The 4 Enlighteners Unit 3

50 YEARS OF MYSTERY

Can you find the murderer?

General Prim

Today, December 30th 1920, we look backward to El Turco street, where fifty years ago took place the mysterious murder of General Prim. The facts still situate us on one of the strangest crimes in all the spanish history. His death caused a weakness in the government of Amadeo of Saboy and led into his abdication. Let's review the events.

Everything happened in a cold winter afternoon. Prim was travelling to the congress when suddenly a catastrophe took place. An unknown group of people was getting closer to his carriage with clear intentions:

willing to everything to end with his life. It occured very fast, according to the witnesses, they entered in the chariot when it stopped, and started shooting. He got injured on his left arm and immediately transported to his house in Madrid, where a doctor took care of him, but it was too late. 

Prim had died apparently due to the bullet wounds. However, there is a second theory supported by scientific studies which have discovered that Prim could have died by a breath constriction after the assault.

Francisco Serrano

Although 50 years have passed, it remains the doubt of who killed him. On one hand, as Prim wanted Spain to be a constitutional and parliamentary monarchy, he gained the republicans' hostility. Also Prim did not want a Bourbon to be the government head and Duke Montpensier believed himself worthy of the crown, so Prim gained more enemies. The main suspect was Francisco Serrano, who wanted to be King of Spain but Prim wanted a foreign king and refused to trust Serrano despite having spent a lifetime working together, but... who do you think is responsible for this mysterious murder?

DIDEROT NEWS: UNIT 3

THE END OF THE LIBERALS IS COMING

May 26, 1823

Ferdinand VII about Angouleme said: "My august and beloved cousin, the Duke of Angouleme, leading a brave army, winner in all my domains, took me out of the slavery in which he moaned, restoring my beloved vassals, faithful and constant"

Last Saturday, May 24th, sixty thousand soldiers and the same number of mercenaries crossed the cities and fields of Spain until they reached Madrid.

They came from France to put an end to the Liberal Triennium and return the power to Ferdinand VII. 

It seems that there were 95062 men and they called them one hundred thousand, to give 
a round number.

In this flowerish May and the struggle that we are living, the invasion of the 100000 Sons of Saint Louis supposes a good business for everyone, except for the common people that suffer its attacks.

"100000 Sons of Saint Louis arrive to Spain"

The Duke of Angouleme was in command of the invading army. He had left France with his parents in 1789, due to the Revolution, to save their lives.

His army was endowed with five corps, unlike the Spanish constitutional army, which consisted on four corps of 20,000 men each. In total 130,000 soldiers, who were more than one hundred thousand. But the lack of organization, the low moral and short number of soldiers took the Spanish army to its failure.

The English aid that was expected did not arrive on time and only the National Militia offered resistance. 

The liberals expected the French invasion and finally, with the defeat in the battle of the Trocadero, the Liberal Triennium ended.

The MIlitia 3-4

THE PAINTED REVOLUTION

The French artist Éugene Delacroix has just released his new masterpiece "The Liberty Leading the People" based on the revolution of 1830 that ended with the absolutism of Charles X.

Eugène Delacroix (click here for a more detailed biography), born in 1798 (Paris) is one of the greatest artists nowadays. In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres, Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance.

This painting has to do with the revolution we have suffered last  27th July 1830.

THE PICTURE

Analysis of the painting:

This picture is painted in oil on canvas; it has romanticism style, sided 260cm x 325cm. 

The main character, The Liberty, is represented by a half-naked woman in the middle centre of the battlefield : Marianne.

Other characters are:

The three social clases: representing the town as a whole.

The fallen: Those killed are exposed above the rubble of an explosion.

The people: stand with their arms raised, symbol of the revolution, and follow their guide: their own freedom.

The Second French Revolution (Trois Glorieuses). This revolt broke up because of the absolutist policies of Charles X. It consisted of three glorious days in which the french people fought against the king (from 27th to 30th July). The 30th July they achieved to overcome against the absolutism and the inequalities leading to a revolutionary period that will be followed by many other nations. This revolution forced the king to abdicate and the assembly chose Louis Philippe I of Orleans.