicos, a term deriving from their strong ties to clericalism. This term actually predates Carlist; this was already the name of a faction in the time of

Ferdinand VII before they had settled on the Infante Carlos, Ferdinand's younger brother, as their champion[11]

Political parties

Leaving aside the Carlists, four groups within the Isabelino camp are generally considered to be political parties, although the two that came first chronologically did not have quite the formal organization that the term "party" may imply. These first two were the

coups and coup attempts were routine[15]—the Moderates, Progressives, and Liberal Union were each closely associated with a general, respectively Ramón María Narváez,[16] Baldomero Espartero,[17] and Leopoldo O'Donnell.[14]

Factions

Within these parties were numerous factions; as remarked above, many of these were rather fluid (as, at times, were the parties themselves). To begin with, there were the doceañistas, associated with the

trienio liberal (1820–1823).[18] To a large extent, these corresponded to the Moderates and Progressives, respectively, though there were certainly exceptions.[19] Furthermore, there were the afrancesados ("Frenchified"), a term that could refer to anyone associated with the Enlightenment, but especially to those who had supported the regime of Joseph Bonaparte during the Peninsular War / War of Independence.[20]

After the moderate Maria Christina was ousted as regent in September 1840, a division arose that crossed party lines, but importantly split the Progressives. Those who wanted a three-person council of regency were known as trinitarios ("Trinitarians"), those who wanted a single regent as unitarios ("Unitarians"). The Moderates were nearly all unitarios.[21]

The Moderates can generally be divided into puritanos and doctrinarios.

Luis Sartorius, and so named because of Sartorius's Polish ancestry.)[24]

Also leagued with the Moderates were the vilumistas, led by the Marquess of Viluma, who wished to go back to the enlightened absolutism of the Royal Statute of 1834.[20][22] The vilumistas, unlike most other Moderates, were open to a coalition with the Carlists.[21]

Among the Progressives, the divisions were more ideological. The right wing of the Progressives overlapped the Moderates politically.

Francisco Javier Istúriz, which at times allied with the Moderates against the rest of the Progressives.[26] While some authors use exaltados almost interchangeably with progresistas, others view this as an anachronism.[27] Left progresistas were also known as puros.[28]

The Democrats also covered a wide range of views. Party leader

socialist along lines similar to Louis Blanc in France; in 1855–1856, Sáenz advocated revolutionary terror, undermining the loose Progressive-Democrat alliance of the bienio progresista.[29]

Finally, Leopoldo O'Donnell's Liberal Union, founded 1858, attempted to bridge nearly all of these groups. Its members included doctrinarios, puritanos, Progressives and even some Democrats.[30] Unsurprisingly, such a broad coalition eventually fragmented back into many separate pieces.[31]

Notes

  1. ^ Esdaile, p. 102
  2. ^ Rosa Ana Gutiérrez Lloret, Los Borbones: Isabel II, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  3. ^ a b c d Germán Rueda, La primera guerra carlista (España) Archived 27 March 2010 at the Wayback Machine, ArteHistoria. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  4. ^ Esdaile, p. 94
  5. ^ Esdaile, p. 66
  6. ^ a b c Esdaile, p. 66 et. seq.
  7. ^ Esdaile, passim.
  8. ^ Convenio de Vergara, Spanish-language text on WikiSource
  9. ^ Esdaile, p. 76
  10. ^ Esdaile, passim., especially p. 89
  11. ^ See for example Esdaile, p. 63–66
  12. ^ Esdaile, p. 51 et. seq.
  13. ^ Esdaile, p. 389
  14. ^ a b Esdaile, p. 112–113
  15. ^ Esdaile p. 76 et. seq.
  16. ^ Esdaile, especially p. 82–83
  17. ^ Esdaile, especially p. 79
  18. ^ Esdaile, p. 51–53
  19. ^ Joaquín Varela Suanzes, El pensamiento constitucional español en el exilio : el abandono del modelo doceañista (1823-1833), Biblioteca Miguel de Cervantes. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  20. ^ a b Esdaile, p. 387–393
  21. ^ a b Vilar, p. 191.
  22. ^ a b c d Esdaile, p. 89
  23. ^ Esdaile, passim., especially p. 89, 387–393
  24. ^ Esdaile, p. 99
  25. ^ Esdaile, p. 79 et. seq.
  26. ^ Esdaile, p. 72–73 et. seq.
  27. ^ Ignacio Fernández Sarasola, Opinión Pública y “Libertades de Expresión” en el Constitucionalismo Español (1726–1845) Archived 21 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Electronic Journal of Constitutional History, Number 7, September 2006, ISSN 1576-4729. Paragraph 31. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  28. ^ a b c Esdaile, p. 107
  29. ^ Esdaile, p. 108
  30. ^ Esdaile, p. 112
  31. ^ Esdaile, p. 115–116

References

  • Charles J. Esdaile, Spain in the Liberal Age: From Constitution to Civil War, 1808–1939, Blackwell (2000),
    ISBN 0-631-14988-0
    .
  • (in Spanish) Juan Bautista Vilar, "El reinado de Isabel II y el sexenio revoucionario", 183:218 in Javier Paredes Alonso (ed.), España Siglo XIX, Madrid: Actas, 1991,
    ISBN 978-84-87863-03-5
    .
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