July 1822 Spanish coup d'état

The Spanish coup d'état of July 1822, also known as the coup d'état of July 7, was a failed coup d'état that took place in Spain during the Liberal Triennium. It was intended to put an end by force to the constitutional regime, reestablished after the triumph of the Revolution of 1820, and to restore the absolute monarchy. As Juan Francisco Fuentes has pointed out, "it was the most serious attempt of absolutist coup d'état, which not in vain had its epicenter in the Royal Palace of Madrid", although it had numerous ramifications outside the capital, which demonstrates "the existence of a relatively broad and mature plan". "It marked a turning point in the course of the Triennium", stressed Ángel Bahamonde and Jesús Antonio Martínez. The same thesis is held by Pedro Rújula and Manuel Chust: "The July crisis marked in a traumatic way the evolution of the constitutional regime".

According to Emilio La Parra López, the idea of carrying out a coup d'état against the constitutional regime arose from a private interview of King Ferdinand VII with the French ambassador Count de La Garde which took place at the beginning of May 1822 and during which both agreed that it should follow the model of Napoleon's 18th Brumaire. The definitive project of the coup, according to La Parra, was devised in the entourage of Fernando VII and its specific plan was taken from the "Conspiracy of Matías Vinuesa" of the previous year. The "Confidencias", the secret network spread throughout the country of absolutist groups financed and directed from the Palace, would be in charge of its execution, and the officer of the corps Ramón Zuloaga, Count of Torrealta, would be in charge of revolting the Royal Guard. The Marquis de las Amarillas, direct witness of the events, wrote in his Memories: "The king was the soul and first motive of the insurrection". On July 4, in the middle of the coup, Ambassador La Garde communicated to his government in a coded message: "The king is completely committed and is the one who orders things" —according to La Garde, the king asked him to try to get the government to join the operation, but it failed—.

On July 1st the Royal Guard revolted and Ferdinand VII was on the point of "leaving with the rebels to lead the counterrevolution". The king consulted with the government of the moderate liberal "anillero" Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, whose members spent most of the time in the Royal Palace as virtual prisoners (and there were orders prepared for their imprisonment), and the latter advised against it because it was too risky. "The Government allowed itself to be locked up in the Palace, together with the King, because in short, what was being done was to put Vinuesa's old plan into practice", said Alberto Gil Novales. "For a whole interminable week the palace was the center of an ambitious counterrevolutionary action. Madrid became hostage to the forces of the King's Guard, and the monarch himself, with his ambiguous and silent attitude, held the Executive hostage, preventing it from taking action and leaving the initiative to the rebels", Rújula and Chust pointed out. Finally, the Royal Guard was defeated in the "Day of July 7" by the constitutional forces led by the National Militia.