Spanish Civil War, 1820-1823

The Spanish Civil War of 1820-1823 was fought in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. It was a conflict between royalists and liberals with France intervening on the side of the royalists.

The inept rule of Spain's King Ferdinand VII (1784-1833), who refused to accept the liberal constitution of 1812, provoked widespread unrest, particularly in the army. The king sought to reconquer the Spanish colonies in the Americas that had recently successfully revolted and consequently deprived Spain of a major source of revenue. At Cádiz, Spain, in January 1820, troops who had assembled for an expedition to America were angry over infrequent pay, bad food, and poor quarters and mutinied under the leadership of Colonel Rafael del Riego y Nunez (1785-1823). Pledging fealty to the 1812 constitution, they seized their commander, moved into nearby San Fernando, and then prepared to march on Madrid, the capital.

Despite the rebels' relative weakness, Ferdinand accepted the constitution on March 9, 1820, ushering in a period of popular rule. But in this liberal atmosphere, political conspiracies of both right and left proliferated. Liberal revolutionaries stormed the king's palace and virtually made Ferdinand a prisoner for the next three years. A mutiny occurred in the Madrid garrison, and civil war erupted in the regions of Castile, Toledo, and Andalusia.

The Holy Alliance (Russia, Austria and Prussia) refused Ferdinand's request for help, but the Quadruple Alliance (Britain, France, Holland and Austria) at the Congress of Verona in October 1822 gave France a mandate to intervene and restore the Spanish monarchy. French troops, the "100,000 Sons of Saint Louis", invaded Spain, captured Madrid, and drove the revolutionaries south to Cádiz and Seville.

On August 31, 1823, rebel forces were routed in a battle near Cádiz, and soon after, the French freed Ferdinand, who had been taken from Madrid as a captive, and placed him on the throne. Unexpectedly, he took ruthless revenge on his opponents, revoked the 1812 constitution and restored absolute monarchy to Spain.