Throughout almost 200 years of its history Carlism has been known mostly for violent attempts to seize power, contributing to outbreak of 4 civil wars (1833–1840, 1846–1849, 1872–1876, 1936–1939) and to various other, minor armed conflicts. In their course numerous atrocities have been committed by both sides. However, in mainstream Spanish public discourse, especially of the late 19th century, it was the Carlists who became identified with the most barbaric, inhuman, primitive and savage current of national politics. This image persisted well into the 20th century enhanced by great literary works, e.g., those of Pío Baroja. A related blend of history and fiction is epitomized in his 1936 account, when witnessing the Carlists on the rise again, he noted they were "spreading terror just like I have depicted them in my novels".Pío Baroja refiere cómo quisieron matarle los carlistas de Vera de Bidasoa, [in:] La Voz 01.08.1936 For some Republican officials, the Carlists remained the symbols of horror.e.g. during retreat from Catalonia to France, in February 1939, one of the Republican officials remarked "I have no idea what we are doing here. I rather fear that tonight we'll be awakened by the rifle-butts of the Carlist requetés", quoted after Paul Preston, The Last Days of the Spanish Republic, London 2016, ISBN 9780008163419, p. 61 During Francoism the theme was played down, and afterwards it lost appeal. Today the issue of Carlist atrocities is related mostly to the last civil war and remains pursued by rather few groups.apart from articles appearing at times in the nationalist Basque narrative, the most active group is Ateneo Basilio Lacort No scientific monograph on Carlist violence has ever been published.the only work in question is dedicated to analysis of Carlist approach to violence rather than to Carlist violence itself, see Jordi Canal, La contrarrevolución en movimiento: carlismo y violencia política en España, 1876-1939, [in:] Prohistoria VIII/8 (2004), pp. 87-115. Some comments also in his La violencia carlista tras el tiempo de las carlistadas. Nuevas formas para un viejo movimiento, [in:] Santos Juliá Díaz (ed.), Violencia política en la España del siglo XX, Madrid 2000, ISBN 843060393X, pp. 25-66. Numerous works of Eduardo González Calleja refer to 20th-century right-wing violence, including Carlism, but not to Carlism specifically
First Carlist War (1833–1840)
Following outbreak of hostilities the atrocities commenced almost immediately, though usually on small scale; their mechanism is disputed. One theory is that the Cristinos command adopted an assumption that all enemy soldiers were rebels guilty of treason, which was a crime punishable by death;Melchor Ferrer, Historia del tradicionalismo español, Sevilla 1943, vol. IV, p. 24 first executions took place already in October 1833.the first identified case is execution of Santos Ladron de Cegama, executed on October 14, 1933, Eduardo González Calleja, Política y violencia en la España contemporánea, vol. I, Madrid 2020, ISBN 9788446048893, p. 84 This, in turn - the theory goes - triggered repressive measures on part of the Carlists. The competitive theories are that it was the Carlists who assumed this stand,Zumalacarregui allegedly declared that "todos los prisioneros que se hagan al enemigo, sean de la clase y graduación que fueren, serán pasados por las armas como traidores a su legítimo soberano", quoted after Luis Orgaz Fernández, El Cura Santa Cruz y la inmensa crueldad de las Guerras Carlistas, [in:] El Arca de la Historia service 2018 or that they embarked on wild killing spree because of their innate fanaticism, backwardness and cruelty. One more version is that the Carlists started executing their prisoners because of the nature of warfare they were waging. Initially they operated as highly mobile columns, which made it impossible to keep POWs; faced with the choice of either setting them free or executing them, they opted for the latter.review of various theories in Jordi Canal, El carlismo, Madrid 2000, ISBN 8420639478, pp. 74-75 This was first practiced on a large scale in March 1834, when the legitimist troops commanded by Tomás Zumalacárregui laid siege to Vitoria. Once an outpost at the defence perimeter in Gamarra Mayor has been seized, there were over 200 Celadores de Álava soldiers who surrendered. However, as Cristinos relief units were approaching, the Carlists decided to break siege and withdraw. POWs were initially marched along, but two days later Zumalacarregui ordered their execution and confirmed the order when prompted by local commander, who remained somewhat perplexed; death of 118 prisoners became known as fusilamientos de Heredia.the episode was many times accounted in historiography. The latest case is González Calleja 2020, p. 88 Even larger massacre of 163 prisoners from Batallón de Granada took place in Mondragón (January 1835); this time the carnage was prompted by widespread belief that the unit had been responsible for so-called matanza de frailes in 1834.Teofilo López Mata, Estampas histórico-burgalesas del siglo XIX, Madrid 1969, p. 229, Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza, La Primera Guerra Carlista [PhD thesis Universidad Complutense], Madrid 1991, p. 369 Executing POWs became common practice, affecting also highly positioned individuals; in August 1834 Conde de Via Manuel, grandee of Spain, was shot when taken prisoner.Ferrer 1943, p. 131
The scale of atrocities prompted foreign intervention, especially that British expeditionary troops were engaged in the war in alliance with the Cristinos. Negotiations climaxed in a so-called Eliot Convention, agreed in April 1835; it somewhat limited the killings, though initially there were controversies whether the convention was applicable to the Basque-Navarrese front only.Canal 2000, p. 75. Savagery was by no means limited to one side of the civil war, an example of the Cristinos atrocities is execution of 71 Carlist prisoners in Guimerá on September 9, 1835, Marc Pons, Asedio de Guimerà: Los liberales fusilan a 71 prisioneros carlistas, [in:] El Nacional 19.09.2018 Despite the agreement Ramón Cabrera, the Carlist commander in Aragón, kept executing small groups of prisoners.detailed review of executions on the Aragon-Catalan front until the shooting of Cabrera's mother in Josep Ma. Llasat i Roig, Ramón Cabrera y el inicio de la espiral de la crueldad, [in:] Aula Militar 2013. According to a liberal historian Antonio Pirala, before execution of his mother Cabrera ordered execution of 182 prisoners, referred after Gonzalez Calleja 2020 His violence affected also civilians, since repressive measures were taken in case of resistance or refusal to cooperate, e.g. to provide fodder, accommodation etc.; Cabrera ordered execution of mayors of a few towns. In revenge and with approval of the highest Cristino commander, his 53-year-old mother was executed in February 1836. Cabrera declared that "rivers of blood will now flow" and indeed, historians mark this moment as "punto de inflexión en la guerra".Javier Urcelay Alonso, La Guerra de Cabrera, [in:] Revista de Historia Miltiar LXVI (2022), p. 61 He then embarked on indiscriminate violence, with largest killings in Alcotas (145 victims, April 1836) and Ulldecona (140 victims, June 1836).detailed account in F. Cabello, F. Santa Cruz, R. M. Temprado, Historia de la guerra última en Aragón y Valencia, Madrid 1845, referred after the Zaragoza 2006 print (scientific edition Pedro Rújula), pp. 80-91. Though the work is written with clearly anti-Carlist bias, so far no scholar has questioned these particular episodes Some accounts from 1837 provide the picture of horror orgy, including cheerful Carlist commanders wining and dining while enjoying executions (Burjassot, March 1837), yet the episode is highly dubious.it has been proven that the execution took place not in Burjassot, but in Paterna. All other information (wining & dining, number of the executed) is unclear, see Santiago López García, Litografías representando fusilamientos de prisioneros del Pla del Pou (de Paterna), [in:] Centre de Estudis Locals de Burjassot website. However, a professional academic historian tends to take this account seriously, see Calleja 2020, even though he cautiously refers it "segun algunos escritos y grabados de la epoca" Also local commanders - Joaquín Bosque, Juan Cabañero - were ordering executions. At times Carlist leaders did not explicitly order the killings, but permitted the carnage to happen; this was the case in Andoain (September 1837), when the commanding officer José Ignacio Uranga allowed the infuriated Basque crowd to massacre (mostly with agricultural tools) some 60 British soldiers, taken prisoner few hours earlier.there are numerous and usually confliciting accounts of the Andoain carnage, written from the British, Carlist and Liberal perspective, and with numbers of killed Britons differing widely. The first scholarly one was Antonio Pirala, Historia de la Guerra Civil, y de los Partidos Liberal y Carlista, Madrid 1869, p. 250
The largest-scale atrocity of the First Carlist War — and the largest one among Carlist war crimes of all the time, including the 20th century ‚ occurred in and around the Aragón town of Beceite during few months between November 1837 and March 1838. Following a fairly successful summer campaign, in the Maestrazgo region the Carlists held some 1,500 prisoners. In atrocious conditions they were marched to Beceite, where sort of an urban prison camp was organized; prisoners were held in various premises, including a derelict castle. Their captors provided very little food and no medical assistance; as winter, usually harsh in this mountainous Teruel province, was setting in, they also provided close to no heating. During months to come hundreds of prisoners perished due to hunger, cold, sickness and mistreatment; there are horror accounts of cannibalism having taken place among the captives. In freezing and snowy winter conditions in February and March the prisoners were marched to some other locations, until the survivors — estimated to be some 15-20% of the original number directed to Beceite - were liberated in a POW exchange. The total number of victims is unknown, yet it might have approached a thousand."falleciendo unos 900" according to Gonzalez Calleja 2020 No individual personally responsible for the crime has been identified, yet the overall Carlist commander in the area was Cabrera. It is neither clear whether the deaths were intended or whether they resulted rather from chaos, negligence, poor logistics and sort of acceptance of death toll as kind of collateral damage.fairly detailed account in José Antonio Benavente, Atrocidades y canibalismo durante la Primera Guerra Carlista en Beceite (Teruel), [in:] Historias del Bajó Aragón 19.02.2013