Charles IV of Spain

Charles IV

Portrait of Charles IV by Goya
King of Spain (more)
Reign 14 December 1788 –
19 March 1808
Predecessor Charles III
Successor Ferdinand VII
Born 11 November 1748
Palace of Portici, Portici, Naples
Died 20 January 1819(1819-01-20) (aged 70)
Palazzo Barberini, Rome, Papal States
Burial El Escorial
Spouse Maria Luisa of Parma
Issue Carlota Joaquina, Queen of Portugal and Brazil
Infanta María Amalia
María Luisa, Queen of Etruria
Ferdinand VII
Infante Carlos, Count of Molina
María Isabel, Queen of the Two Sicilies
Infante Francisco de Paula, Duke of Cadiz
Full name
Carlos Antonio Pascual Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Januario Serafín Diego
House Bourbon
Father Charles III of Spain
Mother Maria Amalia of Saxony
Religion Roman Catholicism

Charles IV (Spanish: Carlos Antonio Pascual Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Januario Serafín Diego; 11 November 1748 – 20 January 1819) was King of Spain from 14 December 1788, until his abdication on 19 March 1808.

Early life

Charles was the second son of Charles III and his wife, Maria Amalia of Saxony. He was born in Naples (11 November 1748), while his father was King of Naples and Sicily. His elder brother, Don Felipe, was passed over for both thrones, due to his learning disabilities and epilepsy. In Naples and Sicily, Charles was referred to as the Prince of Taranto.[1] He was called El Cazador (meaning "the Hunter"), due to his preference for sport and hunting, rather than dealing with affairs of the state. Charles was considered by many to have been amiable, but simple-minded.[2]

Reign

Charles IV of Spain

In 1788, Charles III died and Charles IV succeeded to the throne. He intended to maintain the policies of his father, and retained his prime minister, the Count of Floridablanca, in office.[2] Even though he had a profound belief in the sanctity of his office, and kept up the appearance of an absolute, powerful monarch, Charles never took more than a passive part in his own government. The affairs of government were left to his wife, Maria Luisa, and his prime minister, while he occupied himself with hunting. In 1792, political and personal enemies ousted Floridablanca from office, replacing him with Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, Count of Aranda. However, in the wake of the war against Republican France, the liberal-leaning Count of Aranda was himself replaced by Manuel de Godoy, a favourite of the Queen and widely believed to be her lover, who enjoyed the lasting favor of the King.

In 1799, he authorized Prussian aristocrat and scientist Alexander von Humboldt to travel freely in Spanish America, with royal officials encouraged to aid him in his investigation of key areas of Spain's empire. Humboldt's Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain was a key publication from his five-year travels.

Godoy continued Aranda's policy of neutrality towards France, but after Spain protested the execution of Louis XVI of France, the deposed king, in 1793, France declared war on Spain. After the declaration, Portugal and Spain signed a treaty of mutual protection against France.[3] In 1795 France forced Godoy to enter into an alliance, and declare war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.

Spain remained an ally of France and supported the Continental Blockade until the British naval victory at Trafalgar, when Spain became allied with Britain. However, after Napoleon's victory over Prussia in 1807, Godoy again steered Spain back onto the French side. This switching of alliances devalued Charles' position as a trustworthy ally, increasing Godoy's unpopularity, and strengthening the fernandistas (supporters of Crown Prince Ferdinand), who favoured an alliance with the United Kingdom.

Economic troubles, rumours about a sexual relationship between the Queen and Godoy, and the King's ineptitude, caused the monarchy to decline in prestige among the population. Anxious to take over from his father, and jealous of the prime minister, Crown Prince Ferdinand attempted to overthrow the King in an aborted coup in 1807.[4]

Riots, and a popular revolt at the winter palace Aranjuez, in 1808 forced the king to abdicate on 19 March, in favor of his son.[4] Ferdinand took the throne as Ferdinand VII, but was mistrusted by Napoleon, who had 100,000 soldiers stationed in Spain by that time.

The ousted King, having appealed to Napoleon for help in regaining his throne, was summoned before Napoleon in Bayonne, along with his son, in April 1808. Napoleon forced both Charles and his son to abdicate, declared the Bourbon dynasty of Spain deposed, and installed his brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as King Joseph I of Spain.[5]

Later life and death

Following Napoleon's deposing of the Bourbon dynasty, the ex-King, his wife, and former Prime Minister Godoy were held captive in France first at the château de Compiègne[6] and three years in Marseille (where a neighborhood was named after him).[7] After the collapse of the regime installed by Napoleon, Ferdinand VII was restored to the throne. The former Charles IV drifted about Europe[8] until 1812, when he finally settled in Rome, in the Palazzo Barberini.[9][10][11][12] His wife died on 2 January 1819, followed shortly by Charles, who died on 20 January of the same year.

Character

Well-meaning and pious, Charles IV floundered in a series of international crises beyond his capacity to handle.[8] He was painted by Francisco Goya in a number of official court portraits, which numerous art critics have seen as satires on the King's stout vacuity.[13]

Marriage and children

Charles IV married his first cousin Maria Louisa, the daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma, in 1765. The couple had fourteen children, six of whom survived into adulthood:

Ancestors

Titles and styles

Notes

  1. ↑ Almanach royal, p 34
  2. 1 2 Stanley G. Payne, History of Spain of Portugal, Vol 2,University of Wisconsin Press., 1973, ISBN 978-0-299-06284-2, page 415
  3. ↑ Supplemeto á Collecção dos tratados, convenções, contratos e actos. V4. pg 10–17
  4. 1 2 Payne, page 420
  5. ↑ Griffin, Julia Ortiz; Griffin, William D. (2007). Spain and Portugal:A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. Facts on File. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-8160-4592-1.
  6. ↑ Alain Raisonnier, Claudie Ressort (2009) Le séjour de Charles IV et de la Cour d'Espagne au Palais de Compiègne en 1808-1809, Annales Historiques compiégnoises, n° 113-114, pp. 14-24
  7. ↑ Paul Gaffarel (1919) Le séjour de Charles IV d'Espagne à Marseille, Revue des Etudes Napoléoniennes, t. XVI, pp. 40-57
  8. 1 2 Griffin, page 152
  9. ↑ fr:Charles IV d'Espagne
  10. ↑ Manuel de Godoy#Exile
  11. ↑ Worldroots.com Archived November 11, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ↑ The Royal Favorite: Manuel Francisco Domingo de Godoy, Prince of the Peace
  13. ↑ Edward J. Olszewski (1999). "Exorcising Goya's "The Family of Charles IV"". Artibus et Historiae. 20 (40): 169–185. JSTOR 1483673.
  14. ↑ von Pastor, Ludwig Freiherr (1952). The History of the Popes, from the Close of the Middle Ages. Michigan: Kegan Paul. p. 201.
  15. 1 2 Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía (2007). Anales de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía. Vol. X. (in Spanish). Madrid: RAMHG. p. 330.
  16. ↑ Senatore, Mar'a Ximena (2007). Arqueolog'a e historia en la colonia espa–ola de Floridablanca, Patagonia, siglo XVIII (in Spanish). Madrid: Teseo. p. 149. ISBN 978-987-1354-08-5.
  17. ↑ Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía (2007). Anales de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía. Vol. X. (in Spanish). Madrid: RAMHG. p. 332.
  18. ↑ Palazón, Juan Manuel Abascal (2010). José Vargas Ponce (1760–1821) en la Real Academia de la Historia (in Spanish). Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia. p. 54. ISBN 978-84-15069-00-3.
  19. 1 2 Hilt, Douglas (1987). The Troubled Trinity: Godoy and the Spanish Monarchs. Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p. 292. ISBN 978-0-8173-0320-4.
  20. ↑ Zavala, José María (2013). La maldición de los Borbones (in Spanish). Mexico: Random House Mondadori. p. 16. ISBN 978-84-01-34667-5.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charles IV of Spain.
Charles IV of Spain
Cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty
Born: 11 November 1748 Died: 20 January 1819
Regnal titles
Preceded by
Charles III		 King of Spain
1788–1808 		Succeeded by
Ferdinand VII
Spanish royalty
Vacant
Title last held by
Ferdinand (VI)		 Prince of Asturias
1759–1788 		Succeeded by
Ferdinand (VII)
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