The Dos de Mayo insurrection in Spain, a rebellion first against the incompetent Spanish monarchy and then against France, resulted in the defeat of French emperor Napoleon I. Napoleon had infuriated the Spanish people by refusing to accept the ascension of Ferdinand VII as king of Spain in his bid to take control of Spain and advance his own empire.
With the French Bourbons
Spanish policy in the 1790’s was controlled by Manuel de Godoy, the so-called Prince of the Peace, chief minister of King Charles IV, and the lover of María Luisa, Charles’s wife. Charles was a weak, incompetent monarch, completely dominated by his wife and her lover. Many of the reforms initiated by the earlier Bourbons and carried through by Charles III
In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France and in 1804 made himself emperor of the French. In his ambitions to control Europe, he saw the possibility of using Godoy’s avarice to take over Spain. Through a series of alliances concluded during the early nineteenth century. Spain became closely tied to France and subservient to Napoleon. Spanish naval strength was drained to serve France’s needs, while Godoy enriched himself.
By 1807, Napoleon believed that the time had come to take over Spain completely. Both Spain and Portugal were weak links in his Continental System (trade embargo against the British), and the Anglo-Portuguese alliance bothered him. In 1807 he concluded a treaty with Godoy that allowed French troops passage through northern Spain into Portugal. By late 1807, the French forces had driven the Portuguese royal family out of the country and had occupied some of the fortresses of northern Spain.
All the pent-up, anti-French feelings in Spain now rallied to Ferdinand VII, son of Charles IV and heir to the throne. He was popular with those Spaniards who were offended by the scandalous character of Queen María Luisa
Napoleon, however, intended to eliminate the Spanish Bourbons
The French also committed a major blunder. Anticipating the restoration of Charles when Ferdinand would abdicate, Murat announced that Charles IV was the king of Spain. Therefore, Murat appeared to protect both Godoy and Charles even though Ferdinand had begun to place his uncle Antonio in charge of a junta to rule Spain.
Reception at the court of King Charles IV.
Napoleon next invited Ferdinand and Charles to come to Bayonne to settle the dispute. Cleverly putting pressure on both and taking advantage of a disgraceful family quarrel, he persuaded Charles and Ferdinand to abdicate in favor of any person whom he nominated, but on the condition that the Spanish Empire would remain intact and that Roman Catholicism
When news of the dethroning of the Bourbons
The famous riot became immortalized by Francisco Goya
The French invasion in 1808 jolted Goya’s life and art. His moving painting, The Second of May 1808: The Charge of the Mamelukes (1814), preserves brilliantly the attack by mostly unarmed Spanish patriots upon Napoleon’s well-armed cavalry. More astounding is Third of May 1808: Execution of the Citizens of Madrid (1814), which contains all the romantic horror that fascinated Goya.
By May 30, all Spain was in rebellion against the French. Napoleon had to send more troops to fight the Spaniards, but he was not able to defeat them. The fighting and the disruption of authority in Spain caused a political, social, economic, and religious revolution whose reverberations continued into the twentieth century.
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Altamira, Rafael. A History of Spain; From the Beginnings to the Present Day. Translated by Muna Lee. 1949. Reprint. Princeton, N.J.: D. Van Nostrand, 1966. A general history of Spain that considers the results of the insurrection. -
Carr, Raymond. Spain, 1808-1975. 2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Carr’s study of nineteenth and twentieth century Spain covers the uprising of 1808 in detail and includes an excellent analysis of the factions involved in both the uprising and the events immediately preceding it. -
Chastenet, Jacques. Godoy, Master of Spain, 1792-1808. Translated by J. F. Huntington. London: Batchworth Press, 1953. An excellent biography of Godoy and a study of his part in the events preceding the insurrection. -
Esdaile, Charles J. Fighting Napoleon: Guerillas, Bandits, and Adventurers in Spain, 1808-1814. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2004. Focuses on the Spanish peasants, bandits and other guerrilla fighters who attacked the French army, assessing the contributions they made to the Peninsular War. -
Herr, Richard. The Eighteenth Century Revolution in Spain. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1958. This work is one of the best books ever written on this period in Spanish history. -
Hilt, Douglas. The Troubled Trinity: Godoy and the Spanish Monarchs. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1987. A revisionist study of the Spanish leader that effectively synthesizes modern scholarship. -
Lovett, Gabriel H. Napoleon and the Birth of Modern Spain. 2 vols. New York: New York University Press, 1965. This two-volume study of the events of the war in Spain is the most detailed and comprehensive study of the period. -
Lynch, John. Bourbon Spain, 1700-1808. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, 1989. Lynch provides an insightful and comprehensive overview of the crises facing the Bourbon monarchy in Spain. The book contains a bibliographic essay on different aspects of the Spanish Bourbon regime. -
Ramos Oliveira, Antonio. Politics, Economics, and Men of Modern Spain, 1808-1916. Translated by Teener Hall. London: Victor Gollancz, 1946. A socioeconomic history of the results of the insurrection written by Spain’s noted Marxist historian. -
Smith, Rhea Marsh. Spain: A Modern History. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1965. A general history of Spain that also considers the results of the insurrection.
Bonaparte Is Crowned Napoleon I
Peninsular War in Spain
Battle of Salamanca
Goya Paints Third of May 1808: Execution of the Citizens of Madrid
France’s Bourbon Dynasty Is Restored
Carlist Wars Unsettle Spain
Spanish Revolution of 1868
Spanish Constitution of 1876
Napoleon I; La Saragossa.