French Legitimists and Spanish Carlists: Transnational Ultra-Conservative Solidarity during Spain’s First Carlist War, 1833–40

Ilacqua, Talitha

Abstract

When the First Carlist War (1833–40) broke out in Spain between the queen regent María Cristina, supported by the liberals, and the absolutist pretender Don Carlos, French legitimists portrayed it as a clash of civilisations between absolutism and liberalism. As supporters of the eldest branch of the Bourbon dynasty that had governed France from 1589 to 1792 and then again from 1814–5 to 1830, legitimists had been ousted from power by the July Revolution in 1830. Three years later, they regarded Don Carlos’s mission to gain the Spanish throne as their latest hope for the restoration of absolutism in France and Europe. Although historians have largely portrayed the 1830s as a decade in which legitimists had little say in politics, the liveliness of the French legitimist press during the First Carlist War reveals that legitimists were far from quiet. Their support of Don Carlos furthered the definition of a coherent set of ultra-conservative ideas, which contributed to making legitimism a credible political alternative in the second half of the nineteenth century.

Citation

Ilacqua, T. (in press). French Legitimists and Spanish Carlists: Transnational Ultra-Conservative Solidarity during Spain’s First Carlist War, 1833–40. European History Quarterly,

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 27, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jan 29, 2025
• Journal: European History Quarterly
• Print ISSN: 0265-6914
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-7110
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3355617
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/EHQ