Abdications of Bayonne

• 1. Introduction

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  The Abdications of Bayonne took place across three days in May 1808, when Napoleon I extracted the Spanish Crown from two kings simultaneously. Inside the castle of Marracq in Bayonne, father and son signed away a dynasty without firing a single shot. Charles IV gave up the throne he had already surrendered to his own son, and Ferdinand VII gave up a throne he had held for barely two months. Neither man was adequately equipped, as historians have noted, to resist Napoleon's pressures and threats.

  How did Europe's most powerful emperor end up negotiating with two rival Spanish kings in the same French castle? What chain of conspiracies, mutinies, and miscalculations brought both father and son across the border and into Napoleon's hands? And what did it cost Spain and Napoleon himself when the gambit unravelled into a six-year war?

• 2. The Decision to Intervene

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  Miguel Artola places Napoleon's decision to openly intervene in Spain after the Escorial Conspiracy was uncovered on the 27th of October 1807. That plot was an unsuccessful attempt by Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias, to end the government of the royal favourite Manuel Godoy and force his father Charles IV to abdicate. It revealed, as historian Thierry Lentz has noted, that Spain's Bourbon rulers were deeply unstable.

  Napoleon had been shaping Spain's foreign policy since 1801. His southern ally's chronic dysfunction alarmed him. French ambassador François de Beauharnais, himself implicated in the Escorial Conspiracy, wrote to the Emperor: "It is solely from Your Imperial Majesty that the Spanish nation expects its salvation, and it can be assured that throughout the kingdom, there are only ardent friends of France."

  From his captivity on the island of Saint Helena, Napoleon later wrote of his reasoning: "We could not leave Spain at our backs, at the disposal of our enemies. It was necessary to bind it, willingly or by force, to our system." Lentz identified a second layer to that reasoning: a cultural contempt that pervaded French official thinking. Reports reaching the Emperor portrayed Spain as a country characterized by "religious obscurantism, the vanity of the nobility, the poverty, and the ignorance of the people."

  Napoleon's original plan was not to replace the Bourbons but to annex Spain's northern provinces. He intended to shift the Franco-Spanish border to the Ebro River and seal the arrangement by marrying Prince Ferdinand to a Bonaparte princess. That plan collapsed when his brother Lucien refused to offer his eldest daughter Charlotte for the match.

  The Treaty of Fontainebleau, signed on the 27th of October 1807, the same day the Escorial Conspiracy was uncovered, provided a legal avenue. It authorised a French army to cross Spain to conquer Portugal. Marshal Junot entered Lisbon on the 30th of November 1807. Between the 22nd of December 1807, and the 6th of February 1808, three additional army corps crossed the Franco-Spanish border. By February 20, Marshal Joachim Murat commanded a force estimated at between 80,000 and 100,000 men on Spanish soil.

  Talleyrand, Napoleon's minister, was likely the first to propose replacing the Bourbons entirely. In a memorandum he wrote: "There is only one branch of the House of Bourbon on the throne, that of Spain, which, positioned at our backs when facing the German powers, will always be threatening... The time has come to declare that the last House of Bourbon has ceased to reign." Minister Jean-Baptiste Nompère de Champagny followed with a detailed report: "Policy advises it, justice authorizes it, and Spain's disturbances necessitate it."

• 3. Ferdinand's Fatal Journey

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  When Ferdinand VII entered Madrid on the 24th of March 1808, after overthrowing his father at Aranjuez, neither Marshal Murat nor the French ambassador came to greet him. French authorities addressed him not as "Majesty" but as "His Royal Highness" - the title he had held as Prince of Asturias. Historian Emilio La Parra López called this "very revealing of France's attitude." Ferdinand understood what it meant: his crown depended entirely on Napoleon's recognition.

  On March 26 Ferdinand wrote directly to the French ambassador, stating that his wish was the "happiness of seeing His Imperial and Royal Majesty and following his advice." On April 3, he informed Murat he would travel to meet Napoleon, who had been announced as arriving in Spain. Napoleon's special envoy General Anne Jean Marie René Savary reached Madrid on April 7 and confirmed the meeting was urgent. Savary's mission was to gain Ferdinand's trust, and for that purpose he used the title "Majesty" when addressing him.

  Ferdinand left Madrid on April 10, accompanied by secretary of state Pedro Cevallos and three members of his private cabinet: Escoiquiz, and the Dukes of Infantado and San Carlos. The entourage was escorted by French troops under Savary's command. He expected Napoleon in Burgos; Napoleon was not there. He continued to Vitoria; Napoleon was absent there too.

  At Vitoria, a former minister of Charles IV named Mariano Luis de Urquijo warned the king that French press reports suggested Napoleon planned to end the Bourbon dynasty. Ferdinand hesitated. Savary offered assurances, then threatened to unleash hostilities if the party did not proceed. They continued. Urquijo, returning to Bilbao, wrote: "They are all blind and heading toward inevitable ruin."

  Ferdinand sent Napoleon a letter pledging loyalty and asserting that his father's abdication had been free and spontaneous. Napoleon's response, delivered on April 18, was the first time the Emperor addressed Ferdinand directly. It was, La Parra López noted, "harsh." Napoleon never used the title "Majesty." He wrote instead to "Your Royal Highness," questioning whether Charles IV's abdication had truly been voluntary. Ferdinand's reply astonished Napoleon, who had already taken measures to prevent his return to Madrid: the king submitted fully, addressed the letter "My Lord and Brother," and announced his immediate departure for Bayonne. He left Vitoria on April 19 despite a crowd's attempts to stop him.

• 4. Inside the Castle of Marracq

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  Ferdinand VII arrived in Bayonne at noon on April 20, having spent the previous night in Irún. No imperial envoy met him at the border, as protocol required. He was housed in the intendancy building, which neither he nor his entourage considered a suitable residence for a monarch. That afternoon he dined with Napoleon at the Château de Marracq, where the Emperor never called him "Majesty" or even "Royal Highness." Napoleon wrote to Talleyrand afterward: "He hasn't said a single word to me; he is indifferent to everything, very materialistic, eats four times a day, and has no ideas about anything." That same afternoon, General Savary delivered the message Ferdinand had dreaded: Napoleon had "irrevocably decided that the Bourbon dynasty would not reign in Spain."

  Charles IV and his wife María Luisa of Parma arrived on April 30. Their reception was starkly different. An imperial envoy greeted them at the border. Entering Bayonne, bells rang and 101 cannon salutes were fired. They were taken to the Government Palace, far superior to Ferdinand's lodgings. The contrast was deliberate. "The different treatment Napoleon gave to Charles IV and Ferdinand VII was telling. He received the former as a king; the latter, he did not consider as such."

  On May 1, Napoleon dined with Charles IV, María Luisa, and Manuel Godoy, who had arrived in Bayonne on April 26 after being freed from prison by French troops. Over the meal, Napoleon asked Charles IV to summon Ferdinand and demand the crown back in writing. Napoleon framed it carefully: "It would not be appropriate for me to do so, as I am neither his father nor his King, but merely a friendly and allied Sovereign." Charles IV immediately summoned his son and demanded the abdication document.

  Ferdinand submitted the following day but attached two conditions: the renunciation must happen in Madrid before the Cortes, and if his father chose not to reign, Ferdinand would govern as his lieutenant. Charles IV, speaking in a response drafted by Napoleon, rejected both outright: "I am king by the right of my parents; my abdication is the result of force and violence; therefore, I have nothing to receive from you."

• 5. The Night of May 5

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  Napoleon learned of the uprising in Madrid on May 2 - the spark of the Spanish War of Independence - only on the afternoon of May 5, through a letter from Murat. The letter reported that the "revolt" had been crushed and that over a thousand "insurgents" had been executed in retaliation. Witnesses recorded that Napoleon flew into a rage and rushed to Charles IV's quarters.

  Charles IV summoned his sons. Historian Thierry Lentz wrote that "the scene that followed was even more astonishing than those before it." The queen directed harsh reproaches at Ferdinand. Charles IV declared himself incapable of continuing to wear the crown. Infante Carlos embraced his brother Ferdinand with what felt, to those present, like a farewell. Ferdinand remained silent throughout, which greatly irritated Napoleon.

  The Emperor intervened with an ultimatum: "If by midnight you have not recognized your Father as your legitimate King and made it known to Madrid, you will be treated as a rebel." After Ferdinand left, Napoleon told Charles IV that if he did not wish to reign, he would "take possession of Spain" and offered asylum on one condition - Charles IV must renounce his rights to the Spanish Crown.

  That night, Marshal Gérard Duroc and Manuel Godoy drafted a treaty. Charles IV ceded the Crown to Napoleon under two conditions: the territorial integrity of the monarchy must be maintained, and Catholicism must remain the kingdom's sole religion. Napoleon accepted. In return he committed to hosting Charles IV, his wife, and Godoy in France, paying them 30 million reales monthly, and ceding Charles IV the Château de Chambord.

  Before midnight on May 5, Ferdinand delivered to the Emperor a copy of a letter dated the following day, renouncing the crown in his father's favour. Emilio La Parra called this a touch of "dark humor" or "an act of vengeance," because Ferdinand knew his father had already signed away the crown to Napoleon. Ferdinand, his uncle Antonio, and his brother Carlos signed a proclamation in Bordeaux on May 12 urging Spaniards to remain "calm." A French journalist writing in a counter-revolutionary newspaper in London concluded: "This is a new example of a royal family debased, extinguished, and destroyed."

• 6. Vacancy and Resistance

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  On May 10, Napoleon wrote to his elder brother Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples since 1806, offering him the Spanish Crown. He described the prize: "Spain is not like the Kingdom of Naples; it is about eleven million inhabitants, more than 150 million in revenue, not counting the immense income and possessions of all the Americas."

  When news of the Bayonne events reached Spain in mid-May, anti-French rebellion spread across the country. Joseph I did not arrive in Madrid until late July. Historian Miguel Artola called this interregnum "Napoleon's first mistake." For nearly two months, the supreme authority in Spain was Murat, a foreign commander who was ill and not dealing with governance. "The people - abandoned by their kings, who have abdicated - without the new monarch - who will not arrive until July 20 - find themselves, for nearly two months, facing a strange and unexpected interregnum, a vacant throne," Artola wrote.

  Napoleon issued a proclamation on May 25 promising the Spanish people that he would not reign in Spain and that a constitutional assembly would address their needs. He told them: "Spaniards: I have convened a general assembly of the deputations, provinces, and cities. I myself wish to know your desires and needs." On June 4, he issued a decree appointing Joseph as King of Spain. Napoleon convened an assembly with 91 of the 150 intended notables; they approved the Bayonne Statute between June 15 and 30, 1808. Joseph swore his oath on July 7 and entered Spain two days later.

  Joseph stayed in Madrid only eleven days. The victory of Ferdinand VII's defenders at the Battle of Bailén forced him out on July 31. Days after he left, the Council of Castile invalidated the Bayonne abdications. Ferdinand VII was proclaimed king in absentia on August 24. French historian Thierry Lentz, summing up Joseph Bonaparte's appointment, wrote that Joseph "was, in fact, leaving the slopes of Vesuvius for an even more capricious volcano."

• 7. Aftermath and Legacy

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  The abdications were never recognised in Spain or in Spanish America by those the source calls the "patriots." François-Xavier Guerra observed that rejection of Joseph I and loyalty to the captive Ferdinand VII were "widespread across all parts of the monarchy." Spanish patriots called Joseph I the "intruder king." Some Spaniards, particularly among the educated elite, did support him; first called "traitors" or "sworn ones," they were later labelled "josefinos" or, pejoratively, "afrancesados." The Spanish War of Independence also carried elements of a civil war as a result.

  Joseph I regained the throne only after Napoleon intervened directly with the Grande Armée, and he held it until June 1813. The Peninsular War lasted from 1808 to 1814 and became a contributing factor to Napoleon's final defeat. The conflict drained French resources and manpower at a critical period.

  On the 11th of December 1813, Napoleon was forced to release Ferdinand. Through the Treaty of Valençay, he reinstalled Ferdinand VII as King of Spain. The United Kingdom had already recognised Ferdinand VII as King of Spain in the Treaty of Apodaca-Canning, signed on the 14th of January 1809, aligning its formal diplomatic position with the resistance movement it was supporting militarily. The abdications at Bayonne, meant to bind Spain to Napoleon's system, had instead produced the very war that began unravelling it.