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45-568: When Ferdinand VII regained his "freedom" on 1 October 1823 and restored the absolute monarchy for the second time, he did not disband the Royalist Volunteer Corps and continued to use it as an instrument of repression. Most of its members were radical absolutists or ultra-absolutists, and the Corps was described as the "armed wing of ultra-royalism". It was an absolutist counterpart to the liberal National Militia established by

90-456: A "mass of proletarians". General Cruz was replaced by Aymerich, who quickly issued a royal decree on 6 September instructing the captains general to seek funds to provide "uniforms and other clothing for those who cannot afford them due to financial failure". The decree also stated that the only requirement for new recruits was that they should be "staunch lovers of our Lord the King". In June 1826,

135-718: A centralised state police". The involvement of the Realist Volunteers in the War of the Aggrieved (1827) and their uncontrolled actions gradually led the Crown and the local institutions to distrust them and to consider disbanding them, especially when they sided with Don Carlos in the succession dispute at the end of the reign of Ferdinand VII. As the Marquis of Las Amarillas noted in 1832, "the King wanted to keep them, but

180-586: A military corps, known as the One Hundred Thousand Sons of St. Louis (Los Cien Mil Hijos de San Luis) and led by Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême , invaded the Spanish territory. Louis was welcomed on 24 May in Madrid, after the liberals had abandoned the city and taken refuge in the commercial city of Cádiz, where Ferdinand was kept as prisoner. Here the democratic Cortes met to declare

225-400: A new ordinance was passed stating that the only condition for joining the corps was to have a 'respectable way of life'. Day labourers were specifically mentioned, as Article Ten stated that city councils and officials should "give preference to the Realist Volunteers, especially day labourers, in all available work in the cities, if the circumstances are equal". A general inspection of the corps

270-499: A noble lineage inherited from their ancestors and maintained with dignity". The Realist volunteers rejected the decree, so much so that at the end of March a document purporting to be from the king was sent to the Realist leaders in the name of the general commander of the volunteers, José Aymerich. This document urged them not to comply with the regulation and to rebel against the captains general who were trying to enforce it ("My wish

315-557: A salary, weapons, some power and a new sense of dignity". The role of the Realist Volunteers was to complement the institutionalised repression of the liberals, but in many areas they came to exercise de facto power. This is evidenced by a document on the Realist Volunteers in Cifuentes (Guadalajara), which states that they "wanted to live at the expense of the rich, whom they insulted and threatened, calling them negros ", meaning liberals. A police report from 1825 confirmed that "there

360-533: Is a general emigration to France of all the landowners and wealthy people of the Basque provinces , because they cannot bear the insults, harassment and abuse of the Realist volunteers and the lower classes of the city". As the historian Juan Francisco Fuentes has pointed out, "a large part of the political and social violence during the Ominous Decade must be attributed to the often uncontrollable actions of

405-468: Is now published as its own electronic document, pagination begins and ends every year with each notice following a continuous page numbering system. Notices are currently structured in the following way: Composed of two subsections: Composed of the provisions that must be published with no general character or apply to other sections: grants and subsidies, service letters, collective agreements of general scope, curricula, etc. Grouped as follows: There

450-654: Is that you inform the Realist volunteers under your command and all those in the provinces through your channels that they should not comply with it. On the contrary, they should assemble and work together to free me from the hands of the French ['the authors of this attack'] and to resist with force the captains general who are trying to enforce it"). The situation became so serious that the General Superintendent of Police denounced in La Gaceta de Madrid that

495-545: The de facto role of an occupation force: however, its heavy cost of supply caused further damage to the Spanish treasury, which had been depleted under the liberal government, also due to the South American revolutions. The discontent of the Spanish military was further spurred by the formation of the Royalist Volunteers , a militia created by Ferdinand VII in 1823, a short time after the collapse of

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540-736: The Constitution of 1812 and expanded during the Triennium . The Corps was officially disbanded in 1833, following the death of Ferdinand VII, and many of its members joined the forces of the Infante Carlos María Isidro during the First Carlist War . When the invasion of the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis began on the 7th of April 1823, entering Spain through the Basque provinces ,

585-637: The Spanish Constitution of 1812 , on 1 October 1823, to his death on 29 September 1833. Ferdinand VII had become king after the victorious end of the Peninsular War , by which Spain defeated Napoleonic France. He returned to Spain on 24 March 1814 and his first act was the abolition of the 1812 liberal constitution; this was followed by the dissolution of the two chambers of the Spanish Parliament on 10 May. These were only

630-882: The Spanish Presidency Office . The BOE publishes decrees by the Cortes Generales , Spain's Parliament (comprising the Senate and the Congress of Deputies ) as well as those orders enacted by the Spanish Autonomous Communities . The Spanish Constitution of 1978 provides in Article 9.3 that "The Constitution guarantees ... the publication of laws." This includes the official publishing of all Spanish judicial, royal and national governmental decrees, as well as any orders by

675-538: The new regime ". The government tried to control the Realist Volunteers, who had become a parallel power. At the end of February 1824, the Secretary of War, José de la Cruz, issued a decree stating that the time had come to subject the volunteers to a central authority and a "monarchical order" (in order to avoid the mistakes of the National Militia under Liberalism, which had taken it upon itself to judge

720-493: The Autonomous Communities. Following Law 11/2007 of 22 June, concerning the electronic access of citizens to Public Services, and Royal Decree 181/2008 of 8 February, concerning the official gazette, the publication ceased in its traditional print format on 31 December 2008 and switched to an online mode of dissemination. Since 2009, the gazette is now primarily published electronically. Each individual notice

765-632: The British government for their role in the wars against Napoleon), Paris, Malta, the United States, or to newly proclaimed independent republics of South America, towards which the Spanish liberal government had held a far less hostile stance than Ferdinand VII. Others, instead, were ruthlessly eliminated, such as Del Riego, the main symbol of the revolution, who was hanged on 7 November 1823 in La Cebada Square of Madrid. Harsh censorship

810-702: The Council of Ministers. According to Royal Decree 181/2008 of 8 February, the BOE is the official journal of the Kingdom of Spain, providing the State Government the means to publish mandatory laws, regulations and other acts approved by the parliaments. It therefore contains a comprehensive list of all Laws passed in parliament, the provisions adopted by the Government of Spain and the general provisions of

855-437: The Realist Volunteers". He added: "This social and political radicalism, which combined hatred of the rich with hatred of liberals, made the Realist Volunteers a constant source of agitation against the government, which many of them accused of complicity with the negros [a derogatory term used by absolutists to refer to liberals]. Emilio La Parra also stressed that they carried out "arbitrary arrests" and in many cases "disobeyed

900-789: The Regency created the Corps "by taking advantage of the groups that had taken up arms against constitutionalism, with the dual aim of waging war against the constitutional system and excluding any negotiations that might establish a representative regime in Spain similar to that in France . In other words, the aim was to eliminate the Liberals". The Regency's order stated that the Royalist Volunteers would continue to operate "until His Majesty deems it appropriate to decide on measures for

945-500: The Regency on 10 June 1823. According to the Regency's order of 10 June 1823, the Royalist Volunteers would act as a local police force under the orders of the corregidores and municipalities, and under the supreme authority of the Captain General. Their mission was to maintain order, patrol, guard and intervene "in fires, quarrels and other events that might cause popular disorder". The historian Josep Fontana highlighted

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990-466: The Two Sicilies , took the regency. Since the other pretender, Don Carlos, was considered a champion of absolutism, Maria Christina decided to seek support from the liberal opposition. Her policy worsened the acrimony among Carlos's supporters. At Ferdinand's death, in 1833, his daughter Isabella II was declared Queen; Carlos opposed this and declared himself the legitimate heir to the throne with

1035-438: The actions of its own rulers, becoming their censors and judges and ultimately turning into a "permanent instrument of armed conspiracy"). In order to avoid "confusing the social classes", as the Liberals had done, the regulation required that volunteers be people with "income, industries, a trade or a respectable and known way of life", excluding "day labourers and all those who could not support themselves and their families during

1080-458: The authorities or even usurped their powers". He stated: "In effect, they acted as the armed wing of the people against the reformism of the moderate [absolutist] ministers". In September 1824, the General Superintendent of Police, Mariano Rufino González, complained of "the reports I receive from everywhere that between the police and other companies there is nothing but odious rivalries, unfortunate clashes, open and scandalous opposition". Meanwhile,

1125-427: The bishops warned the government of the dangers posed by the "heated and possibly bloodthirsty zeal" of the volunteers. The Realist Volunteers were under the command of local city councils, which were responsible for providing funds for their maintenance and supervising their recruitment. As the historian Josep Fontana has pointed out, "local oligarchies preferred these nearby forces, which they could easily manage, to

1170-427: The circular was false. Aymerich also claimed that it was a fabrication by the Liberals. However, as the French ambassador wrote in a report to his government, "almost all the Realist volunteers refused to obey the order to disband". Eventually the government relented and the order was never enforced. This was confirmed by the French ambassador in Madrid, who stated that the corps of Realist Volunteers consisted mainly of

1215-457: The constitutional cabinet, in order to provide the king a direct means of suppression against the liberal opposition. In 1826 the militia amounted to some 200,000 volunteers, half of which included in 486 infantry battalions, 20 artillery companies, 52 cavalry squadrons and some sapper companies. The decade saw an endless series of riots and attempts of revolutions, such as that of Torrijos, funded by English liberals, on 11 December 1831. Aside from

1260-527: The contradiction between the creation of the Royalist Volunteers and the creation, two days earlier, of the Superintendence of Public Surveillance , whose purpose was to "prevent and avoid all excesses". From the outset, the responsibilities of the two institutions overlapped, leading to frequent complaints from the police that the volunteers were making arrests and issuing safe-conducts on their own authority. The historian Emilio La Parra López noted that

1305-476: The days of service in their city". He added that this rule also applied to "those already admitted under these circumstances", meaning that they could no longer belong to the corps, whose numbers were also limited to "one volunteer for every seventy-five souls". As for the requirements for candidates for leadership positions (the city councils would submit a shortlist to the captains general, who would appoint them), they had to "own significant real estate... or possess

1350-599: The fall of the main absolutist institutions and privileges, and the increasing shift towards radicalism of the Parliament's majority. Ferdinand, however, had not abandoned his reactionary goals, and appealed to the Holy Alliance established at the Congress of Vienna in 1814, by which the main absolutist monarchies of Europe had agreed to help each other in case one of them had to suffer a democratic revolution. On 7 April 1823, France launched an expedition, by which

1395-478: The first moves towards a severe anti-liberal reaction, which caused a series of military riots, started in January 1820 by General Rafael del Riego . The monarch was forced to reintroduce the Spanish Constitution of 1812 , with a solemn oath during a ceremony in Madrid on 10 March 1820. This began the so-called Trienio Liberal ("Liberal Triennium", or Constitutional Triennium), during which Ferdinand had to witness

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1440-561: The government. This greatly increased the power of the Realist Volunteers. The Realist Volunteers apparently experienced spectacular growth, rising from around 70,000 members in 1824 to 284,000 in 1832. However, almost half of them lacked arms and uniforms, and their distribution was very uneven. Three-quarters of them were concentrated in Old Castile , New Castile , Galicia , Valencia , Murcia and Granada , while regions such as Catalonia had barely more than ten thousand volunteers. As

1485-409: The historian Josep Fontana notes, "the status of volunteer offered its mostly humble members social incentives, a source of income that allowed unemployed day labourers to survive, and a preferential option for local jobs". This view is shared by Emilio La Parra, who notes that "belonging to this corps meant loyalty to the absolute regime and, for many, the hope of securing employment, which facilitated

1530-406: The interests of his daughter 's cause advised that they be weakened, if not destroyed". The Corps was organised into 486 infantry battalions, 20 artillery companies, 52 cavalry squadrons and a few sapper companies. Ominous Decade The Ominous Decade (Castilian: Década Ominosa ) is a term for the last ten years of the reign of King Ferdinand VII of Spain , dating from the abolition of

1575-423: The internal security of his cities, or until the Regency of the Kingdom deems it just to cease their operations". When Ferdinand VII regained absolute power on 1 October 1823, he did not disband the corps because "without an army entirely loyal to absolutism, and with French troops stationed at strategic points throughout the territory, the volunteers were the only independent armed force on which to rely to maintain

1620-542: The king's deposition. The French troops besieged the city, until 31 August, when the Battle of Trocadero marked the liberals' defeat and the capitulation of the city. After his restoration, Ferdinand VII started a period of his reign known as "Ominous Decade", due to its marked stress on the suppression of his enemies. Most of the members of the Liberal Party fled abroad, to London (where some received monetary help by

1665-700: The liberal side, Ferdinand's policies caused discontent also in the conservative party: in 1827 a revolt broke out in Catalonia , and later extended to Valencia , Aragon, the Basque Country and Andalusia , spurred by ultra-reactionaries according to whom Ferdinand's restoration had been too timid, failing in particular to reinstate the Inquisition . In what was called the War of the Agraviados , some 30,000 men controlled most of Catalonia and some of

1710-561: The name of Charles V. This was the beginning of the First Carlist War . Bolet%C3%ADn Oficial del Estado The Boletín Oficial del Estado ( BOE ; " Official State Gazette ", from 1661 to 1936 known as the Gaceta de Madrid , " Madrid Gazette ") is the official gazette of the Kingdom of Spain and may be published on any day of the week. The content of the BOE is authorized and published by Royal Assent and with approval from

1755-545: The northern regions, and even established an autonomous government. Ferdinand intervened personally, moving to Tarragona to quench the revolt: he promised an amnesty, but once the rioters had surrendered, he had their leaders executed and others exiled to France. Further instability came when, on 31 March 1830, Ferdinand issued the Pragmatic Sanction , which had been approved by his father Charles IV as early as 1789, but not published till then. The decree allowed

1800-426: The rapid growth of its membership". According to Fontana, this growth was also fuelled by a "populist dream that led [the realists] to look back at the recovery of an idyllic past that never existed", as was the case for many peasants and artisans. "The proletarian who joined the ranks of the realist volunteers became more important than the wealthy of the village, and could even intimidate them. Realism at least gave him

1845-514: The succession to the Spanish throne also to female heirs, in case a male one was not available. Ferdinand would have only two children, both daughters, the eldest being the future queen Isabella II , who was born in October 1830. The Sanction excluded from the succession Ferdinand's brother, Carlos, Count of Molina . In his later years, Ferdinand fell severely ill, and he lost the ability to direct his own affairs. His young wife, Maria Christina of

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1890-582: The three Basque Councils created bodies of native or armed countrymen, made up of volunteers, responsible for maintaining order and pursuing the liberals. They refused to be subject to the authority of the Captain General—in the Basque Country, as in Navarre, the royalist volunteer corps would not be formally constituted, its functions being taken over by the armed countrymen—. At the same time, in

1935-557: The town of Ezcaray in La Rioja , a royal volunteer corps was formed, based on the model of the Liberal National Militia , which grew to three companies. At the beginning of May, the Captain General of Old Castile praised the town for the actions of its members and approved its provisional regulations. These regulations would form the basis of the rules for the formation of the Royalist Volunteer Corps, published by

1980-409: Was also created, making the Realist Volunteers independent of the army, no longer dependent on the captains general. Their ultimate goal was defined as "to fight revolutionaries and conspiracies and to wipe out revolution and conspiracy". They thus achieved their highest aspiration: to be commanded by an Inspector General appointed by the King and answerable only to him, bypassing the Secretary of War and

2025-595: Was re-established, while an archaic and totally reactionary organization of universities was introduced under the strict control of the Minister of Justice, Francisco Tadeo Calomarde , who was the mastermind of the suppression of opposition and of the restoration of former institutions, such as the Jesuits (outlawed by the Bourbons in the late 18th century), monasteries and others. The French corps remained in Spain, with

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