One trend in recent Spanish historiography attempts to rehabilitate the timeworn image of Ferdinand VII cavorting with his camarilla and ruling as a despot. To counter this view, some writers endeavor to turn a black legend into white or shades of gray bordering on white. A few critical studies on specific subjects throw fresh light and introduce challenging and controversial interpretations.
The monograph by Luis Alonso Tejada adds new insight into a hitherto neglected area. The author skillfully weaves a story around the bitter controversy in the post-1823 decade over the reestablishment of the Inquisition, abolished in February, 1813, reinstituted in July, 1814, but proscribed again in March, 1820. The struggle serves as the focal point of the conflict between “moderate royalists” (moderados) and “extreme royalists” (exaltados). The Inquisition continued to linger in the minds of many churchmen as well as other segments of society as a symbol of absolutism, Church pre-eminence, and bulwark against insidious liberal ideas. The exaltados resented, among other things, Ferdinand’s refusal, although exercising absolute authority, to revoke the 1820 decree, and even more that he devised stratagems in order to delay positive action, his failure being interpreted as a move towards the moderados. The battle, furthermore, found repercussions in the international arena, among members of the Holy Alliance but especially with the Holy See, whose “enlightened” policy throughout the crisis is clearly delineated.
Founded primarily on archival sources in Madrid and Rome, the book depicts Ferdinand VII as a consummate politician, shrewdly manipulating appointees and sensitive to winds of change at home and abroad. Despite animadversions of nineteenth-century observers and historians, the author interprets the game of ministerial musical chairs and the king’s other actions not as mere whim but rather as calculated attempts to minimize factional strife and permit a slow, yet gradual, change in the country. In the process Ferdinand retained a tight hold on the reins of government.
Some material presented will force objective readers to reassess their thinking about both the Church’s role at the onset of the “liberal triennial” and the consequences of the Cortes’ decree of 1813. For example, at the outset few churchmen condemned the new regime, and ecclesiastical authorities instructed their flock to support the Constitution; only later did many join the opposition. And the “tribunales protectores de la fe” (created in 1813) proved, if the evidence in post-1823 is conclusive, to be as harsh or harsher than the Inquisition. For when deprived of the latter, certain bishops resorted to these “juntas de fe” in order to carry on with their activities.
Mr. Tejada has presented a provocative analysis. It would be interesting to see whether Ferdinand could be made to stand in a favorable light in this period on such issues as the American colonies and the 1826 crisis in Portugal.
