Carlist Wars
The Carlist Wars were a series of conflicts in Spain during the 19th century, primarily fought between supporters of King Ferdinand VII's daughter, Isabella II, and those of his younger brother, Don Carlos, known as the Carlists. The wars were rooted in a succession dispute after Ferdinand's revocation of the male-only succession law, resulting in the Carlists asserting that Don Carlos had a rightful claim to the throne. The first phase of the wars occurred from 1834 to 1839, characterized by guerrilla warfare led by Don Carlos and supported by regional volunteers from the Basque and Navarrese areas. The conflict drew the involvement of foreign powers, with significant military aid from France and England.
The second phase spanned from 1872 to 1876, during which Carlos VII led the Carlist forces but faced dwindling resources. Both phases of the wars were marked by brutal battles, with severe reprisals against local populations. The conflicts ultimately weakened Spain's economic stability and intensified regional tensions. Although the Carlist movement did not succeed in establishing their pretender on the throne, its legacy persisted, influencing political dynamics in Spain well into the 20th century, including the Spanish Civil War and the Franco regime.
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Subject Terms
Carlist Wars
At issue: Dynastic succession in Spain
Date: 1834–1876
Location: Spain
Combatants: Supporters of the Carlist pretenders vs. Cristino line of Bourbon monarchs, supported by France and the United Kingdom
Principal commanders:Carlist, Don Carlos, or Carlos V (1788–1855), Don Carlos, or Carlos VII (1848–1909); Cristino, Regent María Cristina (1806–1878)
Principal battles: Terapegui, Huesca
Result: Definitive military victories for the Cristino line of the Bourbon monarchy accompanied by an undermining of the strength of the Spanish government
Background
The Carlist Wars of the nineteenth century were fought between the successors of King Ferdinand VII and his younger brother Don Carlos, whose supporters were known as the Carlists. Because King Ferdinand had no male heirs, many believed that the king’s brother would one day assume the throne. In 1789, Carlos IV, father of Ferdinand, had secretly convinced the Cortes (parliament) to revoke the traditional law that limited succession only to sons of the king. In 1830, as his wife was in the midst of her first pregnancy, Ferdinand made public his father’s 1789 revocation of the male-only succession law. After his wife gave birth to a daughter, Isabella, that year, however, the supporters of Don Carlos pressed the point that because he had been born in 1788, the law, even if it was valid, could not apply ex post facto in his case. The conflict, which grew into armed conflict after the death of Ferdinand and the assumption of the throne by his daughter Isabella in 1833, ended in 1876 with the final defeat of the last Carlist pretender, who made his way into exile.
Action
The Carlist Wars were fought in two stages: 1834–1839 and 1872–1876. During the first phase, a small Carlist army of 35,000 Basque and Navarrese volunteers, supporting the Pretender Don Carlos (who proclaimed himself Carlos V) fought a mostly guerrilla campaign against the forces of the Regent María Cristina, threatening Madrid at several points but never launching a full-scale attack on the capital. France, England, and Portugal aided the Spanish government. England sent the Spanish Legion, a group of mercenaries, and France sent the Foreign Legion. The French Foreign Legion distinguished itself at the Battle of Terapegui (1836) and Huesca (1837). The Convention of Vergara (August, 1839) ended the first phase; Don Carlos fled to France. During the second phase, in which the Carlists were led by the Pretender Carlos VII, the conflict was even more limited in the beginning by the lack of resources available to the rebels. By late 1873, although a republic was declared in Madrid, the Carlist faction had strengthened considerably, fielding an army of more than 50,000. By 1874, the Carlists had more than 100,000 in their army, and the republican forces had just more than 150,000 in the war zone, mostly in northern Spain. With the restoration of the Cristino line of the Bourbon monarchy in 1875, in the person of the newly installed King Alfonso XII, the Carlist cause lost its antirepublican justification and suffered additional defeats on the battlefield. In 1876, Carlos VII fled to France. In both phases, battles were often brief and violent, with both sides routinely executing prisoners and exacting vengeance on local populations who had given support to their enemies.
Aftermath
At a time when Spain was already in relative decline in Europe, the Carlist Wars sapped critical strength and energy, devastated the economy, and increased tensions between the national state and the regions. Although the Carlist movement never succeeded in placing its candidate on the throne of Spain, the sentiments survived well into the twentieth century. Carlist volunteers composed a significant portion of the initial supporters of the Nationalist rebellion of 1936, which led to the Spanish Civil War, and Carlist leaders found prominent places in the regime of Francisco Franco. As late as the 1960’s, Carlist leaders hoped that Franco would choose their pretender to assume the Spanish throne, instead of the descendant of Alfonso XII, Prince Juan Carlos, crowned king in 1975.
Bibliography
Blinkhorn, Martin. Carlism and Crisis in Spain. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Carr, Raymond. Spain, 1808–1975. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975.
Coverdale, John F. The Basque Phase of Spain’s First Carlist War. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Flynn, M. K. Ideology, Mobilization, and the Nation: The Rise of Irish, Basque, and Carlist Nationalist Movements in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.
Holt, Edgar. The Carlist Wars in Spain. Chester Springs, Pa.: Dufour Editions, 1967.