MINISTERIAL DIFFICULTIES IN THE PALACE

1843

There is doubtless truth in the opinion that the wish of the Government for the majority of the Queen to be declared at the age of thirteen instead of fourteen proceeded from the desire of self-interested personages to rid the country of the Regent, and hasten the time when the power would be fully in the hands of the young Sovereign, when it could be turned to the designs of the Moderates.

This project soon took form by the Ministry presenting a petition to Isabella, saying:

“The nation wishes and desires to be governed by Your Majesty yourself. Your Majesty will have heard the result of the vote taken in the Cortes which is about to assemble, and there the oath required by the Constitution from a constitutional monarch will be received by the same Cortes.”

So on November 8, 1843, the proposal was carried by a majority of 157 over 16, and Queen Isabel was endowed with full power as Queen of the realm—a Queen of only thirteen years of age, whose education had been grossly neglected, and who was inclined to follow the dictates of an undisciplined sensual nature.

Don Salustiano de Olozaga was then appointed President of the Ministry which had supported the deed, whilst Francisco Serrano, who was subsequently to play such an important part in the history of Spain, remained Minister of War, and Frias Minister of the Marine.

But on November 29 the nation was astounded by the publication in the Gazette of the decree for the dissolution of the Government which had put the full power in the young Queen’s hand.

The reason for this course was not far to seek. Olozaga was not only anxious to free himself from a Parliament with a majority of Moderates (Tories), but he wished to be freed from the influence of Narvaez, who represented the influence of the Queen-mother in the palace. It was the fact of this influence which had decided both Cortina and Madoz to refuse office.

The fact of the Provisional Government having appointed Olozaga guardian of the young Queen showed that he was known to have great influence over her, and whilst holding that appointment he had been flattered by the grant of the decoration of the Golden Fleece. This distinction was declared by some to have been the outcome of his own astuteness, and it certainly made him unpopular.

The decree for the dissolution of the Parliament was promptly followed by incriminating whispers against the President of the Council.

Mysterious allusions were made to Olozaga having been so wanting in respect to his Queen that he insisted with undue force on the dissolution of the Parliament, and when she objected and wished to quit the apartment, he locked the door, and forcibly drew her back to the table, where he made her sign the document.

“There are,” says Don Juan Rico y Amat, “those who say that this report was got up by the Moderates on the exaggerated story of the young Queen, as they wished to get him out of power; but this theory is opposed by the difficulty of believing that a story which tended to lessen the dignity of the Crown could have arisen only through Isabella herself, and those acquainted with the Minister knew the story was in accordance with his imperious, impetuous nature, well known in the palace. It had, moreover, often been noticed that the Prime Minister had entered the royal apartments with a freedom unbefitting the respect due to royalty.”

Olozaga wrote to General Serrano, saying that the fact of the Queen sending him a letter saying she would be glad to have the decree, granted at the instance of Olozaga, returned to her, for the rectification of the first lines, saying, “For grave reason of my own I have just dissolved,” etc., showed the absurdity of the invention that it had been obtained from her by force. “But if anybody,” continued Olozaga, “still insists on such an idea, I will have the honour of suggesting a means whereby the truth will be declared in my presence.”

None of the Moderates surrounding the Queen had the courage to seize the reins of government at this time of confusion, and Narvaez himself, whose power in the palace was well known, and whose position as Captain-General of Madrid would have assured him of a large number of followers, hesitated to take the rudder of the deserted ship.

Whilst all was hesitation in the audience chamber, a young man suddenly made his appearance, and passed with fearless step and bold bearing through the assembly of timorous people, right up to within two steps to the throne in the Salon of Ambassadors, and there assumed the leadership which was shunned by those who could have claimed it, by exclaiming in a loud, commanding tone: “The Queen before all! A revolution or I....” And thus by this splendid coup the premiership was taken by Gonzalez Brabo, a man almost unknown in Madrid, except for his talent as a journalist.

His paper, El Guirigay, had been prohibited for its gross attacks on the Queen-mother, and his Liberal ideas were well known. The splendid coolness and courage with which this young man thus contravened the storm of revolution in the very palace itself was calculated to arouse the hatred of the populace, who had looked to a revolution as a reform in all the conditions which make life burdensome.

Thus three days later, when Gonzalez Brabo crossed the Plaza de Oriente for his audience with the Queen at the palace, his coach was stopped by a mob, and the threatening attitude of the people would have checked anyone less cool and determined in his course.

The day of the reopening of the Congress after its suspension for the formation of the new Cabinet was a very anxious one, for it was clearly seen that the Queen had either been treated with flagrant disrespect or her report of the Minister’s conduct had been untrue.

The mace-bearers, with their plumed hats and their breasts bearing the embroidered arms of the city, were standing in statuesque immobility on their elevated places directly under the canopy at the head of the chamber. Every seat was filled; the boxes had their full complement of ladies, and outsiders and representatives of the press crowded the gangways. The President of the Congress sat at the official table, flanked by his officials, and all was expectation when the slight, dapper figure of Brabo, dressed in black and bearing the scarlet portfolio of office under his arm, walked with determined step to the seat of honour on the black[15] bench of the Ministers, and from thence returned the astonished glances of the deputies with a scornful smile and a contemptuous look. After waiting for the storm of dissentient remarks to subside, the Minister rose to his feet, and in clear, concise tones declared that he had been summoned by the Queen to the palace at 11.30 on November 3, and, being admitted to the royal presence, he found that the audience included all the staff of the gentiles hombres, including General Domingo Dulce, who had distinguished himself so bravely on the night of the attempted kidnapping of the little Princesses; Don Maurice Carlos de Onis, President of the Senate; the Duke of Rivas; the Count of Ezpeleta; the Marquis of Peñaflorida, and the Marquis of San Felices, Secretary of the Senate, with Don Pedro José Pidal, President of the Congress of Deputies, the President of the Academy of Languages, etc. The gathering also included the Patriarch of the Indias and the Notary of the King. And it was in the presence of this august assembly that Her Majesty had made the following declaration: “On the evening of the 28th of last month, Olozaga proposed my signing a decree for the dissolution of the Cortes, and I replied that I did not wish to sign it, having, among other reasons, the fact that this Cortes had declared me to be of age. Olozaga insisted; I again objected, rising from my seat and proceeding to the door at the left-hand side of the table. Olozaga intercepted my passage and locked the door. Upon this I turned to the other door, but he then stepped to that one, which he also locked. Then, catching me by the dress, he made me sit down, and seized me by the hand and forced me to sign the document. Before leaving me he told me to say nothing of the occurrence to anybody, but this I declined to promise.”

“Then,” continued Brabo, “at Her Majesty’s request, we all signed the royal declaration, for its transmittance to the archives.”

It was with great dignity and cleverness that Olozaga followed the statement of Brabo by refuting the points, holding his own as to his innocence, and yet not incriminating the Queen of untruth. When the unfortunate man had entered the Cortes with his brothers, cries of “Death to him!” came from a box filled with officers of the regiment of San Fernando, whilst shouts of “Viva!” came from other directions.

“Happen what may,” said Olozaga, “I deserve the confidence of the Queen, which I won as a Minister;” and it was in a voice trembling with emotion that he continued: “The life I have led justifies me—the person of my heart, my daughter, my friends. My colleagues have all found me always an upright man, incapable of failing in my duties, and this opinion I cannot sacrifice to the Queen, nor to God, nor to the Universe. Being a man of integrity, I must show myself as such before the world, even if it were on the steps of the scaffold itself.”

It is difficult to get an impartial opinion upon this episode, so fraught with importance and so conclusive of the short-sighted policy of putting the kingdom into the hands of a young girl of thirteen, who was utterly inexperienced in the art of government, as the Regent had lived away from the palace, and fate had sundered her from mother, aunts, uncles, and relatives, who, in any other station of life, might have aided her with their counsels. In the excitement of the moment the Minister had doubtless treated the Queen as he would his own daughter, and, keenly anxious to gain the decree which would empower him to rid himself of the majority of Moderates in the House, Olozaga had not stopped to consider how an exaggerated report might colour his action to the tone of that of a man guilty of gross lèse-majesté. The Queen was but a child in his eyes, and when she demurred at the seeming cruelty and ingratitude of dissolving a Cabinet which had been so favourable to the anticipation of her majority, it is probably true that the Minister patted her familiarly on the wrist, and said, with a smile of satisfaction and superiority: “I will accustom My Lady to such cruelties!”

The return of the Queen-mother was now solemnly demanded by a deputation of grandees, senators, and deputies. The necessity of the young Queen having a person of experience at her side was eloquently set forth; and those who were envious of the power of Gonzalez Brabo eagerly advised a course which would curtail his influence and lead to the supremacy of the Moderates. So Maria Cristina returned to Spain on February 28, 1844, arriving at Barcelona on March 4, and at Madrid on March 21.

However, Gonzalez Brabo managed to retain power under the new state of affairs, albeit at the price of being termed a traitor by his own party.

In spite of being accused of acting as a panderer to the Moderates, Olozaga’s advice to the Queen to legalize the marriage of her mother with Don Fernando Muñoz was a step of good policy. The ceremony in the chapel of the royal palace was celebrated by the Patriarch of the Indias.

The husband was endowed with the decorations and dignities of his position, and the Queen published the following decree:

Wherever the young Queen appeared with her sister in the country, their simple, unsophisticated ways filled the people with love and admiration. One day, being only accompanied by two Ladies-in-Waiting, they went to a village fête not very far from San Sebastian.

“Do you come from San Sebastian?” asked the peasants, with the freedom characteristic of the country-folk in Spain.

“Yes, we do,” replied the Queen.

“And do you belong to the military?”

“No,” said the Queen, repressing a smile, “we are not military people.”

“But at least you are Castilians?”

“Yes,” returned the Queen promptly; “we are girls from Madrid.”

“And do you like this part?” queried the interlocutor.

“Very much,” replied the Queen. “It is very cheerful.”

“Well,” continued the peasant, with frank familiarity, “sit down a bit and see the lads dance.”

“Thank you very much,” replied the Queen, “but we must be going.”

“You will have noticed,” rejoined the peasant, “that the roads are very bad, and you will get very tired. These mountains are only fit for strong feet, and not little delicate ones like yours.”

“Never mind,” returned Isabel; “we like to accustom ourselves to everything. You don’t know, then, who we are?”

“It is not easy to guess,” was the answer; “but you are certainly daughters of people of position and money.”

Then Isabel said: “I am the Queen.”

“The Queen! the Queen!” cried the people with delight; and cider, fruits, and cakes, were pressed upon the royal party.

The Queen and her sister received constant signs of affection in the neighbourhood of Guipuzcoa. They went to Pampeluna to receive the Duke and Duchess of Nemours and the Duke of Aumale, the arrival of the distinguished French guests was celebrated in the city by a magnificent banquet and bull-fight, and the distinguished Frenchmen stayed with the Count of Ezpeleta.

The fall of Miraflores, the able Prime Minister, was heralded by the evident desire of both the Queens for a change of Ministry, and those who wished to compass the fall of the Prime Minister were listened to by the royal ladies.

Miraflores found Queen Isabella alone one day in the palace, and Her Majesty said to the Minister:

“I have heard that the scandal this afternoon in the Congress has been so great that the President of the Congress put on his hat in his want of consideration for the Court.”

Miraflores explained that this act proceeded from no want of respect for the Cortes.

“Nevertheless it must be dissolved to-morrow,” was the reply.

Narvaez became Minister of War as well as President of the Congress. The part played at the palace in the change of Ministries is seen in the scene between Pacheco and the Queen-mother.

Maria Cristina remarked to the Minister that the Government would not last long. Upon this Pacheco placed two ounces of gold upon the mantelpiece, saying:

“I bet you that money that the Cabinet will not fall to-morrow as you say.”

Whereupon the Queen took another two ounces from her purse, and placing them beside those of the diplomat, she said:

“The bet is made: if the Ministry does not fall to-morrow, the money is yours; if it does, it is mine.” And the Ministry did fall.

This insidious influence of the camarilla was daily becoming more dangerous. Presumptuous and illegal, it held its sway over all that was prudent and constitutional, and thus the intrigues of the palace came between the Cortes and the throne, and the country and the Queen, exercising power to the detriment of the national representation, the throne, the nation, and the Sovereign. “The royal palace,” says Don Antonio Bermejo, “was a gilded cage where men were slaves to envy and idleness.”