The in
Spain were the last major European
Civil War s in which pretenders fought to establish their claim to a throne. Several times during the period from
1833 to
1876 the
Carlists -- followers of
Carlos and his descendants - rallied to the cry of "God, Country, and King" and fought for the cause of Spanish tradition (
Absolutism and
Catholicism ) against the
Liberalism , and later the
Republicanism , of the Spanish governments of the day.
When
Ferdinand VII of Spain died in
1833 , his fourth wife
Maria Cristina became Queen regent on behalf of their infant daughter
Isabella II . This splintered the country into two factions known as the
Cristinos (or
Isabelinos ) and the Carlists. The Cristinos were the supporters of the Queen Regent and her government. The Carlists were the supporters of
Carlos , a pretender to the throne and brother of the deceased Ferdinand VII, who denied the validity of the
Pragmatic Sanction that abolished the
Salic Law . The
First Carlist War lasted over seven years and the fighting spanned most of the country at one time or another, although the main conflict centered on the Carlist homelands of the
Basque Country and
Aragon .
Queen Isabella II was overthrown by a conspiracy of liberal generals in
1868 , and left Spain in some disgrace. The generals replaced her with
Amadeo , the Duke of
Aosta (and second son of King
Victor Emmanuel of
Italy ), Then when the Spanish elections of
1872 resulted in government violence against Carlist candidates and a swing away from the Carlists, the Carlist pretender, Carlos VII, decided that only force of arms could win him the throne.
The
Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was considered by the Carlists as yet another crusade against secularism. In spite of the victory of their side, General Franco frustrated the pretensions of the Carlist monarchism and subsumed their militias into the Nationalist army and their political party into his
National Movement .
See also , '''
Second Carlist War ''', '''
Third Carlist War '''.
