Isabella II

Queen of Spain (r. 1833-1868)

• Born: October 30, 1830
• Birthplace: Madrid, Spain
• Died: April 10, 1904
• Place of death: Paris, France

Made queen of Spain at the age of three, Isabella II was the focus of considerable discord within the Spanish royal family because her uncle Don Carlos challenged the legitimacy of her reign. She eventually prevailed and held the throne for a total of thirty-five years but contributed little but discord to her realm.

Early Life

Isabella II had the role of Spain’s queen thrust upon her when she was only three years old, after her father, King Ferdinand VII, died on September 29, 1833. Though she could not have been aware of the fact, she immediately faced a crisis. Her father’s brother Don Carlos was ambitious and expected to succeed his brother. A staunch conservative, he believed that under the Salic Law that had been enacted in 1713 by King Philip V, only male heirs could inherit the Spanish throne. King Ferdinand had failed to produce an heir with any of his first three wives. His fourth wife, Maria Cristina of Naples, whom he married on December 12, 1829, had given birth to Isabella in 1830. Upon Isabella’s birth, Ferdinand, with the support and approval of the liberals, the legislature (Cortes), and the Progressists, rescinded the Salic Law, thereby intentionally clearing the way for Isabella to succeed him. Isabella’s birth was followed by the birth of her younger sister, Luisa Fernanda. Thus, when Ferdinand died, Isabella, though only three weeks shy of her third birthday, appeared to be in direct line to assume the throne. However, Don Carlos was a resolute conservative and refused to recognize her accession, claiming that the throne was his by right of succession. Don Carlos had considerable support from the conservatives—called Carlists—who in late 1833 engaged in civil wars with the liberals who supported Isabella’s succession.

Although Isabella’s status remained uncertain, under the existing laws, she was queen, and for seven troubled years, during which the Carlists warred against the liberals, her mother, Maria Cristina, served as her regent. Finally, the Carlists were decisively defeated in 1839. In the following year, Baldomero Espartero, the most influential general in Spain and a strong supporter of Isabella’s claim to the throne, pressured Maria Cristina to leave Spain. Isabella’s mother had weakened her position in court by marrying a shopkeeper’s son. She proved to be greedy and avaricious and was, to the great embarrassment of her liberal supporters, involved in the Cuban slave trade. Finally she left the country and had no recourse but to leave Isabella behind.

Espartero became Isabella’s regent and served in that capacity until 1843, when, in a significant shift in power, the conservatives overthrew the liberals and banished Espartero. Joaquin Maria Lopez then presided over a cabinet that persuaded the Cortes to support Isabella. Thirteen years old and supported by the conservatives, Isabella was now officially proclaimed to be of legal age and, on November 8, she was formally installed as queen. She had officially held that title since her father’s death, but it had been disputed for a decade.

Isabella had had no independence in asserting herself as queen during the first ten years of her reign, when her regents made all the decisions. During that tumultuous period, her education was spotty. She was essentially illiterate and ignorant in basic fields of study. Morever, Isabella, like her father, was not very intelligent. Nevertheless, despite her obvious limitations, she was said to be a charming person, although sometimes willful, and was physically attractive. During her thirty-five years as queen, she reigned rather than ruled, an important distinction. During most of her reign, Spain was run by a bloc of conservative civilians who were beholden to Spain’s powerful generals.

Life’s Work

Isabella was by native intelligence and training ill-equipped to be a queen. On October 10, 1846, Isabella’s sixteenth birthday, she and her sister, Luisa Fernanda, were forced into arranged marriages. Their mother, Maria Cristina—who was then living in France—and King Louis Philippe of France engineered both marriages. Isabella was betrothed to her cousin Prince Maria Fernando Francisco de Asis de Bourbon (1822-1902), and her sister was betrothed to the duke of Montpensier.

Isabella’s marriage effectively ended on the same day that it began. On her wedding night, she expelled her homosexual husband from her bedroom. It is doubtful that he ever returned, or that the marriage was ever consummated. Isabella was an attractive, vigorous young woman who was fond of dancing and was sexually curious. After she rejected her shy and effeminate husband, she turned her amorous attentions to the dashing General Francisco Serrano y Dominquez, twenty years her senior, who soon moved into her apartments.

Serrano had supported Isabella’s claim to the throne and was directly behind the movement to banish Baldomero Espartero from his post as regent. His affair with Isabella caused a public scandal, but Serrano was merely the first of a procession of men who became romantically entangled with Isabella, whose sexual appetites became legendary. Meanwhile, Isabella was becoming unpopular because of her tendency to involve herself in politics in unprincipled ways. For example, she showed favoritism toward her conservative generals and toward the religious orders that held sway in her court. Never a good judge of character, Isabella became the unwitting pawn of many corrupt and dissolute courtiers.

Despite her sexual adventures, Isabella remained a devout Roman Catholic and was influenced by the nuns and monks prominent in her court. These religious people often verged on fanaticism and were extremely superstitious. Despite their influence and disapproval of her lascivious behavior, Isabella’s wantonness continued unabated. Her sexual excesses brought her great popular disapproval in the Catholic nation over which she reigned, while her antiliberalism polarized the populace. These problems were intensified by an economic crisis that beset Spain in 1866 and led to a popular revolt in 1868.

While she was vacationing in San Sebastian in northern Spain’s Basque region, Isabella and her current lover, Carlos Marfori, learned that she had lost the support of her generals, who were, ironically, led by her former lover Serrano y Dominquez. She realized that her only recourse was to escape into France, which she and Marfori did, accompanied by her rejected husband, Francisco de Asis, to whom she remained legally married.

Shortly after arriving in Paris, Isabella bought a house. Finally, two years later, realizing that she could not return to Spain, she formally abdicated in favor of her son, Alfonso XII, whose paternity was uncertain. In March of the same year, she legally separated from Francisco. When Alfonso, while still in his teens, went to Sandhurst in England to study military tactics, Prince Amadeo of Savoy took temporary control of the country.

In 1873, Amadeo resigned and Spain fell into anarchy. The military restored order in 1874. The parliament was disbanded and Alfonso XII assumed the throne. Isabella meanwhile remained in France but did make some brief visits to Spain. She continued her amorous ways until the late 1890’s, when she slipped into a depression. She succumbed to influenza at her home in Paris in April, 1904.

Significance

Spain survived the chaotic regime of Isabella II by being run by generals and a coalition of responsible civilians. During Isabella’s reign, Spain prevailed in a war with Morocco that resulted in the surrender of Moroccan territory that proved advantageous to Spain. Also during this period, advances were made in public works. Spain’s railways were improved considerably, and before the economic crisis of 1866, there were minor gains in trade and in the economy. Isabella herself, however, contributed little to Spain in any positive way. When she attempted to involve herself in politics, the results were unfortunate. For example, during one of her trips to Madrid after her son Alfonso became king, Isabella tried to meddle in government matters, attempting to plot intrigues with some politicians. Alfonso summarily requested that his mother return to Paris and avoid any further intrigues. Thereafter, she remained out of the public eye until her death.

Bibliography

Boetzkes, Ottilie G. The Little Queen: Isabella II. New York: Exposition Press, 1966. Boetzkes focuses largely on the early years of Isabella’s life, detailing how she was manipulated by her regents and how her marriage failed from its first day.

Carr, Raymond. Spain, 1808-1939. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1966. This is probably the best succinct source of information about the reigns of Ferdinand VII and his daughter Isabella.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, ed. Spain: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Among the leading researchers of Spanish history, Carr has gathered a selection of essays that provide an excellent overview of the political climate in Spain before, during, and after Isabella’s thirty-five year reign.

De Polnay, Peter. A Queen of Spain: Isabella II. London: Hollis & Carter, 1962. A detailed account of how Isabella became queen and of how she functioned in that capacity before her forced abdication, after serving for thirty-five years, in favor of her son, Alfonso XII.