Charles IV of Spain.html



Charles IV
King of Spain (more...)
Reign	December 14, 1788–March 19, 1808
Predecessor	Charles III
Successor	Ferdinand VII
Consort	Maria Luisa of Parma
Issue
Charlotte, Queen of Portugal Maria Louisa, Queen of Etruria Ferdinand VII Infante Charles, Count of Molina Maria Isabella, Queen of the Two Sicilies Infante Francisco de Paula
Detail Titles and styles
HM The King HRH The Prince of Asturias
Royal house	House of Bourbon
Father	Charles III of Spain
Mother	Maria Amalia of Saxony
Born	November 11, 1748 Portici, Italy
Died	January 20, 1819 (aged 70) Rome, Italy

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, Prince of Asturias.

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 of Spain and His Family, by Goya.

Charles IV married his first cousin Maria Luisa of Parma (daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma) in 1765. They had 14 children:

Children

Reign

Spanish House of Bourbon 1700-1833

Philip V Children    Louis I    Ferdinand VI    Charles III    Mariana Victoria, Queen of Portugal    Philip, Duke of Parma    Teresa, Dauphine of France    Infante Louis    Antonia, Queen of Sardinia Louis I Ferdinand VI Charles III Children    Infanta Maria Josepha    Maria Luisa, Holy Roman Empress    Felipe, Duke of Calabria    Charles IV    Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies    Infante Gabriel    Infante Antonio Grandchild of cadet line    Infante Pedro Carlos Charles IV Children    Charlotte, Queen of Portugal    Infanta Maria Amelia    Maria Luisa, Queen of Etruria, Duchess of Parma    Ferdinand VII    Carlos, Count of Molina    Maria Isabella, Queen of the Two Sicilies    Infante Francisco de Paula Grandchildren of cadet lines    Carlos, Count of Montemolin    Juan, Count of Montizón    Infante Fernando    Francis, Duke of Cadiz, King Consort of Spain    Henry, Duke of Sevilla    Infanta Maria Cristina    Amelia, Princess of Bavaria Ferdinand VII Children    Isabella II    Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier Edit

El Caballito de Tolsá in Mexico City, a statue of Charles IV.

Silver 8 real coin of Charles IV, struck 1806
Obverse: (Latin) CAROLUS IIII DEI GRATIA, 1806, or in English, "Charles IV, By the Grace of God, 1806	Reverse: (Latin) HISPAN[IARUM] ET IND[IARUM] REX M[EXICANUS] 8 R[EALES] T H., or in English, "King of the Spains and of the Indies, Mexico City Mint, 8 Reales." The reverse depicts the arms of Castile and León, between the Pillars of Hercules.

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,^[1] 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^[2] Charles was then interned in Talleyrand's castle in Valençay^[3][4]. 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)^[5][6][7][8]. He died in Rome on January 20, 1819.

Ancestors

References

1. ^ Articles: Period of Imperial Crisis (revised) - Historical Text Archive
2. ^ Gazeta de Madrid de 20 de mayo páginas 483 and 484.
3. ^ Napoleon I :: Blockade and the peninsular campaign - Britannica Online Encyclopedia
4. ^ http://pcombal.club.fr/bioanglaise.html — “The Spanish affair&rqduo;
5. ^ http://fr.wikipedia.org/en/Charles_IV_d%27Espagne
6. ^ Manuel de Godoy#Exile
7. ^ Worldroots.com
8. ^ The Royal Favorite: Manuel Francisco Domingo de Godoy, Prince of the Peace

• 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 incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

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