690 



BRITAIN. 



1808. 



Britain, them while a prisoner. There is nothing in these 

 confessions of a very heinous nature ; and they may 

 a jj be f a i r ly supposed to allude to the step which 

 Ferdinand had taken, in writing to Napoleon with- 

 out the king's knowledge on the subject of his mar- 

 riage. But a decree, which had been addressed to all 

 the clergy, ordaining a solemn thanksgiving to God 

 for the king's deliverance, was meant to preserve the 

 idea, that the prince had harboured designs against 

 his father's government, if not against his life. On 

 the 5th of November, a royal edict was addressed to 

 the governor ad interim of the council of Castile, de- 

 claring that the voice of nature having disarmed the 

 hand of vengeance, the king had been moved by .pity, 

 and the intercession of the queen, to pardon his peni- 

 tent son, who had given information against the au- 

 thors of the parricidal design. 



Such was the state of affairs, when a French cou- 

 rier arrived at the royal palace of St Lawrence, with 

 a treaty concluded and signed at Fountainbleau, on 

 the 27th of October, by Isquieritjo, the plenipoten- 

 tiary of his Catholic majesty, and Marshal Duroc, in 

 the name of the French emperor. By this treaty it 

 was agreed, among other articles, that the province 

 of Entre Minho y Duero should be made over in en- 

 tire property and sovereignty to the king of Etruria, 

 with the title of king of Northern Lusitania. The 

 province of Alentejo and the kingdom of the Algar- 

 vea, in entire property and sovereignty to the Prince 

 of Peace, to be by him enjoyed under the title of Prince 

 of the Algarves. The provinces of Beira tras los 

 Monies, and Portuguese Estremadura, were to re- 

 main undisposed of till there should be a general 

 peace. The kingdom of Northern Lusitania, and 

 the principality of the Algarves, were to acknow- 

 ledge, as their protector, his Catholic majesty the 

 king of Spain, and in no case were to make peace or 

 war without his consent. In case of the provinces 

 of Beira and Portuguese Estremadura devolving at 

 a general peace to the house of Braganza, in exchange 

 for Gibraltar, Trinidad, and other colonies which the 

 British had conquered from Spain and her allies, the 

 new sovereign of these provinces was to contract, with 

 respect to his Catholic majesty, the same obligations 

 as the king of Northern Lusitania, and to hold his 

 territories on the same conditions. The king of 

 Etruria ceded' that kingdom in full property and 

 sovereignty to the emperor of the French and the 

 king of Italy. By a secret convention, it was agreed 

 that French troops were to be admitted into Spain, 

 where they were to be joined by bodies of Spanish 

 troops, and marched into Portugal. Another body 

 of French troops, to the number of 40,000, were to 

 be assembled at Bayonne before the end of Novem- 

 ber, to be ready to enter Spain in case the English 

 should send reinforcements to Portugal. 



The French forces, which had assembled on the 

 borders of Spain, remained but a short time inactive. 

 Early in 1808, a corps entered Catalonia, and on the 

 jg^ of F e b ruar y obtained possession of the town 

 and citadel of Barcelona, and of the strong position 

 of Monjuich. As a slight pretence for these move- 

 ments, it was said that the French were mnrching to 

 assist in repelling the insults of the British army on 

 the Spanish coast ; and rumours were whispered of 

 an intended invasion of Algiers and Morocco. At 

 Monjuich and Pajnpeluna, some slight resistance was 



A French 

 army 

 marches 

 JJito Spain. 



made by the national troops. There seemed, how- 

 ever, to be no organ of the general will; andalthough 

 the Spanish troops were rapidly advancing from Por- 

 tugal to Madrid, yet the feeble court who directed 

 them, were every day issuing contradictory orders. 

 The people, however, were at last alarmed,, and rou- 

 sed from torpor. It was rumoured that the king was 

 preparing to leave Aranjuez for Seville, with a view 

 to emigrate to his American dominions. The cha- 

 racter of the Prince of Peace made it highly probable 

 that he would instigate the royal family to such a re- 

 solution, as he possessed immense riches, and fore 

 seeing the impending storm, might well be anxious 

 to withdraw. It was rumoured, with equal probabi- 

 lity, that the Prince of Asturias was sufficiently at- 

 tached to his country to oppose the design. ^A 

 popular commotion broke out at Aranjuez. The 

 palace of the Prince of Peace was attacked ;" and 

 though he saved himself by flight, their majesties 

 found it necessary to appease the publir indignation, 

 by proclaiming that Godoy, their favourite, was dis- 

 charged from his high offices and commands, and was 

 permitted to retire wherever he might chuse. The 

 people of Madrid, whither Godoy had fled from 

 Aranjuez, were determined that he should not retire 

 with such impunity. They rose like the people of 

 Aranjuez, discovered the Prince of Peace in a garret, 

 and committed him to a common jail. In the midst 

 of these commotions, Charles IV. published at Aran- 

 juez, on the 19th of March, a formal abdication of 

 the Spanish throne ; either impelled by personal fears, 

 he gave way to the popular wishes in favour of his 

 son, or was terrified into the measure by Bonaparte, 

 who, for the sake of getting the favourite of the 

 people, the Prince of Asturias, into his power, soom 

 after invited him to a fatal interview, under the new 

 title of Ferdinand VII. 



The first act of the new king was to publish a 

 manifesto and demonstration of his own innocence. 

 He confiscated the effects of the Prince of Peace, 

 and appointed to the presidency of the grand Coun- 

 cil of Castile, a popular nobleman, the Duke of In- 

 fantado, who was known to be attached to the Eng- 

 lish interests. On the 23d of March, he made his 

 public entry into Madrid. Two days before that 

 time, the French army under the Duke of Berg, had 

 also entered the Spanish capital. While the governor 

 and garrison of Madrid submitted to the degrading act 

 of being obliged to welcome an enemy's army come to 

 overawe them, the mass of the people were in a state 

 of high fermentation, and some mortal encounters 

 took place between the individuals of the two nations. 

 Hitherto the occupation of the country by the French 

 had been endured, en the part of the Spaniards, more 

 from stupefaction than cowardice. But when they 

 saw the French General Duhesme throwing ammu- 

 nition and provisions into Barcelona, they remon- 

 strated against the portentous movement. " Your 

 troops," said the Spanish Captain-general Espetella, 

 in a letter to the French general, " that occupied 

 the citadel and the fortress of Monjuich, might have 

 considered all the houses of Barcelona as so many 

 magazines, and the provisions they contained as their 

 own. Yuur excellency occupied the fortresses in the 

 name of the emperor and king as an ally ; and it was 

 only on the faith of this, that the Spanish govern- 

 ment consented to its occupancy. The city gave you 



Britain. 



GEORGE III 

 1808. 



The Princi 

 of Peace 

 atracktd 

 and im p c 

 soiled. 



Charles IV 

 abdicates 

 the Spanisl 

 throne. 



Ferdinand 

 VII. enter 

 Madrid. 



TheFrencl 

 army en- 

 ters Ma- 

 drid. 



