The Crown’s constitutional mist. The political ceremonies of the monarchy in the Spanish nation-state (1808-1868)

Abstract

Liberalism attributed great significance to political rituality. It was necessary to publicly represent its political principles, constitutive values, and socio-political order but also to condense it into a complex symbolic system. In an age dominated by monarchical forms of government, this ritual project was developed by liberalism in dialogue with the royal ceremonies, which were part of a long cultural tradition. This fact produced a continuous transfer between both ritual forms and their political meanings. This article analyses the attempts to reconcile symbolically and ritually the two nineteenth-century main sovereign subjects in Spain: the monarchy and the nation. To this end, I study the political ceremonies that brought the Crown to the seat of the national representation: the State Opening of Parliament and the Constitution’s Oath. The process was not monolithic but underwent profound changes depending on the contexts and the distribution of roles. Between 1808 and 1837, there were three ceremonial models associated with three political systems in Spain, emphasizing the complex process of adaptation of the monarchy to liberalism. The final ritual model was established in 1837, but it began then an intense fight for its uses and meanings. These rituals led the governments to use the Crown as a political tool, making it descend to political combat far from that theorized moderate reclusion. But they also became spaces for protest and public discussion. Behind these ceremonies, it was hidden the fight for public place control and political legitimization in which silences, acclamations, and cheers became powerful political weapons.