428 THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 



Ferdinand was born on the 14th October, 1784. He was married 

 four times : 1st, to Marie Antionette, daughter of the King of the Two 

 Sicilies ; 2dly, to the Infanta Maria Isabella, of Portugal ; 3dly, to the 

 Princess Maria Josepha Amelia, daughter of the Prince Maximilian of 

 Saxony, and lastly, to Maria Carlotta, the present dowager Queen, 

 daughter of the late King of Naples, by whom he had issue Maria 

 Isabella Christina, whom he declared his successor, in contravention to 

 the law established by Philip the Fifth, the grandson of Louis the 

 Fourteenth, on his accession to the Spanish throne. 



This last published act of his life is fraught with consequences of 

 the deepest importance to the future destinies of the Spanish monarchy 

 one that renders still more complex the present position of European 

 politics on the horison of which, iri*spite of all the protocols of diplo- 

 macy, the clouds of a war of opinion are gathering thicker and faster. 



The ancient public right of all the kingdoms that at this day compose 

 the Spanish monarchy, admitted the succession to the throne of females, 

 in default of males in the same degree. It was in virtue of this law, 

 declared fundamental in the code " de las siete partidas" that Isabella 

 " La Catholica" brought as a marriage portion the kingdom of Castille, 

 to Ferdinand of Arragon, that Charles the Fifth inheriting his dominions 

 by right of his mother, placed upon the throne of Spain the House of 

 Austria, and that the House of Bourbon ascended it at a later period. 

 Philip of Anjou, already the father of two sons at his accession, and 

 his Queen again enceinte, introduced into Spain the French Salic law, 

 by abolishing the old national law of Spain, to which he owed his 

 crown. The Cortes which he assembled in 1713, and to which he 

 made the proposition immediately rejected it, and was imitated by 

 the Council of Castille. Irritated by their refusal, Philip ordered 

 their consultum to be burnt, and by the advice of the Council of State 

 directed that every counselor of Castile, every deputy of the towns in 

 Cortes, and every representative of the nobility and clergy should give 

 their votes individually in writing. 



It was in this illegal manner that the Salic law was introduced into 

 Spain ; but a condition was added, that the prince of the collateral line, 

 called to the throne to the exclusion of the female branch, should be bred 

 and born in the Spanish peninsula. When Charles III. assembled the 

 Cortes to obtain their recognition of his eldest son as Prince of Asturias, 

 the deputies loudly opposed the Salic law j and the king, apprehensive 

 that the condition annexed to it in 1713 would exclude his sons from 

 the throne, who were both born in Naples, ordered a new edition of the 

 laws of the kingdom, in which this condition was suppressed. But the 

 opposition to the Salic law appeared still more decided in the Cortes as- 

 sembled on the accession of Charles IV. in 1798. On this occasion, menaces, 

 presents, and even poison was resorted to, to stifle the opposition of its 

 members. Again: the Cortes of 1812, in their Articles 170 to 178, 

 abrogated the Salic law a measure principally brought about by the 

 Servile party in that assembly, who, apprehensive that neither Ferdi- 

 nand, nor his brother Don Carlos, would ever escape from the hands of 

 Napoleon, wished to assure the throne to the Infanta Carlotta, the late 

 queen of Portugal, of absolute memory, and mother of the hopeful 

 Miguel. Ferdinand, on his restoration, on abolishing the Cortes, re- 

 established the Salic law ; but when his fourth wife at length promised 

 him an heir, wishing to secure the crown to his issue, of whatever sex it 



