Isabella II (10 October 1830-9 April 1904) was Queen of Spain from 29 September 1833 to 30 September 1868, succeeding Fernando VII and preceding Amadeo I. Although she succeeded in defeating various reactionary uprisings in the Carlist Wars, she was toppled in the Glorious Revolution in 1868 and forced to abdicate in 1870.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Isabella and Baldomero Espartero in 1840
Isabella was born in Madrid, Spain in 1830, the eldest daughter of King Fernando VII of Spain and Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies. In 1833, at the age of three, Isabella became Queen following her father's death, and her mother assumed the regency. Her succession to the throne was caused by Fernando's overturning of Salic law, although his brother Infante Carlos, Count of Molina and his reactionary supporters - the Carlists - opposed a woman succeeding to the throne. Carlos and his descendants rebelled against Isabella's majesty several times, causing the Carlist Wars. Isabella's reign was maintained solely through the support of the army, and the Moderates and Progressives of the Cortes reestablished constitutional and parliamentary government, dissolved the religious orders and confiscated their property, and tried to restore order to Spain's finances. Until 1843, she would be dominated first by her conservative mother, and later by the liberal statesman Baldomero Espartero.
Adult reign[]
In 1843, Isabella came of age to rule directly, and the Moderates ruled from 1846 to 1854, the Progressives from 1854 to 1856, and the Liberal Union from 1856 to 1863. The Moderates and Liberals quickly succeeded each other to keep the Progressives from regaining power, and Isabella would often show favor to her reactionary generals and statesmen and to the Catholic Church and religious orders. In 1859, Spain defeated Morocco in a war and obtained territorial concessions, and Spain also fought in the fruitless Chincha Islands War of 1864-1866 against Peru and Chile. Her reign also saw tensions with the United States over the Amistad affair of 1839-41, independence revolts in Cuba and Puerto Rico, progress in railways, and a slight improvement in commerce and finance.
Deposition[]
The Moderate Party's monopoly on power during Isabella's reign led to the Progressives and like-minded liberals signing the Ostend Agreement in 1866, committing themselves to deposing Queen Isabella. The revolutionaries defeated the royal army at Alcolea on 28 September 1868, forcing Queen Isabella to go into exile in France. In 1870, the provisional government chose Italian nobleman Amadeo of Savoy to succeed Isabella as monarch, but he abdicated in 1873, and a short-lived republic was proclaimed. Isabella lived in Paris for the rest of her life, and she died in 1904.