The Carlists first appear on the scene in 1823. In the summer of that year a French army marched into Spain to put down the chaotic constitutional regime and earn, in Chateaubriand’s words, un baptême de gloire for the French Bourbon dynasty. But Louis XVIII had no wish to restore the old disreputable absolutism. He had Ferdinand’s promise that he would give his country a charte or moderate constitution. When therefore Ferdinand VII proceeded to break his word and to let loose a ferocious persecution on the Liberals, the French king was placed in a difficult position. Protests produced no effect: to use force against the fanatical power of the Church seemed dangerous. But for the sake of his reputation abroad he was compelled to insist upon one thing – that the Inquisition should not be restored. Ferdinand was therefore compelled to dismiss his clerical minister, Victor Saez, which he did by making him an archbishop, and to content himself with what he wanted most – a few thousand executions.

But Saez did not resign himself to this ‘betrayal of our Holy Religion’. He collected round him a party, known as the Apostólicos, who demanded two things – the restoration of the Inquisition and the complete extirpation of the Liberals. The majority of the bishops and many of the courtiers joined it and it was planned to depose Ferdinand and to place his stupid and fanatical brotherCarlos on the throne. This plan led to a rising in Catalonia, which was put down, but the responsibility of the real leaders was hushed up in return for a promise to cease plotting and await the death of the King. Ferdinand was a widower with no children and, since his health was bad and his life dissolute, it was not expected he could live for long. But a few years later the situation suddenly changed. The King took a third wife, María Cristina of Naples, and a daughter, Isabella, was born.