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Read Ebook: The secret history of the court of Spain during the last century by Challice Rachel
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Ebook has 1432 lines and 96883 words, and 29 pages
INDEX 345
DON CARLOS DE BOURBON, DUKE OF MADRID 112 From a photograph.
MARSHAL PRIM 122 From an engraving.
GENERAL ESPARTERO, PRINCE OF VERGARA 128 From a painting by Casado del Alisal.
MARSHAL LEOPOLDO O'DONNELL, DUKE OF TETUAN 138 From an engraving.
GENERAL NARVAEZ 214 From a photograph.
EMILIO CASTELAR 224 From a photograph.
AMADEUS OF SAVOY, DUKE OF AOSTA, AFTERWARDS KING OF SPAIN 226 From a photograph by J. Laurent, Madrid.
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL LUIS DE FIGUEROLA FERRETTI 242 From a painting by Miss A. J. Challice, exhibited at the Royal Academy, London.
DON CARLOS, PRINCE OF ASTURIAS, AND HIS LATE WIFE, THE INFANTA MERCEDES 266 From a photograph by Franzen, Madrid.
PRAXEDES MATEO SAGASTA, LIBERAL PRIME MINISTER 274 From a photograph.
ANTONIO CANOVAS DEL CASTILLO, CONSERVATIVE PRIME MINISTER 292 From a photograph.
THE QUEEN-MOTHER MARIA CRISTINA OF SPAIN 310 From a photograph by Debas, Madrid.
VICTORIA EUG?NIE, QUEEN OF SPAIN 314 From a photograph by J. Beagles and Co.
QUEEN VICTORIA OF SPAIN AND THE QUEEN-MOTHER AT A BULL-FIGHT 316 From a photograph.
THE INFANTA MARIA TERESA, AFTERWARDS WIFE OF PRINCE FERDINAND OF BAVARIA 320 From a photograph by Franzen, Madrid.
INFORMATION DRAWN FROM
"Memorias de un Setenton" , by Ramon Mesoneros Romanos. 1880.
"Estafeta del Palacio Real," by Bermejo. 3 large vols.
Unpublished MSS., the property of Don Fernando Bremon, brother-in-law to the Marchioness of Salamanca, the lady-in-waiting of the present Prince of Asturias.
"Memorias de Don Antonio Alcal? Galiano." 1886.
"La de Los Tristes Destinos," Perez Galdos. 1907.
Rare old book: "Narracion de Don Juan Van Halem."
"Regencia de Maria Cristina," by Juan Ortega Rubio. 1907. 2 large vols.
THE SECRET HISTORY OF THE COURT OF SPAIN IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
INTRIGUES OF FERDINAND, PRINCE OF ASTURIAS, AGAINST HIS PARENTS AND GODOY
The history of Spain during the nineteenth century is synonymous with that of favourites at the Court of Madrid, for as the country, in spite of all its struggles, had practically no voice in the election of the Parliaments, the main events of the land had their rise in the royal palace, where self-interested persons blinded the eyes of the rulers for their own purposes.
Albeit generous and warm-hearted, Maria Luisa was of a somewhat arrogant disposition. This was seen when she was only twelve years old, in the tone of superiority she adopted in her home after the contract of her marriage to the heir of the Spanish throne had been signed. Her brother Ferdinand resented this assumption of superiority, and remonstrated with his sister on the subject. Upon this the Princess promptly lost her temper, and said: "I will teach you to pay me the attention which you owe me, because I shall finally be Queen of Spain, whilst you will never be more than a little Duke of Parma!" "Well, the Duke of Parma will have the honour of slapping the Queen of Spain," was the reply, and Ferdinand promptly gave his sister a slap in the face.
The Duke was then arrested by order of his father, and he was only released at the plea of his sister, who was sorry when the quarrel assumed such a serious aspect.
Captivated by the young Godoy, she surprised and alarmed the nation by the swift way she exalted him to the highest position in the realm. As the favourite had known how to dominate the will of the King, as well as to subjugate the heart of the Queen, there was no limit to his power, and when he was given the title of "The Prince of the Peace," for the alliance he made with the French, the animosity of the nation was so much excited that public interest was soon centred in Prince Ferdinand as one who might free the Court from the favourite, and thus save the country from the disastrous effect of an undue submission to France.
As Alcal? Galiano says in his "Memorias," "The title of 'Prince' conferred on Godoy seemed to detract from the dignity of the Royal Family." The Prince of Asturias was at this time eleven years of age.
It must be remembered that the Queen had never gained any real hold on her son's love. She was naturally disinclined to any efforts dictated by maternal love, and she had taken no pains to overcome the constitutional defects of her son, which were repellent to her lively imagination and quick temperament.
In a letter to the Grand Duke of Berg, the Prince is described by the royal mother as peculiarly deficient in sensibility, and she remarks that his torpid nerves indeed required strong stimulants for their exercise. He spoke little, rarely smiled, and found a sardonic satisfaction in all kinds of petty acts of cruelty. He liked to crush a little bird if it fell into his hands, and, indeed, pity was a quality to which he was a stranger.
As the education of the young Prince was entrusted to Don Juan Escoiquiz, it was soon seen that he exercised a great power over the royal pupil, and he sought to use him as an instrument for thwarting the schemes of the Queen's favourite--which boded ill for the land.
Escoiquiz was certainly clever. He had translated Young's poems and Milton's "Paradise Lost," and when he was summoned to the royal palace in his capacity of tutor to the young Prince, he exclaimed: "I shall be happy if my instruction of my royal pupil leads to his being the most humane of Princes."
However, time did not show that he guided the Prince in this direction, for the intrigue of the Queen with Godoy so aroused his malicious envy that his one idea was to instigate his pupil to courses tending to the overthrow of the favourite. Classics and mathematics were foregone by the cleric, who devoted the time to teaching the Prince that the one great secret of a ruler was to trust nobody entirely, but to oppose one man to another man and one party against the other.
This lesson of distrust the royal boy learnt to perfection, and as his cold eyes watched his mother's deceitful conduct, and he saw how easily his father fell a prey to the artifice and design of the lovers, his heart was a fruitful soil for the poisonous words of his preceptor.
Escoiquiz soon determined to use the lad more effectually as an instrument against Godoy, and so he inspired him with the desire to have a seat in the Cabinet Ministry, and he wrote discourses and treatises which he gave the Prince to publish as his own, so that the lad might pose as a statesman of a wisdom and foresight beyond his years.
But albeit banished from his post as tutor, the cleric still retained his influence over the Prince, and he seized every opportunity of going to the royal palace to foster the ideas which he had instilled in the mind of his former pupil.
The picture given by Manuel Godoy in his "M?moires" of the daily life of the young royal people at this time shows that parental affection played little part in the lives of the young Princes and Princesses. After the morning Mass was over, the young people were allowed to receive visits till half-past eleven, when they went to their parents' room, and there remained till lunch-time, and each Infante and Infanta had his or her meal in a separate apartment. The afternoon drive was generally taken in the same direction every day, and the carriage was accompanied by a royal guard. In the evening the Infantes and Infantas spent half an hour with their parents, and then returned to their own quarters, where they were sometimes allowed to have their friends.
Godoy was strongly opposed to the Prince's marriage, declaring that eighteen was too tender an age for this step, and that it would be better for the young man to improve his mind by travelling, and fit himself for his future task of governing the nation before he married. However, the King listened to the Marquis of Caballero, who was in favour of the alliance, and the wedding of Ferdinand took place in Barcelona in October, 1802, at the same time as that of his sister.
When Ferdinand subsequently heard how Godoy had tried to prevent his marriage, he thought it was with a desire to prevent the succession being established in his favour, and his hatred of the favourite increased accordingly.
Godoy writes very emphatically in his "M?moires" of the evil influence exercised by Escoiquiz on the mind of Prince Ferdinand:
"The master seized upon the moral faculties of his pupil like an unclean insect which sticks to the bud of a rose and stops the growth by the web it weaves. Ferdinand, doomed at an early age to feel no affection for anyone, was a prey to fear and dissimulation. His youth, his manhood--in short, his whole life--was passed in a state of uninterrupted suspicion. He did not believe in virtue, not even in that of Escoiquiz, and at last the tutor received the due reward of the instructions he had imparted to his pupil.
"He died, loaded with contempt, ejected and banished from his pupil."
Godoy declared that his enemies paralyzed his endeavours to free Spain from the dominion of the French. He writes in the same "M?moires":
"Determined to impose upon the young Prince that I wished to deprive him of the natural affection of his august parents, my enemies so far succeeded in alarming him that the Prince was brought to look upon me as a dangerous rival who aspired to seat himself on the throne. To such perfidious insinuations they added other indirect practices.
The account of Manuel Godoy's last visit to the ex-Queen Maria Luisa is characteristic of the devotion of the courtier:
"It was in May, 1808, that my old King, his august lady, and the young infant Francisco, the unhappy victims of the iniquitous faction that called Napoleon to interfere in the matters of Spain, were transported from that country to France, and they remained in the dull, lonely dwelling of Fontainebleau.
"The Queen, a stranger in the royal palace of her ancestors, was in a grand bed. Her eyes were full of sadness but of majesty; her grave and venerable face was stamped with virtue. As she was able to speak openly without the presence of any importunate witnesses, she evidently wished to give expression to her feelings when her eyes fell on those who were with her, and she noted the tears which they vainly strove to stop. At last she broke the silence, and said:
"'And you , Manuel, my loyal friend, from whom I have had so many proofs that you would always remain so till the end--you will have your customary patience and listen to what I have to say!'"
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