Charles IV (November 11, 1748 - January 20, 1819) was King of Spain from December 14, 1788 until his abdication on March 19, 1808.
Early life
Charles was the second son of Charles III and his wife Maria Amalia of Saxony. He was born at Portici, while his father was king of the Two Sicilies. His elder brother don Felipe was passed over for the two thrones as mentally retarded and epileptic.
Charles had inherited a great frame and immense physical strength from the Saxon line of his mother, granddaughter of August II of Poland. When young he was fond of wrestling with the strongest countrymen he could find. He was considered by many to be intellectually sluggish and quite credulous.
His wife Maria Luisa of Parma, on the other hand, was seen by many (including by the painter Francisco Goya) as a vicious and coarse woman who thoroughly dominated the king.
During his father's lifetime he was led by her into court intrigues which aimed at driving the king's favourite minister, Count of Floridablanca, from office, and replacing him by Pedro Pablo Abarca de Bolea, Count of Aranda, the chief of the "Aragonese" party.
Children
Charles IV married his first cousin Maria Luisa of Parma (daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma) in 1765. They had 14 children:
Children
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charles Clement (Carlos) Clemente | September 19 1771 | March 7 1774 | died in childhood. |
| Charlotte Joaquina (Carlota Joaquina) | April 25 1775 | January 7 1830 | queen consort of Portugal, had issue. |
| Maria Louisa (Maria Luisa) | September 11 1777 | July 2 1782 | died in childhood. |
| Maria Amalia | January 9 1779 | July 22 1798 | died in her teens. |
| Charles Dominic (Carlos Domingo) | March 5 1780 | June 11 1783 | died in childhood. |
| Maria Louisa | July 6 1782 | March 13 1824 | married Luigi, King of Etruria, Prince of Bourbon-Parma (Piacenza 5 Jul 1773-Florence 27 May 1803) |
| Charles Francis (Carlos Francisco) | September 5 1783 | November 11 1784 | died in childhood. |
| Philip Francis (Felipe Francisco) | September 5 1783 | October 18 1784 | died in childhood. |
| Ferdinand (Fernando) | October 14 1784 | September 29 1833 | succeeded his father as King of Spain, married four wives, had issue. |
| Carlos | March 29 1788 | March 10 1855 | was Carlist pretender |
| Maria Isabella | June 6 1789 | September 13 1848 | queen consort of Francis I of the Two Sicilies |
| Maria Teresa | February 16 1791 | November 2 1794 | died in childhood. |
| Felipe Maria | March 28 1792 | March 1 1794 | died in childhood. |
| Francisco de Paula (Francisco Antonio) | March 10 1794 | August 13 1865 | Duke of Cadiz |
Reign
After he succeeded to the throne in 1788 his one serious occupation was hunting. Affairs were left to be directed by his wife and her alleged lover Manuel de Godoy. Although Godoy essentially took over his wife and his office, the king was favourable towards him for all his life. When terrified by the French Revolution he turned to the Inquisition to help him against the party which would have carried the reforming policy of Charles III much further. But he never took more than a passive part in the direction of his own government. He simply obeyed the impulse given him by the queen and Godoy. In 1803, after smallpox had affected his daughter María Luísa, the king commissioned his doctor Francisco Javier de Balmis to bring the vaccine to the Spanish colonies on state expenses.
He had a profound belief in his divine right and the sanctity of his person. He thought it very important to seem a very powerful monarch, although his kingdom was treated as a mere dependency by France and his throne was dominated by the queen and her lover. Spain allied with France and supported the Continental Blockade, but withdrew after the Battle of Trafalgar. When Napoleon won from Prussia in 1807, Godoy returned to the French side, but France no longer considered Spain a worthy ally. But even the alliance with France, as it was, made Godoy's rule unpopular and fueled the partido fernandista, the supporters of Ferdinand, who favored a close relationship with Great Britain.
Abdication
When he was told that his son Ferdinand was appealing to the emperor Napoleon against Godoy, he took the side of the favourite. When the populace rose at Aranjuez in 1808 he abdicated on March 19, in favour of his son, to save the minister who had been taken prisoner. Ferdinand took the throne as Ferdinand VII, but was distrusted by Napoleon who had 100,000 soldiers in Spain by that time.Charles IV found refuge in France, and became prisoner of Napoleon: the latter, posing as arbiter, summoned both Charles IV and his son to Bayonne in April and coaxed Charles (who found a difficult time restraining himself from assaulting his son) to retract his earlier abdication and abdicate, on May 5, 1808, in favour of Napoleon Charles was then interned in Talleyrand's castle in Valençay. He accepted a pension from the French emperor and spent the rest of his life between his wife and Godoy, staying briefly in Compiègne and more durably in Marseille, to finally settle in 1812 in Rome in the Palazzo Barberini (under the protection of pope Pius VII). He died in Rome on January 20, 1819.
Ancestors
References
- Historia del Reinado de Carlos IV, by General Gomez de Arteche (5 vols.), in the Historia General de España de la Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid, 1892, etc.).
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Friday July 18, 2008 at 05:04:16 PDT (GMT -0700)
View this article at Wikipedia.org - Edit this article at Wikipedia.org - Donate to the Wikimedia Foundation
Copyright © 2008, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.