The last Cortes of Castile

Abstract

The article intends to focus some relevant aspects (representation, power, competitions, capacities, etc.) of the last Ancien Regime Cortes celebrated in Spain, the 1789 Madrid Cortes, while in France the foundations of the new Liberal Regime were already starting. This Cortes clearly show the ambivalence of the moment and the delay of our political practice to follow the European courses: the Bourbon absolutism was blocking the way to the revolutionary French trends, while the geographical and cultural proximity could not prevent the contagion effect. Neverthless, these new trens will not come to light after almost twenty years later, with the process that begins in 1808.