this time had also arrived at Bayonne. Ferdinand endeavoured to make his abdication in favour of his father conditional on the carrying out of some of the most pressing reforms. But the proposal was treated as a new crime. Ferdinand contented himself with a simple renunciation of his rights in virtue of the decree of the 19th March, and wrote to his uncle, Don Antonio, whom he supposed to be still at the head of the junta of Madrid, urging him to guard against the policy of "our natural enemies, the English." Ferdinand was transferred to Valençay, a country-seat belonging to Talleyrand, where he lived in a not inglorious leisure until March, 1814. The only event worth notice during this period was an attempt made by Napoleon, by means of a pretended secret agent from England, to ascertain Ferdinand's real intentions. The result seems to have been, that Napoleon satisfied himself he had little to fear from this quarter. The events of 1813 in other parts of Europe led Napoleon to desire the restoration of his royal captive, and by the treaty of Valençay, 11th November, 1813, he agreed to recognize Ferdinand and his heirs as kings of Spain. The cortes, of whose proceedings Ferdinand had been in ignorance, refused to recognize any compact entered into by the king while in captivity, and demanded, first, that every treaty should be ratified by the king in his own palace at Madrid; and secondly, that he should swear to observe the constitution proclaimed at Cadiz in 1812. Ferdinand temporized, but from the moment of his entering Spain, which he did by a different road from that marked out by the cortes, it was evident that the clumsily paternal rule of a Bourbon could never work well with the turbulent policy of a cortes, consisting of men, ardent patriots indeed, but wedded to theories far in advance of the intellectual and social status of their countrymen. The decree of Valencia (14th May, 1814) annulled all the acts of the legislature during his absence, but promised to convoke the cortes "according to the lights of the age," a promise never fulfilled. The re-establishment of the inquisition with some limitations, and the restoration of the jesuits, followed; and, on the entry of the king into Madrid, a furious persecution was directed against the constitutionalists, especially the members of the cortes, who were excepted from the general pardon on his second marriage with Maria Isabella, daughter of the king of Portugal, 28th September, 1816. Ferdinand seems at this time to have been greatly under the influence of the Russian minister, Tatistcheff; and we must also bear in mind that his life had twice been endangered by conspiracies of the disappointed liberals, and that the enthusiasm for the absolute king died away in a short time after his return. It would have required statesmanship of a very high order to repair the disorder of Spanish affairs at this period; but whether we examine the financial, the legislative, or the colonial policy of the seven years from 1813 to 1820, we shall see that the outbreak of the latter year had far other than temporary or accidental causes.
Passing over the insurrections of Valencia and Barcelona, we come to the military outbreak at the Isla de Leon (the peninsula of Cadiz) headed by Riego and Quiroga, commencing the 1st January, 1820. On the 9th March in the same year, Ferdinand swore to the constitution of 1812, and the cortes were convoked on the 9th July. The liberal leaders—"men of enlarged views and great capacity," says the conservative historian, Alison—were overborne by the violence of the democratic clubs of Madrid on the one hand, and the absolutist tendencies of the rural population on the other, before the close of the session (9th November) the disorder became so great that the king was obliged to remain within the walls of his own palace. The civil dissensions of the next three years we gladly pass over. On the 7th April, 1823, a French army under the duke of Angoulême entered Spain, "to deliver Ferdinand from the slavery in which he was kept by a factious party." On the 23d they entered Madrid. The cortes fled to Seville, and thence to Cadiz, the king being obliged to follow (though not until he had been declared insane, and a regency appointed). In September following, the French besieged Cadiz, and the king was permitted to leave the city to make terms with the invaders (1st October). He promised a general amnesty; recognition of the debts incurred in resisting the French; and all needful reforms. So far from these engagements being kept, his first act was to disavow every legislative act since 1820. The entry of the king and queen into Madrid was preceded by the execution of Riego, and the degradation of the nation was completed by a convention under which all the fortresses of the kingdom were to remain for a year in possession of the French troops.
During the remaining ten years of his life, Ferdinand interfered but little in the course of public affairs. His third wife was the Princess Maria Josefa Amelia of Saxony; but by none of his three first wives had he any issue. In 1829 he married his niece, Maria Christina, daughter of the king of Naples, afterwards queen regent. By her he had two daughters, of whom the eldest, Maria Isabella, is the present queen of Spain. Ferdinand died on the 29th September, 1833. His remains were interred with great pomp in the palace of the Escurial.—F. M. W.
Ferdinand, Cardinal, Infanta of Spain, and Governor of the Netherlands—born in 1609; died at Brussels in 1641—was the third son of Philip III., and was designated by Philip IV. to succeed the Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia. At a very early age he was made archbishop of Toledo, and in 1633 he was sent at the head of a considerable force to effect a junction with the king of Hungary on the Danube. On his way he received intelligence of the death of the archduchess, and, after carrying out his mission—taking part on the way in the victory of Nordlingen, 16th September, 1634—made his entry into Brussels. Next year he was attacked by the French, but, taking the offensive, he invaded Picardy and threatened the capital. The remainder of his life was occupied with the prosecution of these wars, but in 1640-41 fortune turned against him, and he saw one strong place after another wrested from him. He was distinguished by the purity of his life, and, had he been less engaged in war, would have been a beneficent ruler.—F. M. W.
FERDINANDS OF PORTUGAL.
Ferdinand I., surnamed the Beautiful, son and successor of Pedro the Cruel, born 13th October, 1345, ascended the throne at the age of twenty-two. With a view to secure the crown of Castile, he was about to marry Eleanor, sister of Henry of that kingdom; but becoming suddenly enamoured of Eleanor Tellez (see Eleanor) the wife of one of his courtiers, he carried her off to Oporto, and, having procured a dissolution of her previous marriage, was united to her in 1372, although a formidable insurrection was excited by this conduct. The first result of this union was a renewal of the war with Henry of Castile. In this war Ferdinand had the alliance of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, also a claimant of the Castilian crown; and although peace was made, on the death of Henry the contest was renewed, and an English army, commanded by the earl of Cambridge, a younger brother of John of Gaunt, landed in Portgual. The Castilian troops speedily abandoned Portugal, and a scheme which had been in contemplation for the marriage of Beatrix, Ferdinand's heiress, to the son of the earl of Cambridge, was broken off, in order, it would seem, to further the union of the two kingdoms by a marriage between Beatrix and the son of John of Castile. The latter monarch becoming a widower, proposed himself to marry the princess; and while the queen was absent at the nuptials of her daughter, a formidable league was formed against her, headed by the king's illegitimate brother, John. The king was urged to consent to the assassination of his queen's paramour, Andeiro. Ferdinand's death, however, on the 22nd of October, 1483, delayed the execution of the design. Ferdinand's character was in many respects estimable; but the vacillation of his policy, and the burdens he imposed on the country, tended greatly to weaken the power of Portugal.—F. M. W.
Ferdinand the Steadfast, Infanta of Portugal—born in 1402; died in 1443—was the son of John I. of Portugal. As grandmaster of the order of Aviz he accompanied his brother Henry in an expedition against the Moors of Barbary in 1437. The expedition was much smaller than had been intended, and the christian forces were compelled to succumb to treachery. The wreck of the expedition was allowed to embark for Portugal, but Ferdinand remained a hostage in the hands of Cala-ben-Cala, who finding it impossible to obtain what he deemed an adequate price for the liberation of his prisoner, handed him over to the sultan of Fez, by whom he was treated with the utmost cruelty, and he died at the age of forty-one. His remains were afterwards removed to Portugal, and he received the honours of canonization in 1470.—F. M. W.
* Ferdinand Augustus Francis Antonio of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, born 29th October, 1816; married in 1836 to Doña Maria II. queen of Portugal. On the birth of his eldest son (the present Don Pedro VII.) in 1837. He received the title of King-consort, as Ferdinand II., and on the death of the
