Bernardo López Piquer trained at the studio of his father, the painter Vicente López Portaña (1772-1850). He managed to secure an official position with the royal family and worked with his father on several jobs at the Royal Palace in Madrid. In 1814 he joined the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, and remained an honourable member until 1825. Following the death of King Ferdinand VII in 1833 he was appointed as drawing teacher to Isabella II and later as the queen's court painter.

He was heavily influenced by the style and technique of his father. He stood out as a portrait artist, with works such as Maria Isabel of Braganza as the Founder of the Prado Museum (1829) and Isabella II (1850), though he also painted religious scenes such as St Paschal Baylon Adoring the Holy Eucharist (1811).

BDE Banco de España

María Isabel Luisa de Borbón y Borbón was the eldest daughter of Ferdinand VII and his fourth wife, Maria Christina of Bourbon Two Sicilies. Her birth was greatly desired, as her father had had no descent by his three previous marriages, but it also divided Spain into two sides, since the First Carlist War broke out just two days after the death of Ferdinand VII on 29 September 1833. Her uncle, Carlos María Isidro, did not recognise her as the legitimate queen, even though Ferdinand VII had repealed the Auto Acordado (Agreed Writ) of Philip V and re-established the Spanish monarchic tradition whereby a woman could rule. Isabella took the oath as Princess of Asturias on 20 June 1833, and was proclaimed queen on 24 October the same year. Aged three when she came to the throne, the regents during her minority reign (1833-1843) were first her mother, Queen Maria Christina, and then General Espartero.

Maria Christina’s regency lasted from 1833 to 1840. It was during this regency that the moderate Royal Statute of 1834 was issued, followed by the progressivist Constitution of 1837. Queen Maria Christina had to renounce the regency in 1840 and depart for exile in France. The parliamentary Cortes appointed General Espartero as sole regent, and chose Agustín de Argüelles as tutor to Isabella and Luisa Fernanda. In his turn, he appointed the Countess of Espoz y Mina as governess.

In 1843, after the downfall of Espartero, the Cortes decided to declare Isabella II, who had just turned thirteen, to have come of age. The reign of Isabella II was characterised by political instability, uprisings, military coups and a large number of governments, while at the same time Spain began its process of modernisation.

Queen Isabella II’s first government was led by Salustiano Olózaga, the head of the Progressivist Party, who was replaced by the moderate government of Luis González Bravo. On 3 May 1844, General Narváez came to power, marking the beginning of a period of ten years of moderate governments, the so-called Moderate Decade (1844-1854). Narváez presided over four governments, all dominated by a moderate party of which he was the leader and bulwark from 1843 to 1868. Besides being the strong man of the Moderate Decade, he was the true protagonist of Isabella’s reign.

The governments of France and England intervened actively in the marriages of Isabella II and her sister Luisa Fernanda, both powers fearing that a royal marriage might bestow supremacy on the other. The two powers reached an agreement whereby Isabella could marry only a descendant of Philip V. The Infante Francisco de Asís was chosen by a process of exclusion. He was perhaps not the most suitable husband for the young, extroverted and lively Isabella II, who was not at all enthusiastic about marrying a cousin whose physical appearance and taciturn character were completely unattractive to her. On 10 October 1846, at the age of sixteen, she was married at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Simultaneously, the Infanta Luisa Fernanda was wedded to Antoine d’Orléans, Duke of Montpensier, the ninth child of King Louis- Philippe of France.

The project to reform the Constitution of 1845 led to the downfall of Bravo Murillo and emphasised the decline of the moderate party. His successors represented the most extreme reaction of the moderates, contributing to the formation of a revolutionary front that put an end to the Moderate Decade and originated the Revolution of 1854. Of all that Revolution’s consequences, the most serious was the damage to the queen’s prestige.

Faced with such a grave situation, the queen called on Espartero, who governed for two years, the Progressivist Biennium (1854-1856), while O’Donnell took over the War Minister portfolio. After a parenthesis of two years of moderate governments (1856-1858), O’Donnell returned with his second government, the so-called ‘long government’ or Progressivist Quinquennium (1858-1863). These were five years of peace and political and economic stability. The most outstanding development during this period was the building and opening of the railways, which not only made communications easier but also helped consolidate Spain’s towns and cities as urban centres.

The Quinquennium ended with the crisis caused by O’Donnell’s decision to carry out a ministerial reshuffle, which led to Prim’s leaving the Unionist Party to join the progressivists. The crisis was worsened by a confrontation between the queen and the head of her government, culminating in Isabella’s refusal to sign the decree to dissolve parliament that was requested by the latter in order to be able to initiate constitutional reform. With the downfall of O’Donnell, the twilight of Isabella’s reign began.

The governments under the successive presidencies of the Marquis of Miraflores, Arrazola and Mon were followed on 16 September 1864 by a new Narváez Government, which was dissolved in 1865 after major student protests had been violently repressed on the ‘Night of Saint Daniel’. Narváez’s exit was followed by the last government of O’Donnell (1865- 1866), faced with the now unstoppable conspiracies of the progressivists, who had decided to take the path of revolution.

In 1866, there was a succession of uprisings led by Prim. The one at the Artillery Barracks of San Gil in Madrid degenerated into a street battle followed by harsh repression, undermining both the traditional generosity of the queen and the liberal sympathies of O’Donnell, the Duke of Tetuán. The queen replaced him with Narváez, while O’Donnell went into voluntary exile in Biarritz (France). Isabella II thus lost one of the most loyal and valuable men of her reign. Narváez presided over what was to be his last government, from July 1866 to April 1868, when he suspended parliament and the constitutional guarantees.

The response of the progressivists was not long in coming. In August 1866 they signed the Pact of Ostend, in which they committed themselves to forming a single front to bring down the regime and the dynasty, creating a permanent revolutionary centre in Brussels. Upon O’Donnell’s death in 1867, the Liberal Union joined the Pact. When Narváez died in 1868, the queen was left without support. She appointed González Bravo to preside over her government, but he governed with a dictatorial style that merely precipitated Isabella II’s deposition.

The Revolution was led by Generals Serrano and Prim together with Admiral Topete. They arrived in Cádiz and Gibraltar on 17 and 19 September 1868. On 30 September, Isabella II left San Sebastián to cross the French border. She was nearly 38. The ‘Glorious Revolution’ put an end to her reign.

In exile, she first took up residence at the Château de Pau, placed at her disposal by Napoleon III. After the first few months, she separated definitively, and by mutual accord, from her consort. Isabella II then moved to Paris, making her final home at the Basilewsky Palace, to which she gave the name of the Palace of Castile. There, on 25 June 1870, she abdicated in favour of her son, Alfonso XII, and put Cánovas at the head of the Alfonsine movement. She died on 9 April 1904 of pneumonia brought on by influenza. The French government dispensed honours befitting a Head of State to the woman who had been Queen of Spain for 35 years, and had lived in Paris for 37. The queen’s coffin was solemnly conveyed to the Gare d’Orsay, where it was taken by train to Spain to be buried in the Royal Mausoleum at the monastery of El Escorial.

Despite the political instability of the period, Spain’s modernisation was hastened by the 35-year reign of Isabella II before her deposition in 1868. The population grew considerably, and the first official census of 1857 put its number at 15,500,000. The railway network started to be laid out in 1848, and 5,400 kilometres of track were opened for use in 1855.

In 1845, major financial reforms were begun. Ramón de Santillán was one of those involved in these measures, which were applied by Alejandro Mon. In 1856, Banco de España was created out of the merger of Banco de San Fernando and Banco de Isabel II. The application of the new banking laws paved the way for the founding of issuing banks and loan companies.

Disentailment helped to increase the area of cultivated land. The cotton and wool textile industry underwent a rapid process of expansion and concentration, especially after the import of English machinery in 1842. Mining began on a large scale in the second half of the nineteenth century. The construction of public works was especially notable during the governments of Bravo Murillo and O’Donnell. More than 7,000 kilometres of roads were built, and canals like those of Isabel II, Tauste, Imperial and Castilla helped to develop systems of irrigation and water supplies for urban centres. The postage stamp and the telegraph also appeared in 1854. Gas lighting entered service in 1841, and the first tests on electric street lighting were carried out in Barcelona in 1852.

Photography began in Spain in the midnineteenth century, and Charles Clifford and Jean Laurent both worked for the Court. Cultural development was also considerable. Claudio Moyano’s first Law of Public Instruction was promulgated, and the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences was founded. By a law of 12 May 1865, Isabella II donated her private collections to the Museo del Prado, where they today form the museum’s most important repertory of works. In 1836, moreover, the Royal Library ceased to be the property of the Crown and came under the administration of the Ministry of Governance, whereupon it was renamed the Biblioteca Nacional (National Library). It was during Isabella II’s reign, whether by purchase, donation or confiscation, that the Library acquired most of the oldest books it currently possesses. On 21 April 1866, the queen laid the first stone of the building that now houses the National Library, designed by Francisco Jareño. It was also during her reign, thanks in large measure to her fondness for opera, that Madrid’s opera house, the Teatro Real, was inaugurated on 19 November 1850 with Donizetti’s La Favorita, and that the genre of the zarzuela, the Spanish operetta, was reborn.

Isabella II had ten children, five of whom survived into adulthood: Isabel (very popular in Madrid, where she was affectionately called La Chata), Alfonso (the future Alfonso XII), Pilar, Paz and Eulalia.

Paloma Gómez Pastor