Riego revolt

Riego's pronunciamiento

Part of Trienio Liberal and Spanish American wars of independence
Portrait of Rafael del Riego, commander of the Asturias Regiment of the expeditionary army.
Native name	Pronunciamiento de Riego
Date	1 January 1820
Location	Las Cabezas de San Juan, Province of Seville, Andalusia, Spain
Also known as	Revolution of Cabezas de San Juan
Type	Military rebellion or mutiny
Cause	Pronunciamiento of colonels Rafael del Riego and Antonio Quiroga
Motive	For the liberals: to restore the Constitution of 1812 and establish the government of the Trienio Liberal; for the pro-independence side: to prevent the Great Expedition from landing in the Río de la Plata.
Participants	Antonio Alcalá Galiano, Juan Álvarez Mendizábal and Francisco Javier de Istúriz, among other prominent Exaltados, together with the secret societies of the Spanish liberals; in concert with Andrés Arguibel, Tomás Antonio de Lezica and other Spanish American pro-independence agents, under the authority of Juan Martín de Pueyrredón, Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata.
Outcome	Victory of the Spanish liberals of 1820 and of the Río de la Plata independence movement.
Event	Mutiny of 22,000 expeditionary troops (16 infantry regiments) and break-up of the naval force of 6,000 seamen and a dozen major warships: the ships of the line Fernando VII (74 guns), Numancia (74 guns), España (74 guns) and Guerrero (68 guns); the frigates Perla (34 guns), Diana (44 guns), Mercurio (44 guns), Pronta (44 guns), Viva (44 guns) and Ligera (44 guns); the corvettes Aretusa (20 guns) and Fama (24 guns); other minor vessels (10 brigs, 6 schooners, 30 gunboats) and the transport ships.

Riego revolt or pronunciamiento was a military uprising led by Lieutenant Colonel Rafael del Riego that took place in Spain in 1820, during the reign of Ferdinand VII. It triggered the Revolution of 1820 (for which reason it is also known as the Revolution of Cabezas de San Juan) and the definitive loss of the Spanish Empire in the Americas, as it led to the dissolution of the overseas army depots, the expeditionary fleet and the largest overseas army ever assembled by Spain to suppress the Spanish American revolution.

It began on 1 January in the Sevillian town of Las Cabezas de San Juan, where part of the troops of the Great Overseas Expedition, intended to put down the American uprisings, were quartered. Its aim was to prevent the planned embarkation of the military expedition and to restore the Constitution approved by the Cortes of Cádiz eight years earlier, which Ferdinand VII had abolished in 1814 on returning from his captivity in France, restoring absolute monarchy. At first it was a failure—Riego's troops marched across Andalusia for almost two months without persuading other garrisons or military units to join them—but in early March, when they believed all was lost, they received news that Ferdinand VII had sworn the Constitution after the absolutist government had failed to put down the uprisings of other garrisons on the periphery that had followed Riego's example. Thus began the Trienio Liberal, during which Spain was governed as a constitutional monarchy. Rafael del Riego was promoted to general and became a myth of liberal Spain.

Riego's pronunciamiento, whose main instigators were Antonio Alcalá Galiano and Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, was connected with the five earlier attempts by Spanish liberals to end Ferdinand VII's absolutism since 1814. Secret societies also played an important role. Among the factors that contributed to the success of this pronunciamiento were the discontent of the army and that of the merchants of Cádiz.

The insurrection was also promoted by Juan Martín de Pueyrredón, who feared "the terrible expedition" that threatened the South American rebels, and financed by the government of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata through its emissaries Andrés Arguibel and Tomás Antonio de Lezica, although the role of these agents has still not been clearly established.García León 1993 Another key factor in its success was the inaction or inability of the absolutist government to suppress the mutiny of Riego and Quiroga.

As Juan Francisco Fuentes has pointed out, Riego's was "the pronunciamiento par excellence" (indeed, the term pronunciamiento was born with it). It fulfilled "the three indispensable premises of this typical phenomenon of 19th-century Spain: distance from the capital, the reading of a proclamation or manifesto, and the existence of a caudillo".

Background

After returning from his captivity in France, King Ferdinand VII abolished, in May 1814 and by means of a coup d'état, the Constitution of 1812 approved by the Cortes of Cádiz, and restored absolute monarchy. The liberals, advocates of constitutional monarchy, were imprisoned, banished or went into exile.Ramos Santana 2020, p. 76 During the following six years (the Sexenio Absolutista [es]) the king and his ministers failed to resolve the crisis of the Ancien Régime that had begun in 1808 and that what would become known as the War of Independence (1808–1814) had considerably worsened. The conflict had destroyed the main mainsprings of the economy, and trade with the Americas had collapsed as a consequence of the emancipation process of the colonies. The result was a brutal economic depression manifested in falling prices (deflation). As a consequence of all this, the Royal Treasury went bankrupt: the American revenues no longer arrived (with a consequent fall in customs revenue as well) and it was not possible to resort to issuing more vales reales [es] (royal bonds), as these had depreciated completely after many delays had accumulated in the payment of their annual interest. There was an attempt to reform the Treasury, undertaken by Martín de Garay, but it failed due to the opposition of the two privileged estates, the nobility and the clergy, and also of the peasantry (who rejected the tax because it meant an increase in the burdens they already bore at a time when "the prices of agricultural products were beginning to collapse").

Given the inability of Ferdinand VII's ministers to resolve the crisis, the liberals (many of them members of Freemasonry in order to operate clandestinely) tried to restore the constitutional monarchy by resorting to pronunciamientos. The aim was to find support among "constitutionalist" officers (or simply those discontented with the situation) so that they would raise some regiment in arms whose uprising would cause other military units to rebel, thereby forcing the king to recognise and swear the Constitution of 1812.

During the Sexenio Absolutista (1814–1820) there had been an attempt to return to an estate-based army, "where the senior posts were held by members of the nobility, while the rank and file came from forced conscription, volunteers and those sentenced by the courts to military service". The reforms introduced by the Cortes of Cádiz had been annulled; these had paved the way for the formation of a national army "based on the citizen as soldier of the nation, included both in the standing army and in the national militia". Specifically, the decree of 8 August 1811 had been abolished; it had allowed any citizen free access to military colleges and academies and to cadet places, so that these ceased to be a privilege of the nobility. On the other hand, the very dynamics of the War of Independence had also contributed to the breakdown of the structures of the estate-based army that existed in 1808, since in the guerrilla the command of troops was no longer a noble privilege and most of the leaders of the bands came from the common people, such as Espoz y Mina, Porlier or "El Empecinado".

The annulment of the reforms introduced by the Cortes of Cádiz caused discontent among many officers, compounded by delays in the payment of their salaries (sometimes they had to accept reductions in order to obtain regular payment) and by the non-existent prospects of promotion owing to the surplus of officers produced by the war. Moreover, the thousands of unemployed officers blamed their situation on the policy of the Secretaries of War, who sidelined those who came from the guerrilla, those who had risen from the ranks, and those considered liberals. Thus, "many officers became receptive to liberal ideas as a consequence of the absolutist policy, which alienated many of its supporters. Economic difficulties and difficulties in promotion did the rest", according to Víctor Sánchez Martín. The bankruptcy of the Treasury forced successive reductions in military strength. The last took place in June 1818, and the absolutist authorities once again took the opportunity to ensure that the officers left without posts were mostly those who had come from the war.

Between 1814 and 1820 there were six pronunciamientos (the first five failed) until the last one (Riego's) succeeded. The first took place in Navarre in September 1814 and was led by the guerrilla hero Francisco Espoz y Mina, who fled to France after failing to take Pamplona. The second took place in A Coruña in September 1815 and was led by another war hero, General Juan Díaz Porlier, who was sentenced to death and hanged. In February 1815 the preparation of a pronunciamiento was discovered (known as the "Triangle Conspiracy [es]"), led by a former guerrilla soldier, Vicente Richart, who was sentenced to death and hanged, together with his companion Baltasar Gutiérrez. In April 1817 the fourth attempt took place in Barcelona (this time with broad bourgeois and popular participation), led by the prestigious General Luis Lacy, who was tried and executed. On 1 January 1819 the fifth pronunciamiento took place, this time in Valencia, led by Colonel Joaquín Vidal; it ended with the hanging of Vidal and of twelve other civilians involved, among them the well-known bourgeois of the city Félix Bertrán de Lis and Diego María Calatrava. Víctor Sánchez Martín has pointed out that although the aim of the pronunciamientos was to end absolutism, not all of them sought to restore the Constitution of 1812 in its entirety. Porlier's sought the convening of extraordinary Cortes to amend the Constitution, and Vidal's advocated a constitutional regime different from that of 1812, with Charles IV (unaware that he had just died in Naples) on the throne. By contrast, Lacy's was unequivocal: it referred to "the Constitution". So was Riego's.

The Great Expedition Order of battle

Order of battle of the Great Expedition

Expeditionary navy

Expeditionary army

Commander-in-chief Francisco Mourelle Strength 6,000 seamen (I) Warships A dozen major vessels: Ships of the line Fernando VII (74 guns) Numancia (74 guns) España (74 guns) Guerrero (68 guns) Frigates Perla (34 guns) Diana (44 guns) Mercurio (44 guns) Pronta (44 guns) Viva (44 guns) Ligera (44 guns) Corvettes Aretusa (20 guns) Fama (24 guns) Other minor vessels: 10 brigs 6 schooners 30 gunboats (II) Transport ships

Commander-in-chief Félix Calleja (Enrique José O'Donnell (until August 1819)) Strength 22,000 expeditionary troops (16 infantry regiments) I Infantry Division, commander Juan de la Cruz Mourgeon I Infantry Brigade Line Infantry Regiment del Rey II Line Infantry Regiment Aragón I Line Infantry Regiment Aragón II Light Infantry Regiment Canarias II Infantry Brigade Line Infantry Regiment Soria II Line Infantry Regiment Valencia II Line Infantry Regiment Princesa II Infantry Regiment Guías del General II Infantry Division, commander Pedro Sarsfield I Infantry Brigade Line Infantry Regiment Guadalajara II Line Infantry Regiment Asturias, commander Rafael Riego Line Infantry Regiment América Light Infantry Regiment Cataluña II II Infantry Brigade Line Infantry Regiment Príncipe II Line Infantry Regiment Sevilla II Line Infantry Regiment Málaga II Light Infantry Regiment Cataluña I Cavalry Division, commander Antonio Cea 4 cavalry regiments Cavalry Regiment Dragones del Rey Cavalry Regiment Dragones del General Line Cavalry Regiment Farnesio Line Cavalry Regiment Alcántara Artillery Division, commander Matías Ferraz 4 foot companies 4 horse companies Sapper battalion

The Great Expedition (1820)

See also: Spanish American wars of independence

The uprising led by Rafael del Riego took place on 1 January 1820 in Las Cabezas de San Juan, with the aim of restoring the Constitution of 1812, supported by the troops of the army intended to put down once and for all the rebellion of Spain's American colonies. This was the Great Overseas Expedition (gran expedición de Ultramar), also called the Great Expedition or the "'great expedition' overseas".

After serious difficulties in organising Pablo Morillo's army in 1815 to put down the rebellions in the Americas, conditions were even worse for sending a second army in 1820. Regarding that first great force, it is traditionally held that it was originally to be sent against Buenos Aires, but the fall of Montevideo, the Spanish bastion on the Río de la Plata; the revolutionary successes in Venezuela and New Granada; the greater geographical proximity of the Isthmus of Panama, which was in danger of invasion; and the economic importance of Peru, which would have been left isolated on the Pacific, led to the objective being changed to Cartagena de Indias.

Morillo sailed from Cádiz on 15 February 1815, and on 9 May King Ferdinand VII announced by decree that the fleet was headed for Tierra Firme, that further reinforcements would soon be sent to Panama and Peru, and that a second expedition against the Río de la Plata was being prepared. The latter would number twenty thousand infantry, fifteen hundred cavalry and the corresponding artillery. Until it arrived at Puerto Santo, near Carúpano in Venezuela, on 7 April, the expedition caused terror, especially in Buenos Aires. As false news and rumours came and went, it was even believed to be heading for Peru and Chile.

From mid-1816 the second force began to be organised under the direction of the Minister of the Navy, José Vázquez de Figueroa, but the project languished. On 2 November 1816 Brigadier Francisco Mourelle was appointed commander-general of the expedition's naval forces. Two years after Morillo's expedition, the poor results of the war had changed the government's opinion, and on 9 November 1816 the Council of the Indies ruled on the destination of Morillo's brilliant and costly expedition, finding that sending it to Venezuela (Montevideo having been maintained as a decoy), instead of reinforcing Mexico as the most important point, had been a mistake that changed the course of the war, since Mexican revenues accounted for ninety per cent of all American revenues at the end of the colonial period.

It seemed sound judgement that, there being insurrection in both Americas and in territories quite far apart, at a time when the Metropolis cannot attend to itself, all possible efforts should be concentrated on the most important point, and the one where success was least difficult, which was New Spain. With a Viceroy of suitable qualities, with diligently chosen officers, and with a small land and sea force, it would have been pacified in a short time; and with public order well maintained there, the government would have gained great credit, the example would have overawed troublemakers everywhere, and the Kingdom of Mexico, which is powerful in itself, would have been a base from which to go to the aid of other places. Far from this, an expedition was planned for the Río de la Plata which, because of its size, could not leave in time, and, its object having been changed, was sent to Venezuela.

— AGI, Estado 88

In 1817 only a few reinforcements were assigned to Peru and Chile, which left the following year on Russian ships. Their purchase from Russia under the Treaty of Madrid (1817) was controversial because the royal camarilla that bought them included no officers of the Royal Spanish Navy to verify their condition, which was poor. The vessels were described as obsolete, inefficient and in bad sanitary and sailing condition.García de Flöel 2000, p. 93

The project of a great expedition was revived when news reached Madrid of the danger posed by the loss of Chile in 1818.García de Flöel 2000, p. 95 First, it was now impossible to recover the Río de la Plata from the Viceroyalty of Peru. Second, the Pacific coast as far as Mexico had been left unprotected.García de Flöel 2000, p. 93 Third, the Viceroyalty of Peru itself was under threat, and the king urgently convened his privy council; one of its members, Joaquín Gómez de Liaño, put forward the idea of sending at least 16,000 men to Buenos Aires. However, the lack of resources and the complications caused by the Luso-Brazilian invasion of the Banda Oriental (the Portuguese might end up confronting the expedition) led to priority being given to sending reinforcements to Havana and New Spain and warships to Lima, Havana, Veracruz and Venezuela.García de Flöel 2000, p. 95 Another factor was pressure from interest groups for whom the Río de la Plata was a marginal region of the monarchy and who believed priority should be given to defending trade with New Spain and the Caribbean. Finally, after the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, Spain understood that it would not have the support of the other European powers in maintaining its empire; indeed, these were more interested in seeing it collapse.García de Flöel 2000, p. 93

The Great Expedition was organised by the former viceroy of New Spain and Captain General of Andalusia, Félix María Calleja del Rey. By the end of 1819 its land forces numbered 20,200 infantry, 2,800 cavalry and 1,370 artillerymen with 94 field pieces, other smaller-calibre guns and abundant materiel in Cádiz and on the island of San Fernando, but shortly afterwards an epidemic of vómito negro (yellow fever) broke out. There were fourteen cavalry squadrons. The commander of the expedition and of the army was Enrique José O'Donnell, Count of La Bisbal, a Spaniard of Irish descent who was nicknamed the "'Viceroy of the Río de la Plata'". Some sources claim that O'Donnell had been replaced by Calleja. The naval forces, under the command of Francisco Mourelle, which were to escort the transports, consisted of four ships of the line, three to six frigates, four to ten brigs, two corvettes, four brigantine-schooners, two schooners and thirty gunboats. The crews comprised 6,000 seamen. The total number of men is disputed, with figures of 14,000, 20,000, 22,000 or 25,000 given.

Regarding the failure of the Great Expedition, Spanish American historiography, and Argentine historiography in particular, has attributed "a great role to the American agents who took part in the pronunciamiento of 1820", although the Spanish historian José María García León notes that "in reality, the role these agents played in these events, as well as their relationship with Freemasonry, has still not been clearly established". The same historian notes that Andrés Arguibel, "a wealthy Buenos Aires merchant" and "supporter of the independence of the province of the Río de la Plata", lived in Cádiz and made contact with the Count of La Bisbal. Whether through his discretion or because of "the tremendous obliviousness of the Spanish authorities", his activities went unnoticed—unlike those of a wealthy Peruvian merchant who was investigated, although the accusation that he had received money from Gibraltar proved unfounded, and of two alleged American pro-independence agents who were arrested and expelled from Cádiz.García León 1993: "19th-century historiography has been stubborn in attributing a great role to the American agents who took part in the pronunciamiento of 1820. For this, logically, they find their explanation in the pressing need they had to prevent the embarkation of the Expeditionary Army overseas. In reality, the role these agents played in these events, as well as their relationship with Freemasonry, has still not been clearly established".

Arguibel was assisted by another Río de la Plata merchant settled in Cádiz, Tomás Antonio de Lezica, and between them they contributed to Riego's pronunciamiento "a thousand pairs of shoes and twelve thousand duros".García León 1993 Nine years after the pronunciamiento, in 1829, Juan Martín de Pueyrredón explained in Refutación a una atroz calumnia ("Refutation of an atrocious slander") that he, as the highest leader of the self-proclaimed United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, had been one of the main instigators of Riego's pronunciamiento, which had wrecked the Great Overseas Expedition prepared to crush the independence rebellions of the American colonies. The Refutación was a reply to the "atrocious slander" levelled against him by the new United States minister to Spain, Alexander Hill Everett, who had accused him of collusion with the metropolis.García León 1993

Pueyrredón stated that, among other measures to prevent the expedition from reaching the Americas, he had issued "a considerable number of letters of marque offering a reward for each transport of the Spanish comboy [sic] captured", and asserted that he had finally undertaken "the work of raising in insurrection the very army that was to bring about our ruin". To this end he contacted Ambrosio Lezica so that he in turn would contact his brother Tomás de Lezica, resident in Cádiz, "to open relations with the commanders of that army".Gandía 1970, p. 259 Pueyrredón went on:

Their replies opened a promising field to my hopes; and from then on the means conducive to this object were set in motion. Messrs. Don Tomás Lezica and Don Andrés Arguibel, natives of Buenos Aires and established with good credit in the market of Cádiz, were the agents who brought that risky undertaking to its conclusion. They were empowered to spend whatever sums of money might be necessary, and authorised to pledge the responsibility of the government for everything they did towards that end. The efficiency and skill with which they conducted themselves were apparent in the result. The army of the Isla de León rose in insurrection: the terrible expedition that threatened us turned to the harm of the very one who had formed it: and by this means the Argentine Republic found itself free and triumphant over its enemies. Eternal honour to the names of Lezica and Arguibel among the friends of liberty!
If there is anyone who may doubt the accuracy of these facts, let him read the Memoir written and published by General Quiroga, one of the foremost commanders of that army, and he will find proven the effective cooperation with which the government of the Republic acted in that insurrection, and he will also find that the monetary aid given by its agents facilitated the execution of the undertaking.

Following Pueyrredón's Refutación, Spanish American historiography in general, and Argentine historiography in particular, has upheld the thesis of the important role played in Riego's pronunciamiento by the two Río de la Plata pro-independence agents and, from Buenos Aires, by Pueyrredón.García León 1993: "Other Spanish American historians express themselves along very similar lines. Thus, Santiago Arcos notes that real panic seized the city of Buenos Aires when it became known that an expeditionary force was being prepared to set out from Spain, although this fear was allayed on learning that Pueyrredón had sent a considerable sum of money to the Spanish Freemasons. León Suárez also confirms Pueyrredón's vital role, highlighting his boldness and intelligence in carrying out active propaganda to prevent an embarkation that could have been fatal to them. He adds that both Arguibel and Lezica, from Cádiz, moved clandestinely with great effectiveness, giving without any limit as much money as they saw fit".García de Flöel 2000, p. 94Gandía 1970, p. 259: "The Buenos Aires agents worked hard at the dissolution of the army, encouraging demoralisation and spreading gold to achieve its total dissolution. [...] Pueyrredón offered the testimony of one of the leaders of the Spanish uprising of 1820 to anyone who doubted his words. Argentine money had undoubtedly flowed through the army, or into printing proclamations, paying spies, securing support, etc. [...] Lezica and Arguibel presented their accounts to the government of Buenos Aires after Pueyrredón's departure. All of them were paid to Mr Ambrosio Lezica, who had supplied the funds. [...] Arguibel and Lezica were authorised to make these and other much larger expenditures".Gandía 1955: "And so the famous revolution of 1820, of Rafael de Riego and Antonio Quiroga, came about. The history of this revolution has always been poorly studied in Spain and fairly unknown in America. In Spain the fact is explicable: during the monarchical period it was not advisable to praise a revolution like Riego's. Moreover, it was anticlerical, and we know what that means in certain countries. We have found unknown documents referring to it, and we can be certain that it was set in motion and paid for from Buenos Aires, through the work of Pueyrredón's representatives, Lezica and Arguibel".Torre Revello 1962, pp. 429–431: "The actions of Andrés Arguibel and Tomás Lezica [...] on the instructions of Pueyrredón's government, and in agreement with it, promoted and succeeded in raising in insurrection a Spanish expedition of 20,000 men destined for the Río de la Plata, whose arrival had placed the cause of independence in great jeopardy".

In 1877 the Argentine politician and historian Bartolomé Mitre, in his Historia de Belgrano y de la Independencia Argentina, took up the facts provided by the Refutación and added that Quiroga himself, in the first days of the uprising, when some Argentine ships near Cádiz had established communication with the rebels, wrote in the bulletin they published: "Our brothers of South America will join us in the defence of our cause, and we shall receive powerful aid from them". He also produced an official file showing the sums paid by Tomás Lezica and Andrés Arguibel, charged to Ambrosio Lezica and subsequently covered by the Argentine treasury.Mitre 1877, pp. 72–73

The Spanish historian Demetrio Ramos Pérez takes up the thesis of Argentine historiography—citing José León Suárez and his Carácter de la revolución americana, published in 1919, and José Torre Revello [es] (1962)—regarding the payments made "to the Freemasonry of Cádiz" and "to the commanders of the units that were to go to America" by two Río de la Plata agents directed and financed from Buenos Aires by Juan Martín de Pueyrredón and by his successor at the head of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, José Rondeau. The money from Buenos Aires reached the two agents via Gibraltar, where they frequently travelled from Cádiz, where they lived. However, Ramos Pérez points out that the "underlying cause" of Riego's pronunciamiento was "the discontent of the Army", which was "general and affected all the garrisons", essentially because "the officers were not receiving their pay, and arrears were accumulating". As immediate causes he points to the "backing" that the conspirators obtained from the merchants of Cádiz, aggrieved by the paralysis of their business caused by the Spanish American wars of independence—including the activities of privateers—and by British commercial competition in the colonies, and also to the work done among the troops by the officers involved, for which he cites the unpublished Memorias of Ramón de Santillán:Ramos Pérez 1996, pp. 517–520: "Why did Riego's attempt prosper when all the others had been foiled? The underlying cause, the discontent of the Army, which saw its enthusiasm and loyalty to the King betrayed when he returned in 1814, was general and reached every garrison. The officers were not paid, accumulating arrears that were partially reduced by part-payments. [...] The effects of the precarious distribution of pay—what was felt most—affected officers and commanders very particularly. [...] On the occasion of Riego's uprising, its success was due to the fact that the promoters worked on the troops 'showing them that those who survived the dangers of a long voyage such as that to Buenos Aires, where the expedition was headed, could expect no other fate than that which had befallen General Don Pablo Morillo's in Tierra Firme, that is, death, after the most unheard-of hardships' [unpublished Memorias of Ramón de Santillán]. As María del Carmen Pintos [1958] explained, the backing came from the merchants of Cádiz, 'displeased by the economic bankruptcy and the restrictive policy', with the commercial paralysis resulting from the development of the war in America, the increase in privateers—who even operated off the approaches to Cádiz—and the development of the naval forces of the porteños and Chileans, which redounded to the benefit of England, given the flow of supplies from British trade".

showing them [the troops] that those who survived the dangers of a long voyage such as that to Buenos Aires, where the expedition was headed, could expect no other fate than that which had befallen General Don Pablo Morillo's in Tierra Firme, that is, death, after the most unheard-of hardships.

Some historians state that the expeditionary plan was to land near Montevideo and seize the city, where there would probably still have been support for the Spanish cause.García de Flöel 2000, p. 93 In this way they would have a stable base on the Río de la Plata from which to begin operations and win the support of local royalists. A force would then march on Buenos Aires. Once the Río de la Plata had been pacified, the Great Expedition would advance on Chile and then go to the aid of Peru, which was besieged from the north by Bolívar and from the south by San Martín. The threat of the arrival of the Great Expedition is said to have been one of the reasons why San Martín did not embark for Peru from Chile until September 1820.

The plan was very similar to that of Viceroy José Fernando de Abascal, who lamented in his Memorias that Morillo's expedition had been sent to Venezuela and New Granada instead of the Río de la Plata. In his view, it had been a mistake to send such a force to a region of tropical climate and swamps, where European soldiers were soon decimated by malaria, yellow fever and other tropical diseases. Had the original plan been followed, they would have gone to a region with a climate similar to their own, supported by Peruvian offensives in Charcas and Chile. They would then have gone by sea to Quito, to penetrate the Bogotá highlands from the south, and finally end in the tropical lands of Cartagena and Venezuela.

Other historians, however, maintain that this time the "Great Expedition" was directed at Mexico, to secure the most valuable part of the monarchy, and regard the Río de la Plata as another ruse, as had happened with Morillo's expedition to Venezuela.

Ferdinand VII returns to the old theme of subjugating us, and prepares a great expedition which he calls "of Buenos Aires"; such was the word he spread, and made even the Argentines themselves believe it, preparing them for their defence; but in reality it was for the kingdom of Mexico. His secret camarilla had represented to him that, this part being the most precious of the monarchy because of its wealth, population and greater proximity to Spain, he should secure it at all costs, leaving it to time that, once this prize was firmly held, the other possessions in both Americas would be secured by means of it. Persuaded of this truth, Ferdinand entrusted the expedition to Calleja, first honouring him with the title of Count of Calderón, as the person most suitable to carry out the undertaking because of his knowledge of this country.

The pronunciamiento

The liberals of Cádiz (the more moderate grouped around the lodge "El Soberano Capítulo", which met at the house of Francisco Javier de Istúriz, and the more radical in the lodge "El Taller Sublime", founded and presided over by Antonio Alcalá Galiano) sought to persuade some officer of the expeditionary corps—quartered between Seville and Cádiz, an epidemic of yellow fever having forced the troops to disperseGil Novales 2020, p. 6—who was awaiting embarkation to put down the uprisings in the American colonies, to lead a pronunciamiento to restore the Constitution of 1812.Buldain Jaca 1998, pp. 5–6: "Morale was undermined by the very conditions in which the recruitment was carried out, and by the conviction, held by a large part of the officers and men, that a definitive success in America was, if not impossible, at least very doubtful. The news received about the treatment the American rebels gave to prisoners and the living conditions in those territories made the idea of embarking repugnant to many". Unrest had been spreading among the troops at the prospect of a long campaign, because of forced recruitment and the precarious living conditions, worsened by an epidemic of yellow fever.Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 118

The conspirators contacted the cavalry commander Sarsfield, but he denounced them to the Count of La Bisbal, head of the expeditionary corps, which led to the arrest of the officers involved on 15 July at El Palmar in El Puerto de Santa María.Ramos Santana 2020, p. 77 Other versions blame the Count of La Bisbal himself, who was supposed to have led the revolutionary rompimiento (break), for betraying the conspirators.Buldain Jaca 1998, pp. 6–7: "The first attempt took place on 8 July 1819, but failed because the Count of La Bisbal, who commanded the troops and was aware of and favoured the conspiracy, did not in the end decide to become its leader and aborted it".Fuentes 2008, p. 24Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 118 The betrayal by the Count of La Bisbal would become known as the surprise of El Palmar.Fuentes 2007, pp. 48–49

The absolutist authorities managed to arrest only some of the El Palmar conspirators, so the plot remained active.Fuentes 2007, p. 49 Alcalá Galiano and Juan Álvarez Mendizábal contacted one of the committed officers who had not been arrested, Lieutenant Colonel Rafael del Riego, and on the night of 27–28 December the three of them spent the night preparing an uprising and drafting the first manifestos.Fuentes 2008, p. 24 The plan they drew up, in which other officers became involved, consisted of the convergence of three military forces on the city of Cádiz in order to take it and proclaim the Constitution there. At the head of the 2nd Battalion of the Asturias Regiment from Las Cabezas de San JuanFont Gavira 2020, p. 80 and of the Seville Regiment from Villamartín, Riego would advance on Arcos de la Frontera, where the Captain General, the Count of Calderón, was located, in order to arrest him. The second force, quartered in Alcalá de los Gazules and under the command of Colonel Antonio Quiroga—who had been held there since the events at El Palmar—,Font Gavira 2020, p. 80 together with the troops in Medina Sidonia, would march on San Fernando to arrest Captain General Cisneros and continue towards Cádiz. The third force, under the command of Miguel López de Baños, setting out from Osuna, would wait near Bornos before finally converging on Cádiz.Ramos Santana 2020, pp. 77–78Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 118

Rafael del Riego carried out the plan as intended. He set out from Las Cabezas de San Juan on 1 January 1820 in a heavy downpour. He reached Arcos de la Frontera, where he arrested the Captain General, the Count of Calderón, and set up his headquarters. But Quiroga was delayed because he did not trust his men, and it was not until 3 January that he seized the Arsenal of La Carraca in San Fernando; he then did not decide to advance immediately on Cádiz, as planned, which gave the governor of the city, Alonso Rodríguez Valdés, time to organise its defence. Meanwhile, Riego, following the plan, reached El Puerto de Santa María on 5 January. There he was joined by the officers arrested after the El Palmar events, who had escaped from the Castle of San Sebastián: Demetrio O'Daly, Felipe Arco Agüero, the brothers Santos and Evaristo San Miguel, Ramón de Sabra and Rafael Marín. At the same time the constitutionalist rising in the city of Cádiz led by Colonel Nicolás de Santiago Rotalde, planned for three in the afternoon of the following day, 6 January, failed.Ramos Santana 2020, p. 78Buldain Jaca 1998, p. 7Fuentes 2007, pp. 49–50Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 118 As Alberto Gil Novales has pointed out, "Riego was really no more than one link in the conspiratorial plot, and not even the most important: by rank, Colonel Quiroga was his superior. But Riego had the courage to be the first and to act successfully in the small setting of Las Cabezas, while others cautiously waited to see the outcome of events before appearing openly as revolutionaries, or simply failed in their task".Gil Novales 2020, p. 7

To rouse the troops quartered in Las Cabezas de San Juan, Riego delivered to them, in that self-proclaimed "first constitutional canton of the National and Spanish Patriotic Army",Fuentes 2008, p. 24 the following harangue in favour of the Constitution of 1812—in this way Riego "pronounced" (se pronunció), hence the term pronunciamiento, which was born then:Ramos Santana 2020, p. 79Fuentes 2008, pp. 24–25: "'There are no words', we read in the account of those days that he himself wrote a few months later, 'that can sufficiently give a remote idea of the kind of inconceivable electricity that took hold of the souls of all the men of my battalion on hearing me pronounce the words, as sweet as they were longed for, Constitution or death'".

Soldiers, my love for you is great. For that very reason I could not allow, as your commander, that you be taken far from your homeland, in rotten ships, to wage an unjust war in the New World (…). Spain is living at the mercy of an arbitrary and absolute power, exercised without the slightest respect for the fundamental laws of the nation. The king, who owes his throne to all those who fought in the War of Independence, has not, however, sworn the Constitution; the Constitution, the pact between the monarch and the people, the foundation and embodiment of every modern nation. The Spanish Constitution, just and liberal, was drawn up in Cádiz amid blood and suffering. But the king has not sworn it, and it is necessary, for Spain to be saved, that the king swear and respect the Constitution of 1812, the legitimate and civil affirmation of the rights and duties of Spaniards, of all Spaniards, from the King to the humblest labourer. [...] Yes, yes, soldiers, the Constitution. Long live the Constitution!

One of the officers who attended the meeting before the proclamation of the Constitution in Las Cabezas de San Juan later wrote down what Riego told them:Fuentes 2008, pp. 25–26

I, though young, am older than you. I know the price of liberty, but I do not forget that of human blood. The sacred patriotic fire that inspires my breast is great. Nevertheless, my friends, let not exaltation lead us to commit follies. [...] It falls to us only to restore the nation to its ancient rights; and only for that purpose should we use the force we hold in our hands. Otherwise we would not deserve the title of free men, because we would have ceased to be virtuous. [...] Men of all nations, of all religions, of all colours, will see that justice presides over our march; and all peoples, far from reproaching our daring uprising, will shower us with their blessings. Let us, then, temper our youthful ardour and prepare ourselves for great sacrifices.

Furthermore, Riego was convinced that war was not the solution to ending the uprising of the American territories, but rather the Constitution of Cádiz. It was "a useless war, which could easily be ended simply by restoring the Spanish nation to its rights. The Constitution, yes, the Constitution, is enough to pacify our brothers in America", he had told his men.Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 24

For his part, Colonel Quiroga issued a proclamation in San Fernando on 7 January in favour of the Constitution and against absolutism, which ended as follows:Font Gavira 2020, p. 82

The enlightenment of Europe no longer permits, Sire, that Nations be governed as the absolute possessions of Kings. The laws belong to the nations, and kings are kings because the nations so wish it. Enlightenment has returned.

While Quiroga continued to hold out in La Carraca—he had told his soldiers that the aim of the action was to put an end to "an arbitrary, tyrannical Government, which disposes at will of the property, the lives and the liberty of unfortunate Spaniards"Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 18—on 27 January Riego led an expedition across Andalusia with a force of some 1,500 or 1,600 men.Ramos Santana 2020, p. 79Fuentes 2008, p. 25Gil Novales 2020, p. 8Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, pp. 118–119Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 18 He marched towards Chiclana de la Frontera, Conil, Vejer, Tarifa, Algeciras and Alcalá de los Gazules, pursued by royalist troops commanded by Enrique José O'Donnell. These caught up with him at Marbella, where a clash caused heavy losses among Riego's troops. Nevertheless, he continued towards Málaga—whose authorities had abandoned the city, leaving the streets desertedRújula & Chust 2020, p. 18—and then to Córdoba.Ramos Santana 2020, p. 79 On the way to the latter city—which he would reach on 7 MarchBahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 119—there was another clash with O'Donnell's forces at Morón de la Frontera on 4 March. According to O'Donnell's own account, published three years later by the ultra-royalist newspaper El Restaurador, "this action made him [Riego] lose more than 500 men, between dead, wounded, prisoners and the many deserters of all kinds he had in his fatal retreat". On 8 March, O'Donnell continues, "the remnants of the enemy division, which had taken refuge in Sierra Morena, were by then reduced to some 270 men in all, including many wounded and footsore men whom they carried on horseback to be able to flee faster, and reduced to a state of absolute nullity".Fontana 1979, pp. 135–136

Riego then headed for Extremadura via Fuente Obejuna, and at Bienvenida—where only some fifty soldiers and officers were still following him—he decided to disband the unit with the intention of crossing into Portugal, considering the cause lost. It was 11 March. What Riego and his men did not know was that two days earlier King Ferdinand VII had sworn the Constitution in the throne room of the Royal Palace of Madrid, and that, therefore, their pronunciamiento had in fact triumphed.Ramos Santana 2020, p. 79Fuentes 2008, p. 27Fuentes 2007, p. 50Rújula & Chust 2020, pp. 18–19 What had happened was that Ferdinand VII had agreed to restore the Constitution after the absolutist government had proved unable to suppress the uprisings of several garrisons on the periphery that had followed Riego's example.La Parra López 2018, p. 376Fontana 1979, p. 137Fuentes 2007, p. 50 "Riego had not defeated the regime; he had demonstrated its incapacity and had given time for a new sequence of pronunciamientos to take shape".Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 119

During the long and difficult march of almost two months through Andalusia, "travelling the muddy roads of an Andalusia that was suffering a winter of snow and cold",Fontana 1979, p. 135 and which was by no means a military stroll,Fuentes 2008, pp. 26–27: "At several points they were repulsed by forces loyal to the absolute monarchy... In addition, they constantly had to deal with supply problems, often resorting to threats to obtain what the troops needed, and discouragement, combat casualties and disease soon decimated Riego's column. He himself had been wounded in a skirmish with royalist troops". Riego and his men proclaimed the Constitution of 1812, deposed the absolutist authorities and inevitably imposed levies—their financial situation was desperate—in the towns they passed through.Ramos Santana 2020, p. 78Fuentes 2007, p. 50Gil Novales 2020, p. 8Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 119: "Amid the indifference of the population". In some places festivities were held in honour of the Constitution (in Algeciras Riego ordered that "this afternoon two bulls be run in the customary place").Fuentes 2008, p. 26 To keep up morale, one of the officers, the future general Evaristo Fernández de San Miguel, composed at Riego's request a patriotic anthem that would soon become known as the Himno de Riego ("Riego's Anthem"), which one hundred and eleven years later would become popular again in Spain during the Second Spanish Republic. Its chorus ran:Ramos Santana 2020, p. 78Fuentes 2008, p. 26

Soldados, la patria
nos llama a la lid,
juremos por ella
vencer o morir.

Soldiers, the homeland
calls us to the fight;
let us swear by it
to conquer or die.

Defeat of the absolutists: Ferdinand VII swears the Constitution

When they received the news of the uprising in favour of the Constitution by part of the troops that were to embark for America, the absolutist authorities, after initial bewilderment,La Parra López 2018, p. 375 were confident of quickly suppressing the rebellion, especially after learning that the city of Cádiz had not joined it. This was the assurance given to the king from Ronda by the minister Juan Escóiquiz on 11 January: "let this month not pass without the matter being entirely concluded". Although the rebellion was not brought to an end, optimism continued at court, but the situation changed when news arrived that on 21 February the garrison of A Coruña had risen and sworn the Constitution, and that days later Ferrol, Vigo and Murcia had followed suit.La Parra López 2018, p. 375Fontana 1979, p. 137Buldain Jaca 1998, pp. 8–9: "The first of them [of the mistakes made by the central government] was having lacked sufficient energy to put down the rebellion as soon as it occurred, and having allowed an insignificant force to parade around Andalusia without confronting it. [...] Another of the Government's mistakes that favoured success was the silence it kept about what was happening in Andalusia and, later, in other parts of the Peninsula. In the absence of news, rumour spread, exaggerating events, causing unease and arousing distrust of the Government".Rújula 2020, p. 3 The pronunciamiento in A Coruña had been the work of civilians and soldiers under the command of Colonel Félix Álvarez Acevedo, and there, after proclaiming the Constitution, they had formed a Junta presided over by the former regent Pedro Agar, "until the declaration of the other Provinces of the monarchy is known, and until, in agreement with all of them, they constitute the Sovereign Government of the Nation without convening Cortes".Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 19 Two days later, on 23 February, the pronunciamiento had spread to Ferrol and Vigo and then to Pontevedra, Lugo and the rest of Galicia.Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 119 When the liberal troops entered Santiago de Compostela on the 25th, the prison of the Inquisition was stormed and all the prisoners freed, an event that would be repeated in many towns as the revolution triumphed.Ramón Solans 2020, p. 356 On the 29th it was the turn of Oviedo, where a Revolutionary Junta was also formed which assumed power over all of Asturias.Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 19

Ferdinand VII's response was to convene a junta presided over by the Infante Don Carlos, whose proposals were set out in a royal decree promulgated on 3 March. In it the king declared himself ready to tackle the "ills" of the monarchy, for which, however, he took no responsibility ("some were not within the Government's foresight to prevent, and others arose from past circumstances"). The royal decree announced the reorganisation of the Council of State to turn it into an auxiliary body of the Secretariats of State, and also ordered the various corporations, and even individuals, to submit in writing to the Council of State, "freely and confidentially", "everything they judge useful for the good of my peoples in both hemispheres and for the lustre and greater brilliance of my crown".La Parra López 2018, pp. 375–376Rújula 2020, pp. 3–4Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 20

Gold coins from the absolutist and constitutional periods of Ferdinand VII

1815. The Latin legend states that Ferdinand VII is "king of the Spains and the Indies" "by the Grace of God" (Dei Gratia).

1823 (Trienio Liberal). The Spanish legend proclaims Ferdinand VII "king of the Spains" "by the Grace of God and the Constitution".

But the royal decree came too late, because the following day, 4 March, the Count of La Bisbal, recently appointed commander of the army intended to put down Riego's rebellion, "pronounced" in favour of the Constitution at Ocaña.Buldain Jaca 1998, p. 10Fuentes 2007, p. 50Gil Novales 2020, p. 9Rújula 2020, p. 4Rújula & Chust 2020 On the 5th a similar act took place in Zaragoza, where a Superior Governing Junta was appointed, presided over by the Marquess of Lazán. The rebels demanded that the king join "the general will of his peoples, convening the General Cortes of the kingdom so that their deliberations may succeed in saving our homeland".Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 20 In the following days Tarragona, Segovia, Barcelona and Pamplona joined.Buldain Jaca 1998, p. 10: "In all the places where the Constitution was proclaimed before the King swore it, or before it was known that he had done so, provincial governing Juntas were formed which assumed power pending the establishment of new authorities emanating from a constitutional power".

The bewilderment and pessimism that this news caused at court were considerable.Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 119 On 6 March the king convened the traditional estates-based Cortes, "in accordance with the observance of the fundamental laws that I have sworn"—while protests began in Madrid—,Rújula 2020, p. 4 but the next day, 7 March, faced with the agitation in favour of the Constitution sweeping the streets of Madrid, which had reached the gates of the PalaceRújula & Chust 2020, p. 21—and against the advice given to him by his brother Don Carlos: "If Your Majesty, because of the difficulties, finds yourself obliged to accept either the Cortes of Cádiz or their constitution, Your Majesty's throne will totter and with it the Altar", with which he in fact agreed—Ferdinand VII changed course and, once again by royal decree, announced his willingness to swear the Constitution: "it being the will of the people, I have decided to swear the Constitution promulgated by the General and Extraordinary Cortes in the year 1812".La Parra López 2018, pp. 376–377, 379Buldain Jaca 1998, pp. 10–11Rújula 2020, p. 4 Ramón Mesonero Romanos related that on that day "all the people who represented the most educated and well-to-do part of the population poured into the streets with indescribable jubilation and satisfaction".Orobon & Fuentes 2020, p. 381

As Emilio La Parra López has pointed out, "that Constitution and those Cortes which the king had ordered on 4 May 1814 to be removed from the midst of time were returning. The language of the revolution was also returning. Ferdinand VII justified swearing the Constitution because that was 'the will of the people'".La Parra López 2018, p. 379 "The second liberal experience in Spain was beginning", Alberto Gil Novales has emphasised.Gil Novales 2020, p. 9 One of the reasons that finally led the king to take this step was learning—as he was informed by General Francisco Ballesteros, newly appointed commander of the Army of the Centre—that the troops in Madrid, and even the Royal Guard, were in favour of the Constitution.La Parra López 2018, p. 377Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, pp. 119–120: "A good part of the elites of absolutism had accepted the inevitability of the solution, with an awareness of crisis and in a pragmatic sense that would avoid the uprising of Madrid or the arrival of the troops that had declared for the constitution".

When on 8 March the Gaceta de Madrid published the decree setting out the king's decision to swear the Constitution, and his order became known that those imprisoned for "political opinions" be released and that those banished and exiled for the same reason be allowed to return, a group of citizens renamed the Plaza Mayor as Plaza de la Constitución and then organised a civic procession carrying the constitutional text. Almost at the same time the prison of the Inquisition was stormed and its prisoners freed.Ramón Solans 2020, p. 356 The following day, 9 March, the king, under pressure from the rioters, accepted the restoration of the constitutional City Council dismissed in 1814,Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 22 and its members, together with six commissioners appointed by the citizens of Madrid, presented themselves at the Royal Palace of Madrid backed by the crowd, which forced Ferdinand VII to swear the Constitution in the throne room (the formal oath would take place in July before the newly elected Cortes, as the Constitution required). That same day, the 9th, the king abolished the Inquisition—cases concerning religious opinions passing to the jurisdiction of the bishopsRamón Solans 2020, p. 358—and appointed a Provisional Consultative Junta, replacing the Government, presided over by Cardinal Borbón, who had already headed the constitutional regency in 1814, with General Francisco Ballesteros as vice-president, who would be the one to take the main decisions.La Parra López 2018, pp. 377–378Font Gavira 2020, pp. 80–81Fontana 1979, pp. 137–138Buldain Jaca 1998, pp. 1–2, 10–11Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 22 "Finally the king had to dispense with some of his trusted men closely linked to the camarilla, a measure that served to save the king after the revolution and to construct the official explanation of what had happened: it was not the king but his bad advisers who had led the country into that situation, which made it possible for the monarch, after the revolution, to remain on the throne without having to take responsibility for the past".Rújula 2020, pp. 4–5 Thus the Marquess of Mataflorida and the Duke of Alagón had to leave the court.Rújula & Chust 2020, p. 22

On 10 March the king issued a Manifesto to the Nation announcing that he had sworn the Constitution, of which he would "always be its firmest support". The manifesto ended with a paragraph that would become famous (because Ferdinand VII broke the promise it contained and "almost the day after swearing the Constitution began to act to overthrow it"):La Parra López 2018, pp. 378–379Fontana 1979, p. 138Rújula 2020, p. 5

You have made me understand your longing for the restoration of that Constitution which, amid the clamour of hostile arms, was promulgated in Cádiz in the year 1812, while, to the astonishment of the world, you were fighting for the freedom of the homeland. I have heard your wishes and, like a tender Father, I have acceded to what my children deem conducive to their happiness. I have sworn the Constitution for which you yearned, and I shall always be its firmest support. [...] I have already taken the appropriate measures for the prompt convening of the Cortes. In them, united with your representatives, I shall rejoice to take part in the great work of national prosperity. [...] Let us march frankly, and I THE FIRST, ALONG THE CONSTITUTIONAL PATH; and, showing Europe a model of wisdom, order and perfect moderation in a crisis that in other Nations has been accompanied by tears and misfortunes, let us make the Spanish name admired and revered, while at the same time we build our happiness and our glory for centuries.

That same 10 March, troops in Cádiz fired on the crowd gathered in the Plaza de San Antonio awaiting the proclamation of the Constitution, which had been announced the previous day. There were "more than enough victims", as General Juan Villavicencio reported the next day.La Parra López 2018, p. 379Ramos Santana 2020, p. 79Orobon & Fuentes 2020, p. 382Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 119 In Madrid, by contrast, two days later a great popular celebration took place throughout the city on the occasion of the official inauguration, amid an "immense crowd" and "complete tranquillity", of the placing of the constitutional plaque in the Plaza Mayor, renamed Plaza de la Constitución. Printed copies of the "King's Manifesto to the Nation" were thrown to the crowd, and according to the official newspaper "its reading produced the greatest enthusiasm and the most expressive demonstrations of gratitude for the paternal language with which His Majesty has addressed his peoples".Rújula 2020, p. 5Orobon & Fuentes 2020, pp. 383–384 "The impression remained that the monarch was on the side of the new order", comments the historian Pedro Rújula.Rújula 2020, p. 5 Similar celebrations and ceremonies took place in many cities and towns, whose main squares or town hall squares were renamed Plaza de la Constitución, thereby "giving official status to the new regime and consecrating public space as the setting and symbol of the recovered liberties".Orobon & Fuentes 2020, pp. 382–383: "A large group of soldiers and civilians proclaimed the restoration of the Constitution at the town hall of Segovia and began a long series of festivities, including public illuminations, refreshments in the main square and parades with military bands playing patriotic songs. The following day the plaque of the Constitution was put up—a ceremony in which the military once again played a special role... In Seville an 'immense crowd' of people gathered in front of the town hall 'loudly demanding the Constitution and that the old plaque be fixed in the square'. The municipal authorities did so, announcing from the balconies of the town hall the restoration of the constitutional regime and ordering a sign reading 'Plaza de la Constitución' to be placed where the plaque had previously been. According to the press report of those events, 'the people', having achieved their purpose, went through the streets amid cheers and acclamations until reaching the seat of the Inquisition, where the prisoners held there were freed". In every case, amid the ringing of bells and military music, cheers were raised for Rafael de Riego, "already turned into the living symbol of the new constitutional Spain".Orobon & Fuentes 2020, p. 383

On the same day, 10 March, on which the king made his Manifesto public, crowds stormed the palaces of the Inquisition in Valencia, Seville, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca (in the last of these it was Bishop Pedro González Vallejo himself who went with a captain and a judge to close the Inquisition tribunal, and the files and the prohibited books passed from hand to hand in the cafés and tertulias of Palma). The same had happened a day earlier in Zaragoza, where the only prisoner in the Inquisition jail was released by order of the Junta of Aragon.Ramón Solans 2020, pp. 356–357 According to Francisco Javier Ramón Solans, the storming of the Inquisition prisons played the same symbolic role of marking the end of despotism as the Storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution, since, like the Parisian royal prison, "the Inquisition embodied the intolerance, arbitrariness and violence of the Ancien Régime".Ramón Solans 2020, pp. 357–358: "The Inquisition still caused terror among the population, and for that reason, although with a certain amount of violence, people entered its prisons cautiously and without injuring anyone. Besides freeing the prisoners, the insurgents sought physical or documentary evidence of the horror experienced there. Something similar happened with the Bastille, where a compilation of the documents found there was even published". In many places the storming was followed by "masquerades and processions with donkeys dressed in black representing the inquisitors". Plays were also staged, such as La Inquisición, in which Rafael del Riego himself appeared freeing a prisoner from the jail of the Holy Office.Ramón Solans 2020, p. 358 The nuncio Giacomo Giustiniani himself was aware of the Inquisition's discredit and informed Rome on 17 March that he would not defend it, since "it could happen that the prestige of the Holy See, and therefore that of religion, would suffer if it insisted on undertaking its defence".Ramón Solans 2020, pp. 358–359: "Finally, Rome approved the dissolution, although it expressed its displeasure that such a decision had been taken without its consent, given that the tribunal was founded on apostolic bulls". Nor did the bishops speak out against the dissolution, not even the Inquisitor General himself, Jerónimo Castillón y Salas, who left Madrid with his subordinates for his episcopal see, Tarazona.Ramón Solans 2020, p. 359 The bishops did not oppose it because the order came from the king and had already been endorsed by the Pope, but also because it strengthened their power, since it eliminated a separate ecclesiastical jurisdiction in their dioceses, and in addition it was they who took over the Inquisition's censorship functions over religious writings under the press law passed by the Cortes of Cádiz. Indeed, some prelates hastened to publish edicts renewing the prohibitions on books condemned by the Inquisition and the Holy See.Ramón Solans 2020, p. 359

Everywhere the return to constitutional rule was celebrated with festivities and the placing of constitutional plaques, accompanied by religious ceremonies, especially Te Deums, followed by the publication of pastoral letters in which the bishops urged their flocks to respect the law. This did not go unnoticed by some liberal newspapers, which, like Miscelánea de comercio, artes y literatura, ironically recalled that the same prelates who now presented themselves as "passionate supporters of the constitution" had "for the space of six years shown it hatred and aversion".Ramón Solans 2020, pp. 355, 359

Carnivalesque farces were also held in several cities, such as Málaga, where a dummy representing servilismo (absolutism) was beaten all the way to the square to be burned amid the responsories of "many liberals transformed into friars of various orders". These "grotesque liturgies" were repeated the following year. In Cádiz a procession was held in honour of the Constitution, lit by more than five hundred torches, and the procession was closed by a refuse cart carrying a statue symbolising absolutism. It wore "Asiatic dress" and held a dagger in one hand and a broken chain in the other, and was finally thrown onto a dunghill. To complete the anticlerical satire, the procession also included "a witty and humorous Andalusian", carried on a litter, who imitated the "ridiculous farce" of Saint Isidore.Orobon & Fuentes 2020, p. 396

Rafael del Riego, myth of the liberal revolution

As Juan Francisco Fuentes has pointed out, after the pronunciamiento that began the Trienio Liberal, Rafael del Riego went from being "an obscure lieutenant colonel, thirty-five years old, in command of a detachment about to embark for America, to becoming the living symbol of the Spanish liberal revolution".Fuentes 2008, pp. 13–14: "His tragic end would only strengthen and consecrate the myth". After learning on 13 March that King Ferdinand VII had agreed to swear the Constitution, Riego, still recovering from his wounds, went to Seville with the few officers still with him; on the way to the Andalusian capital they were joined by many civilians and soldiers, some of them members of his expedition who had been captured and had just been released. On 20 March he arrived in Seville with 2,500 men, where he was received as a hero. His portrait, painted by the Sevillian artist Antonio Bejarano, was carried in procession through the streets.Fuentes 2008, p. 27

The following day Riego sent a letter to the king in which he rejoiced that he had been able to tear "the veil woven by the wicked" and finally yield "to the impulses of his heart, so worthy of a Father of the Peoples. May Your Majesty receive, for so happy a change, the feelings of inexpressible joy that overflow in my heart and in those of the brave men of the column under my command. [...] The world will not see these feelings belied, nor those of the deepest love and respect with which their Commander prays heaven to preserve Your Majesty's life for many years, for the good and prosperity of the constitutional monarchy".Fuentes 2008, pp. 27–28

After the triumphal reception in Seville came a succession of tributes and civic processions, at which the march composed by Evaristo San Miguel during the expedition through Andalusia, soon known as the Himno de Riego, was often played and sung. The anthem was also part of the patriotic events that were organised, such as the one held at La Fontana de Oro in Madrid. In Cádiz, which Riego reached in early April, a group of people unhitched the horses from his carriage to pull it themselves through the city. Shortly afterwards Riego, like other officers who had risen, was promoted to general ("My King is happy, my homeland free: this is my whole reward", he wrote to Ferdinand VII, vainly attempting to decline his new rank).Fuentes 2008, pp. 28–29

He was appointed commander of the Army of the Island, so called because it was quartered on the Isla de León awaiting embarkation for America, and when the Government disbanded it Riego was appointed Captain General of Galicia, a post he never took up because the moderate Government accused him of having taken part in an event in Madrid at which, in addition to the Himno de Riego, the "subversive" song Trágala had been sung, and banished him to Oviedo. Riego tried to defend himself in the Cortes, but there the moderates insinuated that he was a "republican". As Juan Francisco Fuentes has pointed out, "to the myth of the 'hero of Las Cabezas' was thus added for the first time the aura of a martyr of liberty". Finally the government reversed its decision and appointed Riego Captain General of Aragon, and the Cortes voted to grant him a pension of eighty thousand reales for his feat at Las Cabezas de San Juan, which Riego flatly refused, showing that, as one of his adversaries, Antonio Alcalá Galiano, acknowledged, he was "disinterested as regards profit".Fuentes 2008, pp. 30–31

As Ángel Bahamonde and Jesús Antonio Martínez have pointed out, Riego "became the first great hero of the revolution and came to be associated with the liberal ideal. A mythical figure who would capitalise on the hallmarks of the liberal impulse through multiple popular expressions, such as the anthem, and who would pass into the heritage of liberal culture and of later revolutions".Bahamonde & Martínez 2011, p. 117 For his part, Juan Francisco Fuentes has emphasised that "from the progressive liberalism of the 19th century to anarcho-syndicalism and communism in the 20th century, passing of course through republicanism, General Riego has nourished a motley universe of symbols and feelings of the republican and workers' left and of Spanish democracy in general".Fuentes 2008, p. 14

The myth of Riego also spread beyond Spain. A year after his death, the exiled Spanish liberal Félix Mejía published in Philadelphia No hay unión con los tiranos, morirá quien lo pretenda, o sea: la muerte de Riego y España entre cadenas ("There is no union with tyrants, whoever attempts it shall die; or, the death of Riego and Spain in chains"). Also in 1824 the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin dedicated a poem to Riego, while in a bookshop in central Moscow portraits of Riego and Antonio Quiroga were on display. In 1825 H. M. Milner's tragedy Spanish Martyrs, or the Death of Riego! premiered in London. At the beginning of that same year the Gazzetta di Genova reported that a drum major of the Spanish army was being tried for having had his regiment's band play the Himno de Riego "and that in broad daylight". Two months later the same newspaper reported that a man had been sentenced to death for having shouted "death to the king, to his ministers, to the queen, and long live Riego".Fuentes 2008, pp. 15–17 Victor Hugo mentioned Riego in Les Misérables.

Challenging the myth: the traditionalist version

As Manuel Moreno Alonso has stated, in contrast to the efforts of Spanish republicans to turn Riego into a myth, "the irreconcilable version of the former absolutists and new traditionalists" persisted among his opponents until the 20th century. Thus, shortly after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, right-wing intellectuals such as Álvaro Alcalá Galiano and José María Lamamié de Clairac denounced the trend. The latter, for example, expressed his indignation in the Congress of Deputies at the fact that the Pedagogical Missions equated "the great men of our history" with Riego and the "essence of the republican regime".Moreno Alonso 2013, p. 129

Since the previous century there had been harsh criticism of Riego's uprising from the reactionary camp, which blamed him for Spain's loss of most of the American continent, as well as for the revolutionary excesses of the Trienio Liberal, and moreover attributed the pronunciamiento to the action of secret societies in league with the Spanish American independence movements.Morayta 1956, p. 111 During the First Carlist War, on the occasion of the erection of a monument to Riego in Seville in 1835, the supporters of the Infante Carlos María Isidro were astonished that the liberals could regard him as a hero and patriot, and stated in their Gaceta Oficial:

It was reserved for this century of iniquity to describe as heroism the criminal insurrection of an insubordinate soldiery! To call heroes, and to erect statues to those who promoted and carried out a crime which in every century and in every nation was always regarded as the most horrendous and punished with the death penalty! To render honorific homage to cowardly soldiers who, so as not to embark for America and expose themselves to the dangers of that war, preferred the path of sedition, causing their homeland to lose its immense colonies, stripping the KING of his authority, and sowing desolation and disorder everywhere! And are these the heroes of cultured Spain? And is their memory to be perpetuated in marble and bronze? What a century we live in! Are these the fruits of the much-vaunted philosophy? Poor humanity!

Some decades later, the ultramontane historian Vicente de la Fuente asserted that it was an "undeniable truth" that Riego had received payments from the American independence movements and, although he admitted that he did not yet have proof, he cited as evidence the fact that the liberal diplomat and Freemason José Presas, who lived through and narrated the events, had lived in America and was connected in Spain with Americans, as well as the fact that he emphasised the soldiers' fear of embarking: "serious [the true and hidden causes] must have been when he cast on Riego and the other insurgents the stigma of cowards, to conceal that of having been won over by money".La Fuente 1870, p. 286 In Vicente de la Fuente's words:

That the wrongly called glorious uprising of Cádiz, on 1 January 1820, was an act of base cowardice, treason, immorality and bribery, paid for by the Americans to sustain their rebellion, and managed exclusively by the secret societies, is another undeniable truth. Clearly its promoters did not and will not acknowledge it as such, nor will those who profited from it and continue to profit from it; they would not be so shameless as to say it plainly, but history says it and will say it, and has already shed no little light on this matter.La Fuente 1870, pp. 284–285

La Fuente also stressed that not a single civilian had joined the rebels, thus questioning whether it was a popular rebellion. According to this author, "the people, the true people, thirsting for rest, neither expected it nor desired it; rather, they abhorred it".La Fuente 1870, p. 286

Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo also harshly criticised Riego's pronunciamiento.Moreno Alonso 2013, p. 131 For Menéndez Pelayo, Riego was one of the officers taken prisoner in the War of Independence who "had returned from France indoctrinated by the secret societies" and had begun to spread a network of lodges throughout the military garrisons of the Peninsula. In his Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, he described Riego's pronunciamiento as follows:

A shameful and indescribable military mutiny, worthy of being placed alongside the desertion of Don Oppas and the sons of Wittiza, came to give, though not quickly or immediately, the triumph to the revolutionaries. The lodge of Cádiz, powerfully assisted by the gold of the American insurgents and even of the English and the Jews of Gibraltar, relaxed discipline in the army destined for America, introducing a society into each regiment; it flattered all the base passions of greed, ambition and fear that may seethe in military multitudes, promised ranks and honours in abundance, besides the infamous security of not having to go and fight in the New World, and in this way, amid the apathetic indifference of our people, who saw Riego march from Algeciras to Córdoba without a single man joining him on the way, the revolutionary cry of Las Cabezas de San Juan broke out and triumphed, enthroning once again that abstract code, neither asked for nor understood.Menéndez Pelayo 2003

In addition to asserting that the uprising led by Riego, Quiroga, Roten and other commanders had been paid for by the American rebels through the lodges, "especially those of Cádiz and Málaga", Gonzalo de Reparaz claimed that in the first three weeks they did nothing but plunder the arsenal of La Carraca, "thereby favouring, as they were obliged to, the separatists, since they hindered the fitting out of a new fleet". Reparaz also described Riego and Quiroga as "useless", since the former failed to take Algeciras with 1,600 men and "was so incapable of command that, although pursued little and badly, he was left alone, having to hide in Sierra Morena", while the latter was hard pressed by General Freire. According to Reparaz, they were saved by the fact that in A Coruña, Ferrol and elsewhere the troops rose with "American money", and that the Count of La Bisbal also rebelled, since, according to Reparaz, he deceived Ferdinand VII into giving him command of the army to punish the rebels and then did not do so.Reparaz 1896, pp. 11–12 harvnb error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFReparaz1896 (help)

In an article published on 2 January 1896 in the Heraldo de Madrid, in the context of the war in Cuba, Reparaz called for the names of Riego and Quiroga to be removed from the place of honour they occupied in the Chamber of the Congress of Deputies. In that article he echoed what the Argentine politician and historian Bartolomé Mitre had written in his Historia de Belgrano y de la Independencia Argentina (1877) about Argentine complicity in Riego's pronunciamiento.Mitre 1877, p. 73

In the same vein as the above, the anti-Masonic writer Mariano Tirado y Rojas described Riego's pronunciamiento as "iniquitous". In this author's opinion, the commanders of the royalist troops in Córdoba, who could easily have defeated the insurgents, were also members of Freemasonry, which is why they allegedly did not act.Tirado 1893, p. 88 Tirado also stated that Rafael del Riego had succeeded Romero Alpuente as president of the Supreme Council of a Masonic offshoot known as the Comuneros de Castilla [es], which allegedly stood out for its "revolutionary radicalism".Tirado 1893, p. 89 Citing Tirado, in 2016 the historian Alberto Bárcena took up the claim of Riego's alleged Masonic membership and stated that "from 1820 a religious persecution was unleashed in Spain, also concealed by the political revolution", pointing to the murders of the Bishop of Vic and of Vinuesa and other "enormous cruelties carried out by Generals Mina and Riego, both members of the society of the Comuneros".Bárcena 2020, p. 286

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