the mob. Historians have seen this as another manifestation of the hidalgo
tradition: the grandees could stomach rule by bureaucrats but not by
parvenu court favourites like Godoy. There was particular animus
between Ferdinand and Godoy as the prince believed Godoy was aiming
at a regency to exclude him from the throne, while Godoy was aware that
the prince was intriguing against him with Bonaparte through the French
ambassador. Godoy was shrewd enough to see that the Tumult of
Aranjuez was not a spontaneous popular uprising, but the work of the
exploited masses manipulated from above. In retrospect it looks like just
another in the long line of demonstrations of political power by the
alliance between the Army and the mob which habitually decided the fate
of kings and ministers in nineteenth-century Spain.
The Spanish story abounds in ironies and none richer than the fall of
Godoy. The first minister had just decided that Napoleon must be
opposed before he took over Spain and to this end elected to remove the
King to safety in Seville- a step which ironically triggered the 'Tumult'.
Ferdinand was at this stage virtually a creature of Bonaparte, and by far
Napoleon's wisest course would have been to set him on the throne as a
puppet. But, showing the first clear signs of self-destructive behaviour,
Napoleon set off for Bayonne in April with quite other ideas in his mind.
Passing swiftly through Tours, Poitiers and Angouleme he stopped in
Bordeaux for ten days, sightseeing and attending receptions. On 14 April
he arrived at Bayonne and settled in for three months at the chateau of
Maracq, ready to put the final touches to his Spanish policy.
His first action at Bayonne was scarcely an act of consummate
statesmanship. The Bayonne decrees of 17 April declared all American
ships entering European ports to be lawful prize. Napoleon argued that
since the U.S.A. had embargoed its own ships, any vessels purporting to
come from North America must be British merchantmen in disguise,
bearing forged papers. This attempt to plug another hole in the
Continental System simply increased friction unnecessarily with the
U.S.A. But as a blunder it was a bagatelle alongside what was to follow.
On r8 April he offered to mediate between father and son and
summoned both Charles IV and Ferdinand (also Godoy) to meet him.
The deposed Charles was predictably keen to have Napoleon as a
supposed champion, but Ferdinand was less certain of the wisdom of
making the journey. To help him make up his mind the Emperor sent his
favourite troubleshooter Savary to entice him to Bayonne with specious
promises. The brutal Savary, whose destiny seemed to be to destroy
young princes (he was principal agent in the execution of the due
d'Enghien), was the man of whom Napoleon once said: 'If I ordered
marcin
(Marcin)
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