Isabella II of Spain
Isabella II became Queen of Spain at three, reigned for thirty-five years, and was deposed by a revolution. Born in Madrid in 1830, she was the daughter of Ferdinand VII, who had issued a Pragmatic Sanction abolishing the Salic law so that a daughter could inherit. His brother Carlos disputed it, and her accession in 1833 began the First Carlist War, a seven-year conflict between liberals supporting the child queen and traditionalists supporting her uncle. Two further Carlist wars followed during the century. Her mother Maria Christina governed as regent until 1840 and then General Espartero until 1843, when Isabella was declared of age at thirteen. Her reign was dominated by the army. Politics operated through the pronunciamiento, in which a general issued a manifesto and marched on the capital, and power alternated between the Moderate and Progressive parties by that method rather than by election. Narváez, O'Donnell and Espartero each governed in turn. She married her cousin Francisco de Asís in 1846, a match arranged for dynastic reasons and universally regarded as unhappy; her personal life became a matter of open scandal, and her reliance on confessors and on a nun reputed to have stigmata damaged her further. The economy grew — railways were built, the desamortización sold church and municipal land — and the benefits went largely to a narrow class. The Glorious Revolution of September 1868 deposed her, and she fled to France. She abdicated in favour of her son in 1870, and he was restored in 1874. She died in Paris in 1904.
- Lived: 1830 CE – 1904 CE
- Nationality: Spanish
- Roles: queen, head_of_state
