Chronological Summary of a Chaotic Period

• March 19, 1808: Proclaimed king after the abdication of Charles IV.

• May 5, 1808: Forced to abdicate in Bayonne, he ceded the crown to Napoleon, who made his brother Joseph king.

• March 19, 1812: The liberal Constitution of Cádiz is signed

• December 11, 1813: Napoleon restores the crown to the French by the Treaty of Valençay.

• May 4, 1814: Decree of Valencia: Returns to Spain, repeals the Constitution of Cadiz and restores absolutism.

• September 15, 1824: Independence of the Viceroyalty of Peru.

• March 29, 1830: Pragmatic Sanction repealing the Salic Law, which prevented women from inheriting the throne.

• September 18, 1832: La Grange Crisis. While ill, he rescinded the Pragmatic Sanction and restored the Salic Law.

• October 1833: He repealed the Salic Law again.

• September 29, 1833. Death. The accession of his daughter Isabel II to the throne, overthrowing her uncle Carlos María Isidro, sparked the Carlist Wars.

Stages of his reign

• Six-Year Absolutist Period: 1814–1820. Restoration of absolutism after his return ("Everything done during my absence is null and void").
• Liberal Triennium: 1820-1823 . Constitutional period, obliged to swear the 1812 Constitution ("Let us march frankly, and I the first along the constitutional path."
• Ominous Decade: 1823-1833 . Restoration of absolutism with French intervention and the "One Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis" ("All acts of the so-called constitutional government, of any kind or condition, which has dominated my people from March 7, 1820, until today, are null and void.")