Spain's First Carlist War, 1833-40

Spain's First Carlist War was an unlikely agent of modernity. It began with a dynastic dispute between the reactionary pretender, Don Carlos, and the reformist regency of the Queen-Regent and her daughter. But the bloody and unequal demands of this civil war transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of Spaniards to a degree not seen since the national struggle against Napoleon. The war pitted town against country, the Basque country against Castile, subalterns against elites, and Europe's Liberal powers against Absolute Monarchies. Although the cause of the regency eventually triumphed, it, too, was swept from power by a popular radical movement forged out of the liberal revolution and the struggle for liberty.

This book traces the individual, collective and international experience of this conflict, analysing its regular and irregular warfare, and giving equal attention to battle fronts and home fronts. It integrates the latest scholarship with extensive archival research.

Mark Lawrence is a teaching fellow at Newcastle University, UK. He is a historian of war, radicalism and society in Modern Spain and Mexico.