Carlists

Carlists, or followers of Don Carlos, brother of Ferdinand VII. of Spain, an ultra-clerical and reactionary party, who have twice in the present century maintained a long and sanguinary civil war in the Basque provinces of that country. The Salic Law (q.v.) had been introduced in a modified form into Spain in 1700, during the war of the Spanish Succession, by Philip V. Ferdinand VII., the elder son of Carlos V., being left childless at the death of his third wife, and being anxious to keep his brother Don Carlos from the throne, married his niece, Maria Christina of Naples. On the birth of a daughter in 1830 the succession was, with the consent of the Cortes, settled on her by a royal decree called the Pragmatic Sanction, altering the Salic Law as introduced by Philip V. Ferdinand died in 1833. The child Isabella was proclaimed queen, her mother appointed regent, and a Liberal ministry took office. Don Carlos had taken refuge in Portugal after protesting against his exclusion, and there made common cause with the usurper Don Miguel. He was expelled thence as the result of the Quadruple Alliance, formed in 1834 between England, France, Spain, and Portugal. No steps, however, were taken to keep him out of Spain, and in the same year he appeared in Navarre, and rallied to his standard the Basque population, who had keenly-felt grievances against the Spanish Liberals. He had able generals in Zumalacarregui and Cabreras, and at one time, owing to a growing tendency on the part of the queen-regent to favour the absolutist party, he was within an ace of securing the support of the Liberals, and was preparing to march on Madrid. But he lost his chance by his stubborn refusal to give any assurances satisfactory to his new supporters. England and France, while refusing to aid the Spanish Government, permitted it to enlist volunteers among their subjects, and a foreign legion was raised under Colonel de Lacy Evans. The death of Zumalacarregui and the vigorous measures taken against Don Carlos by General Espartero reduced the Carlists to despair. Violent dissensions arose amongst them; and Don Carlos finally crossed the French frontier on September 14, 1839. He died in 1855; his eldest son (styled Carlos VI.) died in 1861 without issue, and a second son abdicated in favour of his own son, a third Don Carlos, who took the title of Carlos VII. After the overthrow of Queen Isabella there were risings, and on the abdication of Amadeus of Savoy, in 1870, the war again broke out, and was kept up in a desultory fashion in Northern Spain till 1876; but after the accession of Alfonso XII. it was terminated by General Martinez Campos. The present Don Carlos was expelled from France in 1881, and has lived for some years at Venice. Some French ultra-legitimists regard him as the true King of France.