French Forces Restore Ferdinand VII King of Spain

In 1823 French forces intervened in Spain to crush a liberal revolution and restore the absolute authority of King Ferdinand VII. The crisis had its roots in the upheavals following the Napoleonic Wars: in 1820 a military revolt had compelled Ferdinand to accept the liberal Constitution of 1812, sharply limiting his powers and reducing him to a near-prisoner of the constitutional government.

Alarmed by revolution and acting under a mandate from the conservative powers of the Congress of Verona, France dispatched an army known as the 'Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis,' commanded by the Duke of Angoulême. The French met little effective resistance, advanced across Spain, and defeated the liberal forces, who were eventually forced to surrender the king they had been holding at Cádiz.

Restored to absolute power, Ferdinand VII abolished the constitution and unleashed a harsh repression against liberals, executing or exiling many of his opponents during the period that followed. He ruled as an absolute monarch until his death in 1833. The intervention demonstrated the determination of the conservative European powers to suppress revolutionary movements, even as Spain's grip on its rebellious American colonies continued to collapse.