Carlos IV of Spain (11 November 1748-20 January 1819) was the King of Spain from 14 December 1788 to 19 March 1808, succeeding Carlos III of Spain and preceding Fernando VII of Spain. Carlos was known for being a passive and incapable ruler, and he was overthrown by his own son in 1808.
Biography[]
Carlos was the son of King Carlos III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony, and he succeeded to the throne of Spain at the age of forty in 1788 after the death of his father. Carlos was a passive ruler, retaining his father's policies and allowing for his wife Maria Luisa of Parma and Prime Minister Jose Monino to run his country as he engaged in hunting. The downfall of Monino's government and the start of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1792 forced Carlos to take a more active role in the government, and his wife's lover Manuel Godoy became the new Chief Minister of Spain. Godoy led Spain into war against the French First Republic in 1793, only to switch sides and join France in its war with Great Britain in 1795. Carlos would sit back as his country's economy and military crumbled, and Spain's navy was destroyed at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. In 1808, Spanish Army troops mutinied at the Aranjuez military palace, forcing Carlos to abdicate. In April 1808, Napoleon I of the First French Empire had Carlos and his son Fernando meet him at Bayonne to discuss the political crisis in Spain, as Carlos had appealed to Napoleon for assistance in retaking the throne; instead, the two men were forced to abdicate in favor of Napoleon's brother Joseph. Carlos was imprisoned at Compiegne and Marseille, and he left for Rome after the monarchy's restoration in 1814. He died at the Palazzo Barberini on 20 January 1819.