Christina used her influence with her husband to persuade him to disinherit his brother.  By the Salic law females were excluded from inheriting the throne of France.  But through the influence of Ferdinand and his spouse the cortes was persuaded to repeal the law, the more willingly since Carlos was in favor of absolutism, while with a woman as ruler the chances would be better for the perpetuation of constitutionalism.  The Carlists claim that during the last days Ferdinand repented his act and issued documents which would have established Carlos’ right to the succession, but that these were suppressed.  However that may be, upon the death of Ferdinand his baby daughter was declared Queen of Spain, with her mother as regent.

For five years there was civil war.  The youth and weakness of the baby queen proved her strength.  The liberals believed that with her as the nominal ruler the continuance of the constitutional monarchy would be assured.  For the same reasons France and England supported Isabella.  These were odds against which Carlos could not effectually fight, and in 1869 he retreated from Spain, and the historians treat the succession as settled in favor of the young girl, who even at that time was not in her teens.

Queen Isabella’s reign.

Isabella II., or rather her mother, for the latter was the real ruler, did not rule with prudence.  Scandals disgraced the reign, and led to the regent’s removal from the regency.  Queen Isabella’s ill-fated marriage and other intrigues led to domestic disturbances which kept alive the pretensions of the Carlists.

Upon the death of the first pretender, in 1853, a second arose in the person of his son, Don Carlos, Count de Montemolim.  He attempted to cause a revolution in 1860, but was arrested with his brother, and they were not liberated until they had signed a renunciation of their claims to the throne.

The second pretender died in 1861, and then the present Don Carlos arose.  He was the son of Don Juan, and a brother of the two who had renounced their claims to the Spanish throne, and he claimed that their renunciation could not be binding on him.  This was the Don Carlos who is now the leader of the legitimists, and he has never renounced his claim to the throne of his ancestors.

His name in full is Don Carlos de los Dolores Juan Isidore Josef Francisco Quirino Antonio Miguel Gabriel Rafael.  He was born in the little village of Laibach in the Austrian Alps, while his parents were on a journey through the country, and from his infancy his career has been surrounded with a romance which has endeared him to the hearts of his followers.  His father, Don Juan, was an exile from Spain and a royal wanderer seeking a place where he could end his life in peace.

He and his wife were befriended by the Emperor Ferdinand of Austria, who placed the young Don Carlos under the care of a Spanish priest, who educated him for the priesthood.  Even in his infancy he cared nothing to become a priest in spite of his devout devotion to the Roman Catholic faith, but dreamed of the clay when he would rule as King of Spain.