VERGARA'S EMBRACE: ANTECEDENTS, CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - HISTORY - 2024

The Embrace or Agreement of Vergara is the moment when the First Carlist War ended. This embrace emotionally sealed the agreement signed between the Spanish General Baldomero Espartero and thirteen commissioners of General Rafael Maroto.

The agreement was signed on August 29, 1839 in the city of Guipúzcoa, Spain, specifically in the town of Oñate. Two days later, on August 31, the treaty was sealed with a hug between the two generals. This happened in front of the armies of both factions, Elizabethan and Carlists, in the lands of Vergara.

General Baldomero Espartero

This event marked the end of a war that lasted seven years and that was due to the struggle for the succession to the throne that left the death of King Fernando VII vacant on September 29, 1833. One side defended the right of Isabel II, while the other fought in favor of the infant Carlos María Isidro.

Background

By the year 1713 in the Spanish kingdom the Regulation of May 10 had been established. With this, it was stopped allowing any female relative in the line of succession to the throne of the kingdom to rise to it while there was still a male relative in the inheritance line.

This regulation legalized the aspiration of Carlos María Isidro, the brother of King Fernando VII, to inherit the kingdom since this king had no children; Despite having attempted descent in his three marriages, Fernando VII was unsuccessful in this endeavor.

But Fernando remarried. This time his wife María Cristina de Borbón Dos-Sicilias became pregnant. In this way, Ferdinand came to have the hope of bequeathing the throne of the kingdom to his direct descendant instead of his brother.

Abolition of the Salic Law

Fernando made a strategic move that would cause great controversy. About six months after the delivery, he decided to reactivate a law that followed that regulation of May 10. It was the Pragmatic Sanction of Carlos IV, which had been approved by the Cortes of 1789.

This law annulled the Salic law, regulation of the succession by male line, and opened the possibility of inheritance to the reigning throne for daughters when there is no living male child.

Carlos María Isidro vehemently opposed this legislative move, and when the daughter of King Fernando VII, the Infanta Isabel II, was born, Carlos did not recognize her as Princess of Asturias and heir to the king and withdrew from the royal estates.

That law granted Elizabeth II the succession to the throne, which she would take when she came of age. While that age reached, the throne would fall on the regent María Cristina de Borbón.

Death of Fernando VII

On September 29, 1833, the King of Spain, Fernando VII, died; this meant a trigger for the seizure of power on the Spanish throne. The royal regent María Cristina de Borbón assumed the regency occupying the throne on behalf of the heiress Isabel II.

Many kilometers from the capital of the kingdom, specifically in the Madrid neighborhood of Abrantes, was the renegade uncle of the future queen.

According to the Abrantes Manifesto, he stood as the legitimate dynastic heir to the Spanish throne, since he argued the illegality of that regulation.

Assuming that the Salic law was not abolished, he should assume the reign. In that Abrantes Manifesto, Carlos Isidro proclaims himself His Majesty King Carlos V.

In addition, he alleges that he does not aspire to expired powers, that he fights for the justice contained in the inheritance laws and the rights that give perpetuity, and also indicates that, under the aegis of divine law, this situation will affect his children and grandchildren.

On October 6, 1833, in the town of Tricio, in La Rioja, General Santos Ladrón de Cegama declared Carlos V king of Spain according to the Salic law. With this, the First Carlist War began.

Causes

At the end of the war for the emancipation of the American colonies, Fernando VII began a series of efforts to strengthen the kingdom. Between these efforts, he abolished the Constitution of 1812, did not restore the Holy Inquisition, and opened himself up to reforms with the purpose of attracting the liberal factions.

The Liberals proposed an equalization of the laws in all the territories covered by the kingdom.

Fernando VII also eliminated the fueros and annulled the particular laws. The twists that Fernando VII was giving the kingdom of Spain were oriented towards moderation and liberalism.

However, both the conservative sectors and those who promoted radical absolutism and traditionalist factions supported the Salic law of succession. For this reason, they gave their support to Carlos Isidro as heir to the throne.

This support was also based on the intervention of Carlos in favor of them during years of fights for the claims from the fueros in Álava, Navarra, Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa, and in defense of ultra-Catholicism.

Catholicism was the element that Carlos defended as the banner of his reign. Of course, by defending the radical Catholic religious sector, he supported the bases of the doctrine of the divine right of kings.

The Carlists

Some gave their active support to the Carlist side. Among them was the nobility of the rural areas, specifically the regions of Valencia, Aragon, the Basque Country, Navarra and Catalonia.

It was also joined by a high percentage of the Catholic clergy, especially the middle and lower sectors. Likewise, the artisan peasantry and the small businessmen affected by the liberal reforms that abolished the unions gave their support.

Instead, the Elizabethan camp received international support from England, France, and Portugal in favor of Spanish liberalism.

The First Carlist War ended on August 29 and 31, 1839 in the Oñate estates, when the agreement was first signed and later the so-called Abrazo de Vergara was made.

Agreement

The articles of the Vergara agreement recognized the ranks and grades of the troops faced. There were no demotions, he kept his salaries and legal benefits.

The charters were modified, but not abolished, and exclusive attention was given to widows and orphans by war.

Consequences

The most latent consequence of the treaty was the written commitment that, from now on, political disputes would be settled according to conventional means. From then on, General Espartero was an emergency semi-dictatorial counter-power.

It was clearly a victory for the continuing bourgeoisies, but this agreement did not seal the final peace, since the fragility of what was established in it gave rise to the Second Carlist War.

References

1. Canales, Carlos: (2006), The First Carlist War, 1833-1840, uniforms, weapons and flags. Ristre, Madrid.
2. Extramiana, José, (1978-1979) History of the Carlist Wars, San Sebastián.
3. Mundet, Josep Maria (1990), The First Carline War in Catalonia. Military and political history, Barcelona
4. Climent, Joan Josep, (2008), Carlist Routes. Editorial Episteme, Barcelona.
5. Suárez-Zuloaga, Ignacio. The embrace of Vergara and the agreement of Oñati. Recovered in: espanafascinante.com