On the ht of January 1820, part of the troops stationed on the Isla of Leon, near Cadiz, under Colonels Quiroga and Riego, proclaimed the constitution of 1812; the example was followed by other garrisons; the ministers at Madrid hesitated, and Ferdinand, on the 9th of March of that year, swore his adherence to the constitution. The Cortcs were alembled, and the deputies and other liberals, who had been exiled or imprisoned, re-appeared on the rfolitical stage. During the following three years the country was in a thoroughly dis organised condition. At one time Ferdinand appeared reconciled to the constitutional system, but then would occur some opportunity for the display of his old fears and antipathies; whilst, on the other side, the partisans of absolutism, who still lingered near the king'a person, kept alive by their intrigues the mistrust even of the moderate con stitutionalists. Of this period of Ferdinand's reign there is a sketch in a work written by a Spanish emigrant at Paris, styled 'Revolution d'Espagne, Examen Critique,' 8vo, 1536, which is worth consulting.
At the beginning of 1823 Louis XVIII. declared to the French chamber. that ho was going to seed his nephew the Duke of Angou 16rne, with an army of 100,000 Frenchmen into Spain to deliver Ferdinand VII. from the slavery in which he was kept by a factious party, and to restore him to his freedom of action. The English ministry protested against this interference, and the Cortes of Spain, on their side, rejected the mediation of the northern courts, who, to prevent the entrance of the French, required certain modifications in the constitution of 1812. The Cortes, on the '20th of March, removed to Seville, where the king was induced to follow them. On the 7th of April the French entered Spain, with little or no opposition, and on the 23rd they entered Madrid, where they were received with acclamations by the clergy and the lower classes, while the grandees or high nobility presented a congratulatory address to the Duke of Angoul3mo, The Cortes, not judging themselves safe at Seville removed to Cadiz, and, ae Ferdivaud refused to quit Seville, they passed a resolution, after a stormy debate on the 11th of June, declaring the king in a state of incapacity, and appointing a regency pro tetnpore. Ferdinand was then compelled to sit off with his family ou the evening of the 12th, under a strong escort, for Cadiz, where he arrived ou the 15th. In the following September the
French besieged Cadiz, and after some negociations Ferdinand was allowed by the Cortex to repair to the French camp to treat with the Duke of Angoulaine. Before leaving Cadiz Ferdinand published a proclamation on the 30th of September, iu which he promised a general amnesty for the past; he acknowledged all the debts and obligations contracted by the constitutional government, and " declared of his own free and spontaneous will that if it should be found necessary to make alterations in the actual political institutions, lie would adopt a system of government which should guarantee the security of persona and property and the civil liberty of the Spaniards." None of these solemn promises were kept : nor were they in all pro bability ever intended to be kept. Ferdinand was one to whom false hood was habitual, and an oath offered no obstacle. The liberals were persecuted worse than before, the debts contracted under the Cortes were disavowed, and the old system of absolutism with all its mal-administrations was resumed. The sequel is well known. Fer dinand continued to govern, at least nominally, checked on one side by fear of the liberals, nud on the other by mistrust of the more violent absolutists, or apostolical party as it was called, who found even Ferdinand too moderate for them, and who would have re-estab lished the Inquisition, and ruled Spain by terror. In his latter years Ferdinand, never of a very active intellect, became more and more lethargic ; seemed to take little or no interest in public affairs, and left things to go on as they could. Having lost his third wife, who was a Saxon princess, and having yet uo children, he married in November 1829, Maria Christina, daughter of Francis, king of the Two Siciliee, and his own niece by the mother's side [Ctuttsrlara, Menu]. By her he had two d tughters—Maria Isabella, now queen of Spain, born 10th October 1830, and Maria Louisa Ferdinanda, born 1832. Ferdinand died on the 29th of September 1533, after being long in a bad state of health. He was buried with great pomp iu the royal vaults under the chapel of the EscuriaL