Cortes of Cadiz

The Cortes of Cádiz ( Spanish Las Cortes de Cádiz ) were a parliament that acted as a constituent assembly from 1810 to 1813 in Cádiz , Spain . With the Constitution of Cadiz they created a liberal constitution that served as a model for further constitutions in Spain and abroad.

The deputies of the Cortes were sworn in, Cadiz 1810

prehistory

Former Cortes in Spain

In the Spanish kingdoms , assemblies of estates have been held under the name of Cortes since the Middle Ages . They were supposed to advise the kings on important decisions and were the occasion on which the heir to the throne was confirmed, usually during the lifetime of the predecessor, and on which a new king promised to abide by the applicable law. The last Cortes of Castile , united with the Cortes of the Crown of Aragon , took place in September 1789. The Cortes of 1789 were primarily convened to clarify the succession for King Charles IV . On the one hand, the then five-year-old Ferdinand (later Ferdinand VII ) as Prince of Asturias was presented to the Cortes as heir to the throne; on the other hand, inheritance law was regulated as it was before Philip V in Castile and Aragon. The Cortes met temporarily closed to the public. Some of the resolutions were not announced.

National Assembly in Bayonne

On May 24, 1808, a Spanish National Assembly was convened in Bayonne in France on behalf of Napoleon . 150 delegates should be delegated separately according to class: 50 members of the clergy, 51 members of the aristocracy and 49 representatives of the people, i. that is, traders and representatives of the universities and the cities, who had previously had a voice in the Cortes. Less than half of the designated number of delegates attended the meeting, even if you include those present on site who acted as substitute delegates. The final draft of a constitution was presented to the assembly for discussion, which was then approved. The preamble to the Bayonne Constitution presents it as a contract between the king and his people. The transitional provisions of the Bayonne Constitution provide for a staggered implementation. Due to the military and political developments in Spain, the entry into force took place only partially.

Political situation at the time of the convocation

In the Treaty of Fontainebleau of October 27, 1807, Spain allowed the French troops to march through Spain to Portugal . Napoleon , however, sent considerably more troops to Spain than were provided for in the treaty and thus brought large parts of Spain under his control. After an uprising in Aranjuez and an attempted coup by the Infante Ferdinand, Charles IV of Spain renounced the crown in favor of his eldest son Ferdinand VII . After both Ferdinand VII and Charles IV renounced the crown on a visit to Bayonne (Spanish: Bayona) in France, Napoleon appointed his brother Joseph , who was King of Naples at the time, as King of Spain. Ferdinand lived in the following years until 1814 at Valençay Castle in France.

During the struggle of the Spaniards against the presence of French troops in Spain and despite the formal rule of King Joseph, the Junta Suprema Central was formed in Aranjuez in September , a counter-government that did not recognize the resignation of King Ferdinand VII and the incumbent government in Madrid . This Junta Suprema Central issued a decree on May 22, 1809 in the name of King Ferdinand, in which it announced the election of the new Cortes.

Convocation of the Cortes of Cadiz

Number of members

The Cortes were convened by the Suprema Junta gubernativa de España e Indias on January 1, 1810 for March 1, 1810 on the Isla de León near Cádiz. The besieged but heavily fortified sea fortress of Cádiz was chosen as the venue because it was the least likely to be conquered by French troops. The fortress was home to numerous Spanish, British and Portuguese garrisons, and the sea side, as well as communications to all ports in Spain and abroad, protected the superior British fleet.

The appointment of the members of the Cortes of Cadiz took place in several, partly parallel proceedings:

• A letter was sent to the individual Juntas Superiores (i.e. to the regionally formed Juntas) asking them to appoint a delegate according to the attached electoral regulations.
• A letter was also sent to the cities that traditionally had a seat in the Cortes.
• Letters were sent to the administrations of the Reinos (kingdoms) and provinces, asking them to form an electoral committee and to elect one representative for every 50,000 inhabitants. This should be done according to a multi-tiered indirect electoral system.
• On January 21, 1810, invitations were also sent to the high nobility and the church hierarchy.
• With the decree of February 14, 1810, the election of the representatives from the overseas territories was regulated. They should take part in the meetings and resolutions as members with equal rights.
• Further special regulations for the electoral process were issued in September 1810 for the areas that were occupied by the enemy . For those MPs who could not be elected in these areas, suplentes , substitute MPs were to act. Most of these were people who happened to be in Cádiz and came from areas that could not vote for MPs.

Due to the military development in the country, a meeting of the Cortes on March 1, 1810 was not possible. In a decree of September 20, 1810, the Consejo de Regencia , a successor to the Junta Suprema Central , ordered that the Cortes should meet as a unicameral parliament and stated that a separate division for the nobility and clergy was not necessary, there was enough the deputies sent by the provinces would belong to these estates. The 28 MEPs from the Overseas Territories who were initially missing were chosen by citizens of the territories present in Spain. That said, the number of 28 MPs was not remotely equal to the number of residents of the overseas territories. If one had wanted to apply the same standard there as in mainland Spain, that is to say one member for every 50,000 inhabitants, the members from overseas would have represented an overwhelming majority.

Members of the Cortes of Cadiz

At the opening session on September 24th, 95 MPs were present. More than half of them were suplentes , i.e. substitute members. The number of substitute members decreased over time because more and more regular members could be determined. 184 members were present at the final vote on the constitution on February 19, 1812. With the decision to dissolve the Cortes on September 14, 1813, at least 223. The theoretically planned number of 240 delegates was never reached. The MPs therefore certainly do not represent the population in formal terms. This is especially true for MPs from overseas territories. None of the MPs were of non-Spanish origin.

Due to the fluctuating attendance figures, a statement about the social origin of the MPs is only partially meaningful, but a tendency can be determined. About a third were clergy, the second largest group with about 18% were lawyers, the rest were military, civil servants, some nobles and very few merchants, professors, etc. Artisans, workers or farmers were not represented at all.

There were no parties in the current sense at the beginning of the 19th century. From a political point of view, one can assume a three-way division: The radical changeists aimed at a fundamental change in the existing conditions. The moderate innovators wanted to make various changes based on the existing conditions. The Conservatives did not want to allow any changes or reforms. The simplest division, however, is that of absolutists , who rejected any change, and liberals , who were influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Work of the Cortes of Cadiz

Monument in the Plaza de España in Cádiz to the introduction of the Constitution of Cádiz in 1812

When the Cortes were convened by the Junta Suprema Central , the drafting of a written constitution was not expressly mentioned as a task. In the first few sessions, the assembly dealt with clarifying its own self-image. The focus was on the question of the sovereignty and legitimacy of the decisions of Cortes. Because of a certain urgency, one then dealt with laws that affected the current problems of the country. Of the 409 laws passed by the Cortes, only about 100 deal with political, social, economic problems or problems of administrative reform. The most important of these laws were promulgated by the Cortes of Cádiz, but they were hardly observed in the country itself and were declared invalid in 1814. Many of these laws served as the basis for similar regulations during the Trienio Liberal and the reign of Isabella II . This was, for example, the law on manorial rule, with which the patrimonial courts were repealed on August 6, 1811 . The abolition of the family entails meant that inheritances could be divided and land owned by families could be sold. Another law stipulated that monasteries in which fewer than twelve monks or nuns lived should be closed. A very controversial law in the Cortes was the law passed on February 5, 1813, on the dissolution of the Inquisition in Spain. In the economic field, the Free Trade Act was of great importance. On April 22, 1811, torture was banned. Most of the laws passed by the Cortes concerned the organizational or normal administrative matters of a country at war, that is, laws on military equipment and financial matters.

The question of a written constitution was only on the agenda from March 1811. The first step was to set up a committee chaired by MP Muñoz-Torrero. The committee had ten members from Europe and three from Latin America. All the major political currents of the Cortes were represented in this committee. The MP Antonio Ranz Romanillos was given the task of drafting a draft. This deputy had been secretary of the National Assembly in Bayonne in 1808 and had also signed the constitution promulgated there. In August 1811 the result of the committee work was presented to the plenary of the Cortes, which the constitution adopted after a very intense debate. On March 19, 1812, the Constitución política de la monarquía española was promulgated.

End of the Cortes of Cadiz

Since the Cortes were not just a constituent assembly, the work did not end with the promulgation of the constitution. The (extraordinary) Cortes generales y extraordinarias only dissolved after further legislative work on September 20, 1813. Cortes ordinarias , convened by the law of May 23, 1812, met first on September 25, 1813 in Cádiz , then on October 14 on the Isla de León near Cádiz, and then, after the withdrawal of the French, resigned to meet in Madrid on January 15, 1814. None of the members of the first Cortes of Cádiz was a member of the newly elected parliament because the electoral law precluded renewed membership.

In the Treaty of Valençay , Joseph I renounced the Spanish crown in favor of Ferdinand VII . On his return to Spain, Ferdinand VII declared in the Manifesto de Valencia of May 4, 1814, all legislation since May 1808 as invalid from the outset. This also dissolved the Cortes who had gathered in Madrid.

Meaning of the Cortes of Cadiz

The importance of the Cortes of Cádiz lies on the one hand in the fact that in Spain for the first time a parliament without class differences was meeting, which had been elected without differentiation of classes, in which the overseas territories were, at least formally, equally represented and which assumed the sovereignty of the people to represent. Many of the MPs - both liberal and absolutist - played an important role in the further history of Spain.

The newly created written constitution was only valid for a little more than two years between March 19, 1812 and May 4, 1814, but it was valid during the Trienio Liberal from March 1820 to October 1823 - i.e. for more than three years - and re-enacted from August 1836 to June 1837 during the reign of Isabella II . The content was e.g. Partly literally, taken over in later Spanish constitutions.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Actas de la diputación general de españoles
2. ^ Constitution of Bayonne see: Constitución de Bayona de 1808
3. ↑ Decreto sobre restablecimiento y convocatoria de Cortes http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/24605030090037831754491/p0000001.htm#I_1_
4. ↑ Convocatoria para las Juntas superiores http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/c1812/34695175432370530854679/p0000001.htm#I_1_
5. ↑ Resolución de la Junta Central sobre la convocatoria por estamentos y Convocatoria de los distintos estamentos http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/c1812/01383853199248629534802/p0000001.htm#I_0_
6. ↑ Instrucción para las elecciones por América y Asia http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/c1812/90251732102370596554679/p0000001.htm#I_0_
7. ↑ Decreto del Consejo de Regencia mandando que las Cortes se reúnan en un solo cuerpo http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/c1812/03695179788015117632268/p0000001.htm#I_1_
8. ↑ Colección de los decretos y ordenes que han expedido las cortes generales y extraordinarias Archive link ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ^ Political constitution of the Spanish monarchy s: es: Constitución española de 1812
10. ^ Convocatoria para las Cortes ordinarias de l. ° de Octubre de 1813, Leyes electorales y proyectos de ley. Madrid: Imprenta Hijos de JA Garcia, 1906. Págs. 77-78 Archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
11. ↑ Manifesto de Valencia archive link ( Memento of the original dated December 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 

Sources and literature

• Actas de la diputación general de españoles , Imprenta y fundación de JA García, Madrid, 1874
• Marta Friera Álvarez and Ignacio Fernández Sarasola: Contexto histórico de la Constitución española de 1812 , Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes / Historia / Portales / La Constitución española de 1812 http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/portal/1812/contexto.shtml
• Colección de los decretos y ordenes que han expedido las cortes generales y extraordinarias , Reimpresa de orden del gobierno en Sevilla: Imprenta mayor de la ciudad 1820 http://bib.us.es/guiaspormaterias/ayuda_invest/derecho/pixelegis.htm
• Pérez Garzón, Juan Sisinio: Las Cortes de Cádiz. El nacimiento de la nación liberal (1808-1814) . Síntesis, Madrid 2007.
• Rafael Sánchez Mantero: Las Cortes de Cádiz , Artehistoria Revista digital ISSN: ARTEHISTORIA 1887-4398 / Número 2 - Año 2 Arte Historia / Historia de España / Contextos / Las Cortes de Cádiz http://www.artehistoria.com/v2/contextos /6901.htm
• Ernst Münch : The fate of the old and new Kortes of Spain . 2 vols. Metzler, Stuttgart 1824–1827.
• Späth, Jens: Revolution in Europe 1820-23. Constitution and constitutional culture in the kingdoms of Spain, both Sicily and Sardinia-Piedmont . SH-Verlag, Cologne 2012.
• Späth, Jens: Spain as a model for an early liberal Europe? The model of the Constitution of Cadiz (1812) . In: European History Thematic Portal, 2012, accessed on 14 July 2017.
• Timmermann, Andreas: The “moderate monarchy” in the constitution of Cadiz (1812) and the early liberal constitutional thinking in Spain . Aschendorff, Münster 2007.

Web links

Commons : Cortes of Cádiz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files