Década Ominosa (Ominous Decade) (1823-1833)

Back in the Post-Napoleonic Europe, the absolutism had as demand to be defended based on the principles of legitimacy and intervention for its defense. Ferdinand VII requests the help of the European powers in order to hold once again the absolute power. The meeting held at the Verona Congress in 1822 orders to France the intervention in Spain.

The French government exchanges a series of notes with the liberal government with the purpose to provoke them and get the Army in. The arrival of The One Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint-Louis -French troops commanded by the Duke of Angulema (Versailles, France, 1775-Gorizia, Italia, 1844) will take place on April 7, 1823.

The government delivers its insufficient troops all over the territory. The Spanish resist. The center is defended by Enrique José O´Donnell, I Count of La Bisbal (Donostia-San Sebastian, Gipuzkoa, 1776-Montperllier, France, 1834). Asturias and Castille are Pablo Morillo´s territories and Francisco Espoz y Mina (Idocin, Navarra, 1781-Barcelona, 1836) resists in Cataluña. But soon, this resistance turns out to be inefficient, leaving the way open until Andalusia. The Government, as well as the Courts, will change their venues due to their participation in the Independence War. The King is declared incapable withholding him in Cadiz where they will end up taking refuge. The episode will end with the capitulation and hand over of the monarch on October 1st ,1823 who was previously forced to accept a series of commitments that included respect to the liberal laws even though it´s later forgotten by the king. Ferdinand VII re-establishes the absolutist regime that will only end with his death in 1833.

The Ominous Decade is characterized by the hunting of liberals and the succession question. The first issue starts with the abolition of the overall work of the Liberal Triennium and continuous with the repression to the liberals. In November of 1823, Riego is executed and in the following year Francisco Tadeo Calomarde (Villel, Teruel, 1773- Toulouse, France, 1843) holds the Secretaría de Gracia y Justicia, who imposes a systematic hunt, using secret methods, reports and defenselessness of the accused.

The successor question is laid out on Ferdinand VII wedding with Maria Cristina de Borbón (Palermo, Italy, 1806-Sainte-Addressee, and France, 1878 in 1829. The possibility of a Ferdinand heir would detriment his brother, the infant Carlos María Isidro (Aranjuez, Madrid, 1788- Trieste, Italy, 1788). The new sides for the Carlist´s Wars start to outline, the absolutism party will defend the infant, while the moderate and the liberals will do it with the king´s offspring.

Ferdinand VII promulgates on April 1830 the Pragmatic Sanction that was pending to be published since it was approved by the Courts in 1789. As a result, the Salian Law is abolished and women could rule. A few months later, the future Queen Elizabeth II was born (Madrid, 1830-Paris, France, 1904).