Regencia de Urgel
The Regencia de Urgel (Government of Urgel) was founded in La Seu d'Urgell in 1822 . It was an absolutist , monarchist -oriented counter-government to the liberal government in Madrid .
Historical predecessors
Regencies were not uncommon in Spain . Usually they were set up when the king was not yet of legal age, e.g. B. with Charles II. Or such. B. between 1506 and 1516, when Queen Johanna was declared unfit for government. (Although it is controversial here whether Ferdinand was not King of Castile etc. in his own right from his marriage to Isabella I. ) Even if the king was not yet in the country, as between 1516 and 1517 by Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros , a Regent or a Regency Council take over the affairs of state. King Charles I appointed his daughter Maria as regent on various occasions during his absence from Spain. During the reign of Joseph I , King Ferdinand VII, who had resigned under pressure, lived in France. In his absence, the Junta Suprema Central y Gubernativa del Reino was formed in September 1808 and the Consejo de Regencia in January 1810 .
What all these regency has in common is that they acted on behalf of and in the name of the actual ruler. Whether the representation took place with or without the consent of the person represented or even against his will was irrelevant at the time of the reign.
Political situation in Spain before the establishment of the government
By a pronunciamiento in January 1820, which originated in Seville or Cádiz and caused unrest throughout the country, Ferdinand VII saw himself compelled in March 1820 to recognize the constitution of Cádiz , to convene the Cortes according to this constitution and to appoint a cabinet of ministers who belonged to the moderate wing of the liberal movement. After the events in 1820, the second elections to the Cortes took place in 1822, in which the majority of the elected deputies were attributable to the direction of the Exaltados . Various uprisings and unrest in the country prompted Ferdinand VII to appoint a cabinet in August 1822, which largely consisted of representatives of the Exaltados.
Against liberal politics, especially the politics of the Exaltados, an initially unorganized royalist resistance formed in the country. The aim of most royalists was not simply a return to the conditions before 1820, but the creation of a new form of government that permitted certain renewals, but in which the sovereignty of the king was not only symbolic. To this end, various groups organized meetings, which mostly took place abroad. In Bayonne one group met under the direction of General Eguía, in Toulouse another under the Marqués de Mataflorida. This second group settled in Urgel . In the north and east of Spain, in Vizcaya , Navarra , Sigüenza, Burgos , Aragon and in some other areas, royalist juntas formed who recognized the Regencia de Urgel.
Composition of the Regencia
The Regencia de Urgel consisted of three people:
- Bernardo Mozo de Rosales , Marquis of Mataflorida; He was one of the MPs who in 1814 presented King Ferdinand VII in Valencia with the Manifiesto de los Persas , with which 69 MPs from the Cortes of Cádiz called on the king not to accept the constitution and to govern absolutistically. Bernardo Mozo de Rosales was rewarded for this by Ferdinand VII with the title of Marquis . From November 1819 to March 9, 1820, during the time of the Pronunciamientos de Riego , he was Minister of Justice.
- Joaquín Ibáñez Cuevas y de Valonga, Barón de Eroles (1784–1825), military and politician; he was later awarded the title of Marqués de la Cañada by King Ferdinand VII, and he was also appointed Captain General of Catalonia.
- Jaime Creus y Martí , Archbishop of Tarragona, member of the Cortes of Cádiz
Justification for the formation of a counter-government
The Regencia de Urgel saw itself as the only legitimate government in Spain, since only it represented the will of the God-given king and only it wanted to restore the sovereignty of the king, the central position of religion and the validity of traditional rights. King Ferdinand VII himself was, according to the Regencia, in a moral captivity by the Liberals, much in the same way as he had been in Napoleon's captivity in 1808–1814 . A counter-government is just as necessary as the Regency Council (Consejo de Regencia), which was formed in 1810.
Activity of the Regencia
The Regencia de Urgel proclaimed Ferdinand VII to be the absolute monarch. She claimed absolute obedience to the monarchy (represented by the Regencia). It declared ineffective all instructions issued by the king in the absence of freedom. She said she wanted to keep the old laws and privileges ( Fueros ). She promised to convene Cortes as the Estates parliament in due course.
On August 15, the Regencia de Urgel published an appeal to the Spaniards. The appeal was also sent with a cover letter to senior officials in the provinces and cities. A special description of their reasons was sent to King Ferdinand VII with the appeal. On September 16, 1822, the king had a manifesto published in Madrid in which he exuberantly praised the constitution, calling himself the Rey Constitucional de las Españas (constitutional king of Spain) and the Regencia of Urgel as criminals. With a letter dated September 12th, the Regencia contacted the rulers of Europe who had gathered in Verona at the Congress to draw their attention to the situation in Spain and the imprisonment of the king and to obtain their recognition and support.
End of the Regencia
After local royalist juntas had formed, especially in Navarre and Catalonia , which recognized the Regencia de Urgel and also various parts of the army had switched or threatened to switch over to the royalists, the government in Madrid commissioned General Francisco Espoz y Mina to restore order. He led an army of around 20,000 soldiers to Catalonia. Since the royalist troops had hardly any food and ammunition, they had to give up after two months. A large part fled to France. The Regencia also fled on November 11, 1822, first to Puigcerdà near the French border, then, after the army had stormed the fortress of Puigcerdà, on over the French border to Perpignan . There the Regencia de Urgel dissolved on December 7, 1822. During the storming of the fortress of Puigcerdà, General Mina found the documents of the Regencia von Urgel, the Regencia archive.
On November 22nd, the representatives of Austria, France, Prussia and Russia signed a secret treaty in Verona, in which France was commissioned to restore the state of affairs on the peninsula to the way it was before the revolution of Cadiz (→ French invasion of Spain ).
Individual evidence
Marqués de Miraflores: Documentos… sobre la Revolución de España , Oficina de Ricardo Taylor, London, 1834 Tomo II
- ↑ Decreto de la Regencia de Urgel de 14 de Agosto de 1822 ... in Documentos Tomo II. P. 87
- ^ Proclama de la Regencia de Urgel á los Españoles in Documentos Tomo II. P. 80
- ↑ Circular dirigida á todos los gefes y autoridades ... Documentos Tomo II. P. 79
- ↑ Esposicion dirigida á SM el Señor Don Fernando VII. Documentos Tomo II. P. 85
- ↑ Manifesto de SM Fernando VII. Á la Nación Españoña Documentos Tomo II. P. 99
- ↑ Representacion dirigió á los Soberanos del Congeso de Verona Documentos Tomo II. P. 92