Editing Isabella II (section)

=== Moderate decade ===
{{Main|Década moderada}}
[[File:Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz - Retrato de Isabel II - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|right|Portrait painting of Isabella II by [[Federico de Madrazo y Kuntz]] (1844).]]
Dominated by the figure of [[Ramón María Narváez|Marshal Narváez]], the ''Espadón'' ("Big Sword") of Loja, the so-called "[[Moderate decade]]" began in 1844. The constitutional reforms devised by Narváez moved away from the 1837 Constitution by rejecting national sovereignty and reinforcing the power of the monarch, to the point of a "co-sovereignty" between the Cortes and the Queen.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Clases sociales y partidos políticos en la década moderada (1844–1854)|first=Miguel|last=Beltrán Villalva|journal=Historia y política: Ideas, Procesos y Movimientos Sociales|issn=1575-0361|issue=13|year=2005|pages=49–78|url=https://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/Hyp/article/view/44708|publisher=[[Complutense University of Madrid|UCM]]; [[UNED]]; [[Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales|CEPC]]}}</ref>
<!--Moderados ruled from 1846 to 1854, Progressives from 1854 to 1856, and Unión Liberals from 1856 to 1863. Moderados and Unión Liberals quickly succeeded each other to keep out the Progressives, thus sowing the seeds for the Revolution of 1868.<ref>F.H. Gribble, ''The tragedy of Isabella, II'' (1913).</ref>-->
{{Main|Affair of the Spanish Marriages}}
On 10 October 1846, the Moderate Party made their sixteen-year-old queen marry her double-first cousin [[Francisco de Asís, Duke of Cádiz]] (1822–1902), the same day that her younger sister, [[Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier|Infanta Luisa Fernanda]], married [[Antoine d'Orléans, Duke of Montpensier]].{{Refn|group=n.|Isabella and Francisco de Asís were rather caustically described by 1866 by an English contemporary thus:

::… The Queen is large in stature, but rather what might be called bulky than stately. There is no dignity either in her face or figure, and the graces of majesty are altogether wanting. The countenance is cold and expressionless, with traces of an unchastened, unrefined, and impulsive character, and the indifference it betrays is not redeemed by any regularity or beauty of feature.

::The King Consort is much smaller in figure than his royal two-thirds, and certainly is not a type that could be admired for its manly qualifications; but we have to remember that in Spain aristocratic birth is designated rather by a diminutive stature and sickly complexion than by those attributes of height, muscular power, open expression, and florid hue, which in England constitute the ideal of ‘race.’<ref>Mrs. Wm. Pitt Byrne, [https://books.google.com/books?id=y8hBAAAAIAAJ&q=%22cosas+de+Espana%22 ''Cosas De España, Illustrative of Spain and the Spaniards as they are, Volume II''], Page 7, Alexander Strahan, Publisher, London and New York, 1866.</ref>}} Disgusted by her marriage, Isabella reportedly commented later to one of her intimates: "what shall I tell you about a man whom I saw wearing more lace than I was wearing on our wedding night?"<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.realacademiabellasartessevilla.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PEDRO-S%C3%81NCHEZ-N%C3%9A%C3%91EZ.pdf|page=219|title=El Duque de Montpensier, entre la historia y la leyenda|first=Pedro|last=Sánchez Núñez|journal=Temas de Estética y Arte|issn=0214-6258|issue=28|year=2014|publisher=[[Real Academia de Bellas Artes de Santa Isabel de Hungría]]|location=Seville}}</ref>

The marriages suited [[July Monarchy|France]] and [[Louis Philippe, King of the French]], who as a result bitterly quarrelled with Britain.<ref>[[Jasper Ridley (historian)|Jasper Ridley]], ''Lord Palmerston'' (1970) pp. 308–315.</ref> However, the marriages were not happy; persistent rumour had it that few if any of Isabella's children were fathered by her [[King Consort]], rumoured to be a homosexual. The Carlist party asserted that the heir-apparent to the throne, who later became Alfonso XII, had been fathered by a captain of the guard, Enrique Puigmoltó y Mayans.<ref>Juan Sisinio Pérez Garzón, Isabel II: Los Espejos de la Reina (2004)</ref>
[[File:Bautizo de la Infanta doña Isabel, Princesa de Asturias (Rafael Benjumea).jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|Baptism of the Princess of Asturias in December 1851, by {{ill|Rafael Benjumea|es|Rafael Benjumea (pintor)}}]]
In 1847, a major scandal took place when Isabella, age seventeen, publicly showed her love for [[Francisco Serrano, 1st Duke of la Torre|General Serrano]] and her willingness to divorce from her husband Francisco de Asís;{{Sfn|Burdiel|2012|p=33}} though Narváez and Isabella's mother [[Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies|Maria Christina]] solved the problem posed to the monarchical institution—Serrano was shifted away from the capital to the post of Captain General of Granada in 1848—,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.es/madrid/20150212/abci-historia-calle-serrano-madrid-201502101226.html|website=[[ABC (Spain)|ABC]]|title=Serrano, el amante de Isabel II que dio nombre a la calle más comercial de Madrid|first=M.R.|last=Domingo|date=13 February 2015}}</ref> the deterioration of the public image of the queen increased from then on.{{Sfn|Burdiel|2012|p=33}} Following the [[Revolutions of 1848#Spain|near-revolution of 1848]], Narváez was authorised to rule as dictator to repress insurrectionary attempts up until 1849.{{Sfn|Beltrán Villalva|2005|p=50}}

In late 1851, Isabella II gave birth to her first daughter and heir presumptive, who was baptised on 21 December as [[Infanta Isabella, Countess of Girgenti|María Isabel Francisca de Asís]].{{Sfn|Cambronero|1908|p=168}} Historians have attributed the Princess of Asturias' biological parenthood to [[José Ruiz de Arana y Saavedra, Duke of Baena|José Ruiz de Arana]],<ref name=aportes>{{Cite journal|url=http://www.actashistoria.com/pdf/aportes/aportes_069/06_resenas.pdf|first=Agustín|last=Esteban Monasterio|title=Sexenio Revolucionario y Restauración|page=119|journal=Aportes|issue=69|volume=XXIV|year=2009}}</ref> [[Gentilhombres de cámara con ejercicio|''Gentilhombre de cámara'']].
[[File:Museo del Romanticismo - CE3809 - Regicidio del Cura Merino.jpg|thumb|right|Attempted regicide by the ''cura Merino'' in 1852]]

On 2 February 1852, Isabella and the Royal Guard were caught by surprise while the Queen was leaving the Chapel of the [[Royal Palace of Madrid|Royal Palace]] intending to go with her parade to the [[Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Atocha]]: {{ill|Martín Merino y Gómez|es}}, an ordained priest and liberal activist approached the queen giving the impression of wanting to deliver her a message,{{Sfn|Cambronero|1908|pp=170–171}} and stabbed her. The impact was reduced by the gold embroidery of her dress and by the [[baleen]] stays of her [[corset]], and what was intended to be a stab wound to the chest only resulted in a minor incision at the right side of the belly.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.diariosur.es/sociedad/201610/11/corse-reina-20161011203550.html|website=Diario Sur|title=El corsé de la reina|date=14 October 2016|first=Antonio|last=Paniagua}}</ref> Merino, quickly seized by the halberdiers of the Royal Guard (with help from the dukes of Osuna and Tamames, the Marquis of Alcañices and the Count of Pinohermoso),{{Sfn|Cambronero|1908|p=172}} was removed from sacerdocy and executed by ''[[garrote]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.madridiario.es/452630/cura-merino-efemerides|website=Madridiario|title=Puñalada en el costado en nombre de Martín Merino|first=Víctor|last=Sanz|date=2 February 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Episodio de la revolución de 1854 en la Puerta del Sol (cropped).JPG|thumb|right|July 1854 revolution in Madrid]]
Under the government of the [[Luis José Sartorius, 1st Count of San Luis|Count of San Luis]] (whose ascension to premiership had been solely founded on the support from the networks of the royal court),<ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://jornades.uab.cat/congresinternacionalcorrupcio/sites/jornades.uab.cat.congresinternacionalcorrupcio/files/nunez_garcia_v._m.pdf|chapter=Corrupción y redes de poder en la Corte Isabelina|first1=Víctor Manuel|last1=Núñez García|first2=María Luisa|last2=Calero Delgado|title=La corrupción política en la España contemporánea: un enfoque interdisciplinar|year=2018|access-date=2020-08-22|archive-date=2022-02-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220223044843/https://jornades.uab.cat/congresinternacionalcorrupcio/sites/jornades.uab.cat.congresinternacionalcorrupcio/files/nunez_garcia_v._m.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> the system was in a critical state by June 1854.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fernández Trillo|year=1982|page=17|first=Manuel|url=https://gredos.usal.es/bitstream/handle/10366/24871/THVIII~N87~P16-29.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y|journal=Tiempo de Historia|volume=VIII|issue=87|title= La Vicalvarada y la Revolución Española de 1854}}</ref> On 28 June 1854 a military ''[[pronunciamiento]]'' intending to force the queen to oust the government of the Count of San Luis, featuring [[Leopoldo O'Donnell]] (a "puritan" moderate), took place in [[Vicálvaro]], the so-called ''[[Vicalvarada]]''.{{Sfn|Fernández Trillo|1982|p=18–19}} The military coup (rather dominated by the moderates themselves) had a mixed result and O'Donnell (advised by [[Ángel Fernández de los Ríos]] and [[Antonio Cánovas del Castillo]]) proceeded then to seek for civilian support, promising new reforms not in the initial plans in order to appeal to progressives, by bringing a "liberal regeneration", as proclaimed in the ''[[Manifesto of Manzanares]]'', drafted by Antonio Cánovas del Castillo and issued on 7 July 1854.{{Sfn|Fernández Trillo|1982|pp=18–20}}

Days later, the situation was followed by a full-scale people's revolution, with revolutionary juntas organised on 17 July in Madrid,{{Sfn|Fernández Trillo|1982|p=25}} and barricades erected in the streets. With the prospect of a civil war on the horizon, Isabella was advised to appoint General Espartero (who enjoyed charisma and popular support) as prime minister.{{Sfn|Cambronero|1908|p=188}}{{Sfn|Fernández Trillo|1982|p=27}} This renewed ascension of Espartero marked the beginning of the ''bienio progresista''.