FERDINAND VII

born Oct. 14, 1784, El Escorial, Spain died Sept. 29, 1833, Madrid byname Ferdinand The Desired, Spanish Fernando El Deseado king of Spain from March 1808 to 1833, though held a prisoner in France during the Napoleonic Wars. Ferdinand was the son of Charles IV and Maria Luisa of Parma, who placed their whole confidence in Manuel de Godoy: since 1795 Godoy had flaunted the title of Prince of the Peace for his capitulation to France in the Peace of Basel. Ferdinand's tutor stirred up his jealousy of the favourite and encouraged him to seek the protection of Napoleon. Charles IV was sufficiently alarmed to arrest Ferdinand, but forgave him. When Godoy allowed French troops to enter Spain, Charles was overthrown by the Revolt of Aranjuez (March 17, 1808), and he abdicated in favour of Ferdinand. But the French troops occupied Madrid; Napoleon summoned Ferdinand to the frontier and obliged him to return the crown to his father, who granted it to Napoleon. Napoleon made his brother Joseph king of Spain and held Ferdinand in France for the duration of the war. It was left to the Spanish populace to rise against the French invaders in the name of the absent Ferdinand, known as the Desired. In 1812 independent Spaniards adopted the Constitution of Cdiz, but in December 1813 Napoleon released Ferdinand expressly to overthrow it. He resumed his obsolete powers and attempted to recover control of Spanish America, now partly independent. But his ministers could neither reinforce his armies in America nor persuade the British government to collaborate or connive at reconquest. In 1820 a liberal revolution restored the Constitution of 1812, which Ferdinand accepted; but in 1823 Louis XVIII of France sent the Duc d'Angoulme at the head of a large army to release Ferdinand from his radical ministers. Ferdinand's new government arrested the radicals or drove them into exile. By 1826 the Spanish possessions in America were all independent. Ferdinand's government now depended on a militia, the Royalist Volunteers, and the French forces of occupation. Ferdinand had no children from his three marriages, and his absolutist supporters looked to his even more absolutist younger brother, Don Carlos (Carlos Mara Isidro de Borbn; q.v.), to succeed him. In 1830 his fourth wife, Mara Cristina, presented him with a daughter, the future Isabella II. During Ferdinand's illness, Don Carlos tried to persuade the Queen to recognize his rights, but Ferdinand recovered, banished Don Carlos, and looked for moderate liberal support for his little daughter. When he died in September 1833, she was recognized, but his widow was obliged to lean on the liberals as Don Carlos asserted his claims from Portugal and thus began the First Carlist War.