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See also: prince of Bourbon, claimant,as See also: Don See also: Carlos VII., to the See also: throne of See also: Spain, was See also: born at See also: Laibach on the 3oth of See also: March 1848, being the eldest surviving son of Don Juan (
See also: John) of Bourbon and of the archduchess Maria Beatrix, daughter of
See also: Francis IV., duke of See also: Modena
.
Don Carlos was the See also: grandson of the first pretender, noticed above
.
He married in See also: February 1867, at Frohsdorf, Princess See also: Marguerite, daughter of the duke of See also: Parma and niece of the comte de Chambord, who was born on the 1st
of See also: January 1847, and who See also: bore him a son, Don Jaime, in 187o, and three daughters
.
Don Carlos boldly asserted his pretensions to the throne of Spain two years after the revolution of 1868 had driven See also: Queen Isabella II. and the other branch of the Bourbons into exile
.
His manifesto, addressed to his See also: brother See also: Alphonso, namesake of his See also: rival, Alphonso XII., found an See also: echo in the fanatical priesthood and peasantry of many provinces of the Peninsula, but little support among the more enlightened See also: middle classes, especially in the towns
.
The first rising was started in See also: Catalonia by the brother of the pretender, who himself entered Spain by way of See also: Vera, in the Basque provinces, on the 21st of May 1872
.
The troops of See also: King Amadeus under General Moriones, a progressist officer, who was one of Spain's ablest and most popular commanders, surprised and very nearly captured the pretender at Oroquista, sending him a fugitive to
See also: France in headlong See also: flight with a few followers
.
For more than a See also: year he loitered about in the French Pyrenees, the See also: guest of old See also: noble houses who showed him much sympathy, while the French authorities winked at the fact that he was fomenting See also: civil war in Spain, where his guerilla bands, many of them led by priests, committed atrocities, burning, pillaging, See also: shooting prisoners of war, and not unfrequently See also: ill-using even See also: foreign residents and destroying their See also: property
.
When the Federal Republic was proclaimed on the abdication of King Amadeus, the Carlists had overrun Spain to such an extent that they held all the interior of See also: Navarre, the three Basque provinces, and a See also: great See also: part of Catalonia, See also: Lower See also: Aragon, and See also: Valencia, and had made raids into the provinces of Old See also: Castile and See also: Estremadura
.
Don Carlos re-entered Spain on the 15th of See also: July 1873, just before the Carlists took See also: Estella, in Navarre, which became, with Tolosa and See also: Durango in the Basque provinces, his favourite residence
.
He displayed very lax morals and an apathy which displeased his staff and partisans
.
Don Carlos was See also: present at some fights around Estella, and was in the neighbourhood of See also: Bilbao during its famous siege of three months in 1874 until its See also: relief by Marshals Serrano and Concha on the 2nd of May
.
He was also present at the See also: battle near Estella on the 27th of See also: June 1874, in which Marshal Concha was killed and the liberals were repulsed with loss
.
Twice he lost See also: golden opportunities of making a rush for the capital—in 1873, during the Federal Republic, and after Concha's See also: death
.
From the moment that his See also: cousin Alphonso XII. was proclaimed king at Sagunto, at Valencia, in See also: Madrid, and at Logrofio, by General Campos, Daban, Jovellar, Primo de Rivera, and Laserna, the See also: star of the pretender was on the wane
.
Only once, a few See also: weeks after the Alphonsist restoration, the army of Don Carlos checked the Liberal forces in Navarre, and surprised and made prisoners See also: half a brigade, with guns and See also: colours, at Lacar, almost under the eyes of the new king and his headquarters
.
This was the last Carlist success
.
The See also: tide of war set in favour of Alphonso XII., whose armies swept the Carlist bands out of central Spain and Catalonia in 1875, while Marshal Quesada, in the upper See also: Ebro valley, Navarre, and Ulava, prepared by a series of successful operations the final advance of 18o,000 men, headed by Quesada and the king, which defeated the Carlists at Estella, Pena See also: Plata, and Elgueta, thus forcing Don Carlos with a few thousand faithful Carlists to retreat and surrender to the French frontier authorities in March 1876
.
The pretender went to See also: Pau, and there, singularly enough, issued his proclamations bidding temporary adieu to the nation and to his See also: volunteers from the same chateau where Queen Isabella, also a refugee, had issued hers in 1868
.
From that date Don Carlos became an exile and a wanderer, travelling much in the Old and New See also: World, and raising some See also: scandal by his mode of See also: life
.
He fixed his residence for a See also: time in See also: England, then in See also: Paris, from which he was expelled at the See also: request of the Madrid See also: government, and next in See also: Austria, before he took up his abode at Viarreggio in See also: Italy
.
Like all pretenders, he never gave in, and his pretensions, haughtily reasserted, often troubled the courts and countries whose hospitality he enjoyed
.
His great disappointment was the coldness towards him of See also: Pope See also: Leo XIII., and the favour shown by that pontiff for Alphonso XII. and his godson, Alphonso XIII
.
Don Carlos had two splendid chances345
of testing the power of his party in Spain, but failed to profit by them
.
The first was when he was invited to unfurl his See also: flag on the death of Alphonso XII., when the perplexities and uncertainties of Castilian politics reached a See also: climax during the first year of a long minority under a foreign queen-See also: regent
.
The second was at the close of the war with the See also: United States and after the loss of the colonies, when the discontent was so widespread that the Carlists were able to assure their prince that many Spaniards looked upon his cause as the one untried solution of the See also: national difficulties
.
Don Carlos showed his usual lack of decision; he wavered between the advice of those who told him to unfurl his See also: standard with a view to rally all the discontented and disappointed, and of those who recommended him to wait until a great pronunciamiento, chiefly military, should be made in his favour—a See also: day-dream founded upon the coquetting of General Weyler and other See also: officers with the Carlist senators and deputies in Madrid
.
Afterwards the pretender continued to ask his partisans to go en organizing their forces for See also: action some day, and to push their propaganda and preparations, which was easy enough in view of the indulgence shown them by all the governments of the regency and the open favour exhibited by many of the priesthood, especially in the rural districts, the religious orders, and the See also: Jesuits, swarming all over the See also: kingdom
.
After the death of his first wife in 1893, Don Carlos married in the following year Princess See also: Marie Bertha of Rohan
.
He died on the 18th of July Igoe
.
His son by his first wife, Don Jaime, was educated in See also: Austrian and See also: British military See also: schools before he entered the See also: Russian army, in which he became a colonel of dragoons
.
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