Spain's Desired king became known as the Criminal King
While Napoleon held him captive, Spaniards fought in the name of Ferdinand VII and nicknamed him the Desired. Once home in 1813 he tore up the liberal constitution drawn up in his absence, jailed its authors and was rechristened the Criminal King. His reign saw Spain's American empire slip away and ended in civil war.
Born at El Escorial in 1784, the eldest surviving son of Charles IV, Ferdinand spent his youth shut out of power by his parents and their favourite minister, Manuel Godoy. In 1807 he was arrested for involvement in a plot seeking Napoleon's backing. After a riot at Aranjuez forced his father to abdicate in March 1808, Ferdinand took the throne and looked to Napoleon for support, only to be pressured into abdicating that May. He spent six years under guard at the Château de Valençay, which the historian Charles Oman says Napoleon chose as a joke at the expense of its owner, Talleyrand.
Spaniards rejected Joseph Bonaparte, launching the Peninsular War and forming regional juntas that governed in Ferdinand's name, in Spain and across Spanish America. By the Treaty of Valençay in December 1813 Napoleon let him go home. He had promised, half-heartedly, to respect the Constitution of 1812, but encouraged by conservatives and the Church, he abolished it within weeks and arrested liberal leaders, arguing the Cortes had met illegally without him.
His rule was erratic, steered by a clique of favourites and ministers replaced every few months. He restored the Inquisition and the Jesuits, declared freemasons traitors and muzzled the liberal press. Several military risings failed before Rafael del Riego's in 1820 forced him to accept the constitution, opening three years of liberal government. In 1823, sanctioned by the Congress of Verona, French troops invaded and restored his absolute power.
Meanwhile independence wars disrupted the treasure fleets and left Spain near bankruptcy. When Mexico's new leaders offered him their crown in 1821, he declared their constitution void and refused. He died on 29 September 1833, and a large-scale civil war followed; many historians judge him incompetent and despotic.
Source: Ferdinand VII
