Queen Isabella II of Spain (10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904) was barely three years of age when her father, King Ferdinand VII, died on 29 September 1833. The years of her minority were marked first by the regency of her mother, Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, and then under General Baldomero Espartero, covering almost the first ten years of her reign, until 23 July 1843, when Isabella was declared to be of age.

Upon the death of Ferdinand VII, his wife Maria Christina immediately assumed the regency on behalf of their daughter, and promised the liberals a policy different from that of the deceased king. A large part of Spanish society hoped for political reforms once Isabella II came of age that would reflect the liberal models that had developed in some nations of Europe. The First Carlist War and the confrontations between the liberals of the Moderate Party and those of the Progressive Party culminated in the rise to the regency of General Espartero, in a convulsive period plagued by governmental crises and social instability.

The situation in Europe In the UK, William IV oversaw profound liberal reforms which made Parliament the real political engine of the country. After the defeat of Spain in the Battle of Trafalgar, the extension of what would soon become the British Empire began to take shape, especially from 1837 with the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne. Democracy was established in the country as an unquestioned model.

On the continent, with the dissolution of the Holy Alliance in 1830, France had overthrown absolutism with the fall of Charles X and established a constitutional monarchy in the person of Louis-Philippe d'Orleans, under whose rule the Industrial Revolution was launched and the bourgeoisie took the reins of the national economy.

Absolutism was relegated to Prussia, Russia and Austria, although in the former the impulses of unification with the German Customs Union, nourished by the liberals, who will not cease to obtain partial successes in the commercial field, will open the borders and will procure advances in the new pre-industrial society.

The First Carlist War

The death of Ferdinand VII provoked a series of uprisings and the proclamation of Don Carlos as king. The uprisings were led by absolutist military men who had been retired from the army or even prosecuted. The first to rise up was Manuel Martín González, followed by Verasategui, Santos Ladrón and Zumalacárregui. A bloody civil war began, characterized by its remote geographical locations, as it took place in the Basque Country and Navarre and in some small pockets in Catalonia, Aragon and Valencia.

The sides Broadly speaking, the First Carlist War can be defined as the means to decide the continuity of the Ancien Régime or the triumph of liberalism.

Carlism defended absolutism. Among its ranks were the low rural nobility, the low Basque clergy and Basque and Navarrese peasants. The Carlists united under the cry of "God, Country and Fueros" (Spanish: "Dios, Patria y Fueros") (the defense of the Fueros begins in 1834 by means of an imposition of the Deputation of Biscay (Spanish: Diputación foral de Vizcaya) to Don Carlos).

The liberals were led by the Queen Regent Maria Christina. At first they were moderate liberals, but later there were also progressives. The enlightened middle classes, who had to put an end to the Ancien Régime, could be considered liberals.

The development of the war The Carlist uprisings of 1833 are followed by the creation of juntas or local governments. When Don Carlos returned to Spain in 1834, he tried to create a government with the General State Administration in the Basque Country and Navarre that would become the national government at the end of the War. The Carlists used guerrilla warfare because of their knowledge of the rural environment and because the cities were liberal. The First Carlist War was a rural-urban confrontation that has three stages, of two years each:

First Stage (1833–1835): dominated by Zumalacárregui, a Carlist. The liberal army was depleted by the guerrillas, which forced the Regent Maria Christina to appeal to the progressives. Don Carlos considered an assault on the city of Bilbao in 1835, but Zumalacárregui did not support this plan because he knew that the Carlist artillery would not withstand a siege. In the end the assault was a failure and Zumalacárregui died. Second Stage (1835–1837): Zumalacárregui was replaced by Cabrera. Luis Fernández de Córdova, a liberal, tried to create a defensive line to contain the Carlists, but this line would have had to cover more than 500 kilometres, an area too extensive. The Carlists tried to relieve the pressure in the Basque Country and Navarre with operations in Catalonia and Aragon, but they were unsuccessful and the rest of the war was only fought in the Basque Country and Navarre. Third Stage (1837–1839): Liberal victory. Within the Carlist side a division arose between those who opted to surrender and sign the peace; and the intransigent ones who wanted to continue fighting. In the end, General Maroto agreed with the liberals to the Convention of Vergara in August 1839, which put an end to the war, although Don Carlos would continue fighting for a few more months. Besides the peace, the agreement assures the continuity of the Fueros and allows the integration of the Carlist military into the regular royal army.

The most favoured personage was General Espartero, known after his victory in Luchana as the "Espadón de Luchana". He obtained a great political and social presence and a noble title that turned him into a Grandee of Spain, and he was Duke of la Victoria. María Christina reigned until 1843, the year in which Princess Isabella was named of age and began to reign at the age of thirteen.

The regency of Maria Christina

The succession controversy

During the reign of Philip V, the exclusion of women in the line of succession had been established by the so-called Salic Law. This norm had been revoked in 1789 by Charles IV, by means of a decree that was never promulgated. On March 29, 1830, by means of the Pragmatic Sanction, Ferdinand VII elevated it to the rank of law. Ferdinand VII had foreseen this controversy, and, wanting the throne for his first-born daughter, the future Isabella II. He appointed his wife Maria Christina as Regent, and banished his brother Carlos for refusing to recognize his niece Isabella as heir.

Before the death of the King, the future Regent had managed to separate the military supporters of Carlos from the headquarters of the army and had guaranteed the support of the liberals in exile, as well as that of France and England. Nevertheless, Carlos proclaimed himself King of Spain on October 1, 1833, with the name of Carlos V; with the support of the Portuguese crown, then in the hands of D. Miguel I, and the complicit silence of Austria, Prussia and Russia. Spanish troops invaded Portugal in an attempt to eliminate their support to Carlism but with the mediation of England, Carlos was exiled to Great Britain, from where he would escape in 1834 to appear between Navarre and the Basque Country and lead the Carlist War.

The first cabinets In 1832 Francisco Cea Bermúdez had been appointed President of the Council of Ministers, linked to the most right wing of the moderates, who initiated minor administrative reforms but lacked the capacity and interest to facilitate the incorporation of many former enlightened and liberal members into the new model of economic and political development. Among the reforms of the cabinet of Cea Bermúdez, a new division of Spain into provinces, promoted by the Secretary of State for Public Works, Javier de Burgos, stood out, aimed at improving the administration, which, with some adjustments, is still in place today. The lack of harmony between economic and political liberalism and the Government led the Regent to dismiss Cea Bermúdez and to the appointment of Martínez de la Rosa as the new president, in January 1834. The new president had to face the Carlist War, initiated by the supporters of the pretender in the Basque Country, Navarre, Catalonia and Aragon fundamentally.

Martínez de la Rosa, who had returned from exile, tried to implement a reform of the clergy and promulgated the Royal Statute in 1834. In the form of a charter, it disguised the liberal spirit so as not to upset the followers of the Ancien Régime, leaving it unclear whether national sovereignty resided in the King or in the Cortes. The political equilibrium that this indeterminacy implied ended up not satisfying either one or the other. At the same time, the climate of confrontation intensified due to the intrigues of the Regent against the liberals and a cholera epidemic that devastated Spain from south to north, generating the hoax that the Church had poisoned the wells and canals that supplied Madrid with drinking water. Assaults on convents and churches became commonplace. Harassed by both sides and unable to govern, Martínez de la Rosa resigned in June 1835.

The Royal Statute of 1834

The Carlist War forces María Christina to transform the regime to remain on the throne. This change consists of granting powers to the liberals, with which it happens that the wife of the most absolutist Spanish king is the one who opens the way to liberalism.

In 1832, Ferdinand VII recovers from an illness and appoints a new cabinet led by Cea Bermudez, who governs until 1834 and carries out some reforms, quite conservative and directed by the king. The reforms are not well received neither by the absolutists nor by the liberals.

After the death of Fernando VII in 1833, several people close to the queen insinuated the need for a new Cortes and a new government, although later Maria Christina only appointed a new government under Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, who headed a moderate liberal government that should create a constitutional framework acceptable to the Crown. The progressives did not support Martínez de la Rosa, who was nicknamed "Rosita la pastelera" (Rosy the baker woman). Although Martínez de la Rosa may seem conservative, at the time he was a real revolution, since the monarchy renounces the monopoly of power. The Royal Statute is also a kind of compromise between monarchy and liberals to thank them for their support during the war.

In practice the Royal Statute gives the Crown a great margin of action, since it directly appoints many deputies in the Cortes and the rest are elected only by the richest. The executive power belongs to the Queen and the legislative power belongs to the Queen and the Cortes. Liberal illusions collapse when they see the few concessions that the Crown gives them.

The Royal Statute establishes two chambers. In one are the non-elected representatives, the Grandees of Spain, who enter the Cortes directly. This chamber of non-elected representatives is the Estamento de Próceres (House of Peers). The other chamber, of deputies elected under census suffrage, is the Estamento de Procuradores. They are only elected by about 16,000 men. The Royal Statute establishes that the Cortes vote taxes but does not give them the legislative initiative without the support of the Crown, which also has the executive power.

The progressives did not give up and used legal loopholes in the Royal Statute to make reforms. They were favored by the bad results of the liberals in the first years of the Carlist War, which forced María Cristina to make concessions. Among the progressive reforms are the approval of some rights of the individual (freedom, equality, property, judicial independence and ministerial responsibility). In the end, the progressives put more and more pressure on María Cristina, until in 1835 the regent appointed a progressive liberal government.

The momentum of the liberals and the coming to power of the progressives