The French forces which had assembled on the bor ders of Spain, remained but a short time inactive. Early in 1808, a corps entered Catalonia, and on the 16th of February obtained possession of the town and citadel of Barcelona, and of the strong position of Monjuich. As a slight pretence for these movements, it was said that the French were marching to assist in repelling the in sults of the British army on the Spanish coast; and ru mours were whispered of an intended invasion of Al giers and Morocco. At Monjuich and Pampeluna, some slight resistance was made by the national troops. There seemed however, to be no organ of the general will; and although the Spanish troops were rapidly ad vancing from Portugal to Madrid, yet the feeble court who directed them, were every day issuing contradictory orders. The people, however, were at last alarmed, and roused from torpor. It was rumoured that the king was preparing to leave Aranjuez for Seville, with a view to emigrate to his American dominions. The cha racter of the Prince of Peace made it highly probable that he would instigate the royal family to such a reso lution, as he possessed immense riches, and foreseeing the impending storm, might well be anxious to with draw. It was rumoured, with equal probability, that the Prince of Asturias was sufficiently attached to his country to oppose the design. A popular commotion broke out at Aranjuez. The palace of the Prince of Peace was attacked ; and though he saved himself by flight, their majesties found it necessary to appease the public indignation, by proclaiming that Godoy, their favourite, was discharged from his high offices and commands, and was permitted to retire wherever he might choose. The people of Madrid, whither Godoy had fled from Aranjuez, were determined that he should not retire with such impunity. They rose like the peo ple of Aranjuez, discovered the Prince of Peace in a garret, and committed him to a common jail. In the midst of these commotions, Charles IV. published at Aranjuez, on the 19th of March, a formal abdication of the Spanish throne; either impelled by personal fears, he gave way to the popular wishes in favour of his son, or was terrified into the measure by Bonaparte, who, for the sake of getting the favourite of the people, the Prince of Asturias, into his power, soon after invited him to a fatal interview, under the new title of Ferdinand VII.
The first act of the new king was to publish a mani festo and demonstration of his own innocence He con fiscated the effects of the Prince of Peace, and appointed to the presidency of the grand council of Castile, a po pular nobleman, the Duke of Infantado, who was known to be attached to the English interests. On the 23d of March, lie made his public entry into Madrid. Two days before that time, the French army under the Duke of Berg, had also entered the Spanish capital. While the governor and garrison of Madrid submitted to the degrading act of being obliged to welcome an enemy's army come to overawe them, the mass of the people were in a state of high fermentation, and some mortal encounters took place between the individuals of the two nations. Hitherto the occupation of the country by the French had been endured, on the part of the Spaniards, more from stupefaction than cowardice. But when they saw the French General Duhesmc throw ing ammunition and provisions into Barcelona, they re monstrated against the portentous movement.---" Your troops," said the Spanish Captain-general Espetella, in a letter to the French general, " that occupied the ci tadel and the fortress of Monjuich, might have consider ed all the houses of Barcelona as so many magazines, and the provisions they contained as their own. Your excellency occupied the fortresses in the name of the emperor and king as an ally ; and it was only on the faith of this, that the Spanish government consented to its occupancy. The city gave you an honourble recep• tion, and shared with you the provisions destined for her own use." A fresh insult was, however, offered to the Spaniards, when the Prince of Peace, whose im prisonment had occasioned the utmost joy throughout the kingdom, was liberated by the imperative orders of Bonaparte. It had been intended to bring him to trial,
but the the intercession of the old queen with the French emperor, obtained the release of her guilty favourite, who instantly repaired to Bayonne. But though the Duke of Berg possessed Madrid with a large army, while Ferdinand, the idol of the people, remained in his capital, it was impossible to execute the plans which the French meditated. It became, therefore, the grand object of Bonaparte's ambassadors and emissaries, to persuade the new king to leave the spot on which durst not arrest him. General Savary arrived as a new envoy from Paris, he announced the intention of the French emperor to visit Madrid, and suggested the pro priety of the Spanish monarch paying him the compli ment of meeting him on his own frontiers. Ferdinand unhappily fell into the snare : he was decoyed under the pretence of procuring the favour of Bonaparte, by a friendly meeting, to proceed from Madrid to Burgos, from thence to Vittoria, and finally to Bayonne, where he found himself in a short time in the hands of Bona parte, like another Montezuma in the power of Cortes. Together with the released Prince of Peace, Charles IV. and his queen arrived also at Bayonne. Bonaparte had found it easy to force and persuade the aged royal pair to leave their native dominions, after they found an escape to America impracticable ; nor had the Spaniards to regret that they had lost an imbecile sovereign, and a queen who was still more unpopular, from her con nections with the Prince of Peace.
Having got so many members of the royal family into his possession, Bonaparte immediately threw off the mask, and in a direct message to Ferdinand the Seventh, requil:ed of him, and all his family, to renounce the crown of Spain and the Indies. Charles, his queen, and the Prince of Peace, were easy instruments in the tyrant's hands ; and Charles immediately declaring that his former resignation had been forced upon him by the fear of popular tumult, reclaimed his right to the scep tre, that he might transfer it to the Emperor of France. Ferdinand, though now a prisoner, would not however resign his right to the throne, except on certain con ditions, calculated to prevent the alienation of the king dom to any foreign power. He proposed that Charles should return to Madrid, whither he would attend him as a dutiful son ; that the cortes, or at least the great council, should be assembled ; that Charles should dis miss from his presence the detested Prince of Peace ; and, in case of the aged king resigning the burthen of government, should transfer it to none but himself. These negotiations had lasted for some time, and Fer dinand still continued resolute, when a memorable con ference took place, (on the 5th of May,) at which the Emperor of the French, the old king and queen of Spain, the Infant Don Carlos, Godoy Prince of Peace, some grandees of Spain, and the Spanish minister, Don Pedro Cevallos, were present. Ferdinand was, after some time, called in to it by his father. The queen, in a transport of passion, addressed him as a traitor, who had for years meditated the death of the king ; but pro claimed her own infamy, by adding, " I tell you to your face, that you are my son, but not the son of the king." She was proceeding in her reproaches, when Napoleon interrupted her, by saying, " I give to Fer dinand the crown of Naples, to Don Carlos that of Etruria, with one of my nieces in marriage to each of them ; let them declare if they be willing to accept this offer." After a short silence, Don Carlos replied, " Emperor, I am not born to be a king, but an infant of Spain." Ferdinand was silent. Bonaparte, after a short pause, resumed : " Prince, you must choose be tween cession or death." Six hours were allowed to hint for coming to a determination. King Charles seconded the threat of the emperor against him and all his tbilowers, and Ferdinand, humanely anxious not to involve the lives of a number of persons compre hended in the threat, made the resignation that was commanded. He was immediately deprived of his coach of state and sword of honour, watched by a party of the militia, and allowed no attendant but the commander of the guard.