that he resolved to send an ambassador to Madrid
whose remonstrances must be listened to as com-
mands. He made choice of his brother Lucien.
In this appointment Godoy saw a deliberate attempt
to overawe the court of the catholic king.

On November 17 he wrote to the queen urging
that Azara should be instructed to protest against
this embassy as irregular and uncalled for. Urquijo
acted upon his rival's advice and despatched the
note of protest next day; but, anticipating such an
objection, Lucien hastened on his journey, left his
escort at Vittoria, took post, and, to the boundless
surprise of the court, presented himself at the Escurial
accompanied by a single servant.



13° Godoy: the Queen^s Favourite

Godoy denies that this ambassador's arrival brought
about the downfall of Urquijo. His doom, he insists,
was sealed by a letter addressed by the newly elected
Pope, Pius VII,, to the king complaining of the
anti-clerical policy of his Government and adjuring
his majesty to banish his godless advisers. This
admonition frightened Charles. He sent for Godoy
and told him that he could not and would not coun-
tenance the policy of his minister any longer. He
had resolved upon dismissing him. It only remained
for Manuel to suggest a successor.

The prince modestly deprecated any such inter-
ference on his part, but at last proceeded to read
out from the ofhcial almanac a list of noblemen and
statesmen who might be said to have qualified for
high office. He paused significantly at the name of
Azara. " No," said the king, " he is a good man,
but too devoted to Bonaparte ; go on." " Cuesta ? "
*' A good man, too, but one I could not get on with."
" Ceballos ? " " Ah-ha ! the very man ; what think
you ? "

Godoy reflected. Ceballos, when secretary of the
legation at Lisbon, had married his cousin, Doiia
Josefa Alvarez de Faria ; he had advanced him ;^i8o
on that occasion, and had obtained for him succes-
sively the posts of minister at Naples and counsellor
of the Treasury. " A good man indeed," he replied
at length, " but one so closely associated with me
that, in his appointment, the public would see my
hand and believe that he was my creature." " Pooh ! "
said Charles, " the public know that I am king in
Spain — that it is I who choose my ministers and
rule through them. Ceballos it shall be.'^ But as



Godoy in the Background 131

a preliminary step Urquijo was abruptly deprived by
royal decree of his authority and offices and ordered
to retire, without an instant's delay, to his native
province of Guipuzcoa, there to attend the king's
further pleasure concerning him.



CHAPTER VIII

THE WAR OF THE ORANGE-TREES

Ceballos was now secretary of State, and Godoy

might use him as a mouthpiece ; but, to the favourite's

no slight annoyance, Caballero continued in ofhce.

Godoy marvels why, and asks how such a man could

have obtained such empire over the king. The

explanation, says Major Hume, to those who have

studied the old history of Spain will be as apparent

as that of the rise of Godoy himself. " It was the

kernel of the political system of Charles V. and

Philip II. to have for Prime Minister a man of the

sovereign's own making, and to give him colleagues of

violently antagonistic opinions ; so that the sovereign

might always hold the balance." Charles IV. was

frightened at his own infatuation for Godoy, and

regarded Caballero as a check upon it.

Godoy's first task was to put the new and unwelcome
ambassador from France in a good humour. He
succeeded beyond his wildest hopes. Lucien recog-
nised in the Prince of the Peace a good fellow and a
kindred soul. He wrote off to Paris : " They shower
favours on me; I have broken through the barriers
of etiquette. I am received when I like and in
private. I talk business with the king and the queen.
The Prince of the Peace, far from being alarmed, is
pleased." Lucien, also, was so pleased with his

132



The War of the Orange^trees 133

reception at Madrid, so immersed in the pleasures
carefully provided by Godoy, that he forgot till the
eleventh hour to remind the Spanish Government of
his brother's desire that a fleet should be sent to the
mouth of the Nile. The Prince of the Peace promised
to look into the matter ; but, before the vessels were
despatched, the French army in Egypt had capitulated.

The ratification of the treaty of San Ildefonso was
not to be put off after the traditional Spanish fashion.
Charles and Maria Luisa were anxious to secure the
kingdom of Etruria for the young prince of Parma,
who was not only their cousin but their son-in-law.
He had married the infanta Maria Luisa, thanks to
the intervention of Godoy, who had noticed that he
preferred her to her sister. The exchange of the
vast province of Louisiana for an Italian kingdom
the favourite, on the whole, approved. The colony
was separated from the other continental Spanish
possessions by vast desert tracts, was difficult to
defend and expensive to maintain, and in the hands
of France might prove a bulwark against the further
expansion of the United States in the direction of
Mexico. He protested, but in vain, against the
cession, in addition, of the duchy of Parma, and post-
poned the ratification of the compact till a clause had
been inserted in the treaty of Luneville, agreed between
Bonaparte and the empire on February 9, 1801,
which guaranteed the dispossessed duke compensation
in Germany.

Having made the best terms he could for the
father, Godoy packed the son off to Paris to make
his bow to the arbiter of Europe and to cement the
bond between France and Spain. The young princess



134 Godoy: the Queen's Favourite

was a little alarmed at thus putting her head into the
lion's jaws ; but the welcome extended by the French
Government and people soon dispelled her fears.

The vanity of the First Consul was immensely
tickled at this spectacle of a Bourbon prince coming
to Paris to receive a crown from the head of the
republic. He also expected that the visit would cure
the French people of any lingering fondness for their
old royal house. The newly made king of Etruria
was a young fool. " You see," said Bonaparte de-
lightedly, " what these princes are, sprung from the
old blood, and especially those who have been educated
at the southern courts. How can we entrust them
with the government of nations ? However, there
is no harm in having exhibited to the people this
specimen of the Bourbons." It is not impossible that
the infante's incapacity may have led the great man
to question his father-in-law's fitness to rule ; but the
royal pair were dismissed with the consular benedic-
tion, and were installed at Florence on August 12.

At peace with all the continental Powers, Bonaparte
determined to deprive England of her only ally on
the mainland. Portugal, in spite of treaties made
and broken, proposed but not ratified, persisted in her
allegiance to the mistress of the seas. The little
kingdom could only be reached through Spain.
Lucien was charged to win over the Prince of the
Peace and to overcome the king's repugnance to an
attack on his neighbour. France asked Spain to join
her in an attempt to bring Portugal to reason or else
to stand aside and let her do the work alone. An
ally could not fairly refuse both alternatives. It was
not necessary, as has been absurdly suggested, to bring



The War of the Orange4rees 135

pressure or cajolery to bear upon Godoy to adopt
this view, and Lucien, his crony and well-wisher, was
not the man to have employed such means.

The proposal, made in the first instance to Ceballos,
was referred by the king to his favourite. Manuel
unhesitatingly replied that this was an excellent
opportunity to subdue the sister kingdom, " to make
it Spain's, or at least to occupy it till peace was made
with England " ; and that it would be far better for
Spain to do this than to let the French snatch the
prize within her grasp. This opinion was sub-
stantially the same as that given by Campomanes
and other members of the Council. There can be
no doubt as to its wisdom.

Charles still hesitated to attack his son-in-law. He
insisted that the Portuguese regent should first be
offered every reasonable chance of breaking off the
connection with England ; he pleaded want of money.
Godoy agreed to the presentation of an ultimatum,
and countered the objection by a proposal to tax
the Church for the expenses of the campaign. The
clergy, he observed slily, ought to be glad to pay to
keep the wicked French out of the country.

Charles wrote several letters personally to his
daughter and her husband, beseeching them to accede
to the French demands while there yet was time.
The plucky Portuguese rejected all his overtures and
stood to their arms. On February 28, 1801, war
was declared between Spain and Portugal. Godoy,
appointed generalissimo of the Spanish forces, fever-
ishly hurried on his preparations, determined that
the French should have no share in the victory.
The army had been left in a deplorable state by his



1 36 Godoy : the Queen^s Favourite

predecessors in power ; as late as the preceding
August the French ambassador had called attention
to its desperate inefficiency ^ ; yet by the beginning
of May the Prince of the Peace had concentrated
a force, amounting altogether to 60,000 men, along
the frontier from the Minho to Algarve.

On the 14th of the month he assumed command of
the main army of 30,000 men stationed at his native
city of Badajoz. The campaign that followed was
short and creditable to Spain. On the 20th the
frontier fortresses of Olivenza and Juromenha capi-
tulated. The Spaniards advanced to the assault of
Elvas, the strongest place in Portugal. In the gardens
or on the glacis, a light infantryman intrepidly
plucked a branch from an orange-tree under the
enemies' guns. The trophy was presented by the
generalissimo to Maria Luisa, who reviewed the troops
at Badajoz clad in a semi-military uniform. The
incident has been made the subject of ridicule by
the enemies of Godoy, I don't know on what grounds.
Any object snatched under the guns of the enemy
may be at once a proof of valour and a pledge of
future victory. Elvas was closely besieged ; on
May 29 the Portuguese were defeated at Arronches ;
on June 6 Campomajor capitulated, and the court
of Lisbon solicited a peace.

For the first time for centuries the Spaniards had
beaten their next-door neighbours in a stand-up
light and wiped out a long tale of defeats and insult.

^ M. de Grandmaison, who quotes this despatch, condemns Godoy
for the tardiness of his preparations. A military writer, General
Arteche, praises him for the rapidity with which the mobilisation was
effected.



The War of the Orange<trccs i37

The Garde de Corps, who had so far done military
duty only in the lobbies of the palace, had proved
himself a soldier and a captain. He had also proved him-
self a statesman, for he had brought the campaign
to this happy conclusion without the help of a single
French battalion and shown Bonaparte that Spain
could do without her ally.

By the time 8,000 French troops had been assembled
at Ciudad Rodrigo and before Gouvion Saint-Cyr had
arrived at Madrid to claim the supreme command
of the allied army on behalf of the First Consul, the
plenipotentiaries of Spain and Portugal had met to
settle the terms of peace at Badajoz. Portugal bound
herself to close her ports against English shipping
'and ceded to Spain the important town of Olivenza
with the territory adjoining. This treaty bears the
date July 6. On the same day Lucien Bonaparte,
on behalf of the French Government, accepted an
indemnity of 20,000,000 francs and the closing
of her ports against England as Portugal's price of
peacef.

The rage of Napoleon knew no bounds when news
reached him of the conclusion of the war. He desired
nothing less than the occupation of Lisbon and Oporto.
He was at that moment in negotiation with England,
and felt that those cities would have been trump
cards in his hands. He sent couriers flying to Badajoz
to prevent the ratification of the treaty. They came
too late. Gouvion Saint-Cyr, already on the spot,
had protested in vain. Charles was at Badajoz and
Godoy had secured from him the ratification of the
treaty " before the ink wherewith it was writ could
dry." The Spanish generalissimo pointed out that



138 Godoy: the Queen's Favourite

the treaty was now irrevocable, and defended it on
the grounds that the primary object of the war had
been achieved and that " his catholic majesty was
above all things anxious to relieve his subjects of the
burden of war and from the inconvenience imposed
by the sojourn among them of foreign forces, however
well behaved these might be."

The First Consul found it difficult to frame a reply
to these bold words. He pretended to believe that
Godoy had been bought by England, and he re-
fused to ratify the treaty concluded by Lucien. He
announced his intention of keeping his troops in
Spain till he had settled terms with Portugal to his
liking, and declared that if the king and queen, at the
instigation of the Prince of the Peace, should take
any measures at variance with the dignity of the
French republic, the knell of the Spanish monarchy
would be sounded.

The worst of these threats do not seem to have
been officially communicated to Godoy. He made
matters worse by complaining that the number of
the French troops in Spain exceeded the stipulated
number and by refusing to feed the surplus forces.
He also threatened to withdraw the Spanish fleet
from Brest. Napoleon rushed to Azara. " Are your
monarchs tired of reigning, that their minister dares
to provoke me thus ? " he thundered. The am-
bassador, remarkably enough, succeeded in calming
him, and repeated that his sovereign's sole desire was
to relieve his people of burdens which they could not
endure. Talleyrand also helped to moderate the
First Consul's wrath by pointing out that France was
now released from all obligations to her ally and could



The War of the Orange^trees 139

without scruple facilitate the peace negotiations by-
abandoning Trinidad to the English.

The conqueror took this hint and dissembled his
indignation. He did not even recall his brother,
but suffered him to conclude another treaty with
Portugal, by which the war indemnity was increased
to 25 millions and an enormous quantity of the crown
jewels of the house of Braganza was transferred to the
First Consul for his private use. The French troops,
to the immense relief of the Spaniards, immediately
recrossed the Pyrenees.

In the same month the Spanish Government learned
that, by the preliminary treaty of peace signed at
London, France had agreed to the annexation of
her ally's island to the English dominions. It was
resolved to ignore the negotiations, so that Spain
might perhaps have an opportunity of making a
separate peace with England. Azara was, however,
instructed to protest against this sacrifice by France
of an ally who had suffered so much and so long in
her cause. Bonaparte immediately retorted by de-
manding his authority for making such a protest,
as no communication had been addressed to him by
the court of Madrid on the subject. The Consul
would probably have troubled himself little about
Spain's abstention from the negotiations, but the
English ambassador insisted that she should formally
ratify the cession of Trinidad.

Gouvion Saint-Cyr was told to demand of King
Charles that Azara should be appointed his represen-
tative at the forthcoming conference at Amiens.
The French general was also instructed to explain
that Spain's own breach of faith in the Portuguese



140 Godoy: the Queen's Favourite

war had brought about the loss of the island, and to
inform the king that the Consul was profoundly
dissatisfied with the behaviour of the Prince of the
Peace. It does not appear that this despatch was
actually repeated.^ Bonaparte's agents often enough
extracted the venom from their master's messages
before delivering them. Very reluctantly, however, the
king appointed Azara his plenipotentiary at Amiens,
where on March 23, 1802, peace was signed between
England and France and the latter Power's allies,
Spain and Holland, with the loss to these of Trinidad
and Ceylon respectively.

Godoy assures us that Spain resigned the West
Indian island willingly enough in the interest of
general peace, and appears to think that she got off
lightly. Against the island she could certainly set
her recent conquest, Olivenza. He also denies that
any pressure was brought to bear on Charles by the
First Consul, who publicly thanked his ally for having
made so generous a sacrifice in the cause of humanity.
Godoy probably felt himself responsible for the loss
which he here attempts to minimise, by his action
with regard to Portugal. His conduct needed no
such flimsy and obviously insincere defence. He
need have indulged no sentiments of remorse. Bona-
parte did not spare his other ally, Holland, which
had given him no cause for dissatisfaction, real or
pretended. If Spain had burnt Lisbon and Oporto
to the ground, Bonaparte would have sacrificed her
territories to redeem the French colonies in English
possession.

1 " Rien ne marque le sejour de Gouvion Saint-Cyr a Madrid." —
Grandraaison.




LUCIEN BONAPARTE,



141



,The War of the Orange^trees 143

In bringing the war with Portugal to an ea.vly con-
clusion Godoy certainly acted in the best interests
of the peninsula. Had French troops taken part
in the conquest they would not have quitted the
country till the peace, which, for all Godoy knew,
might have been very long in coming. Moreover, the
English might have sent an army to assist the Portu-
guese, and Spain itself might thus have become, as
it did later, the scene of the final struggle between
French and British. And even had Godoy wished
to act otherwise, it is certain that his master would
never have allowed the war against his daughter's
husband to be fought to the last ditch.

Lucien Bonaparte, for one, was so pleased with
the result of the brief campaign that he thought the
moment favourable for an alliance of a more intimate
character than before between the courts of Paris and
Madrid. On hearing of the signature of the prelimin-
aries of peace at London, he came at a late hour of the
night to see Godoy, and began to talk about the Euro-
pean situation. Among the other Governments he
spoke of that of Naples, and described it as " devoted to
the British and a disturber of the peace of Europe."
" That may be so," replied Godoy, " but the king of
Naples is likely to join the alliance of Spain and
Etruria with France, for our king proposes to marry
the prince of Asturias to one of his daughters, and
the infanta Maria Isabel to Prince Leopold of Naples."
" Dissuade the king from any such project," cried
Lucien. " My brother would prefer to depose the
king of Naples and put an infante of Spain in his
place. Moreover " — the tone of the ambassador
became confidential — " the infanta Maria Isabel

9



144 Godoy: the Queen's Favourite

may become a bond the more between France and
Spain."

" My brother," continued Lucien, " is a great
power in himself. He will share his glory with
Spain, the comrade of France. As to minor difhcul-
ties, there is no need to dwell on them — all things,
human and divine, may be set aside in the interest
of nations."

Godoy understood that Lucien was proposing the
king of Spain's daughter as bride for his brother,
the husband of another living woman. The favourite
piqued himself upon his advanced notions ; he was
no devotee and certainly no puritan ; but to a man
brought up in catholic and monarchical Spain such
a proposal must have seemed the grossest of insults
to his country and its sovereign. " The difficulty
of framing a reply," he writes, " may be imagined.
Assuring him of my appreciation of this fresh proof
of friendship and confidence, I took refuge in vague
words which I seasoned as well as I could with praises
of his brother, and endeavoured to conceal the sur-
prise and the impression produced in me by so grave
a proposal."

Godoy was convinced that this extraordinary,
scheme originated in the mind of Napoleon himself,
and saw in it the explanation of his cordiality towards
the king and queen of Etruria. To Napoleon, on
the other hand, the suggestion was represented by
his brother as having come from Maria Luisa. There
seems no doubt that it was as unacceptable to the
First Consul as it was repugnant to the Spanish
court, and that it was conceived in the lively brain
of Lucien and nowhere else. It was part of the cam-



The War of the OrangC'trees 145

paign waged against the barren Josephine by her
husband's family. When reproached by her, the
young man answered that he had set his duty to the
State above his affection for her.

This intrigue and his conduct of the negotiations
with Portugal earned him so many rebukes from his
brother that on December 10, 1801, he threw up his
embassy and returned with his usual impetuosity to
Paris. The wealth with which he was loaded not
unreasonably inspired the First Consul with sus-
picions of his good faith. He had endeavoured to
acknowledge the favours he had received from the
Spanish ministers by handsome presents. Napoleon
refused point blank to make any acknowledgment
to the Prince of the Peace, of whom, he said, he
might make use, but for whom he had nothing but
contempt. The great Corsican was so fortunately
constituted as always to be able to despise those who
thwarted him.

King Charles quivered with rage when his favourite
reported to him the proposal of the French am-
bassador. " So," he exclaimed, " it is my family
that they would select for this scandal ! " He
ordered the negotiations for the double alliance with
the house of Naples to be hurried on. The infanta
Maria Isabel was to wed the crown prince of that
kingdom ; this prince's sister, Maria Antonia, was to
marry his bride's brother, the prince of Asturias.
Godoy approved the first match ; as to the second,
he shook his head. Being alone with the king, he
suggested that it might be better to postpone the
prince's marriage till his education was completed.
The king looked grave : " I know what you mean,"



146 Godoy: the Queen's Favourite

he said, " Ferdinand is backward. But do you
believe that by delaying his marriage a year or two
his deficiencies might be remedied ? "

With considerable trepidation Godoy replied that
he had not much faith in the education imparted
by tutors — that at any rate, it did not seem, so far,
to have done the prince much good ; but he ventured
to recommend that his royal highness might receive
considerable benefit from a couple of years' travel in
the company of carefully selected mentors. Charles
admitted the wisdom of this counsel, but objected that
the prince might, in the disturbed state of Europe,
be exposed to accident and might be perverted by the
evil influence of some foreign court.

Godoy made no further demur. He was well
aware that his proposal would be looked upon as a
scheme to rid himself of the persistent hostility of
the prince ; and so it is generally regarded. If this
was, in fact, the favourite's motive, it was abundantly
justified by the course Ferdinand was presently to
pursue ; just as the prince's whole life and character
warranted the criticisms on his education. Moreover,
nothing could have been more offensive to Napoleon
than this alliance of the future king of Spain with
the daughter of his bitter enemy and traducer. Queen
Maria Carolina of Naples, the friend of Nelson and
the English.

The double marriage, notwithstanding, was cele-
brated at Madrid on October 4, 1802. The ceremonial
and public rejoicings were carried out on a. scale that
exhausted Spain could ill afford ; and the people
were delighted at this alliance of their royal house
with the most imperilled throne in Christendom,



The War of the Orange-trees 147

King Charles gratified thousands of his subjects in
the least expensive way by conferring titles and
orders. The Neapolitan cross of San Gennaro was
given so freely that it was said to be worth no more
than an egg. The whole royal family was united—
the king and queen of Etruria had come over to witness
the ceremony. Spain rejoiced as if she had known
that she would rejoice no more for many a long day.

To this period of Godoy's ascendency belongs an
attempt to extend Spanish influence over northern
Africa. In the year 1801 the favourite was ap-