The event, which is celebrated annually in the first week of September, commemorates the fall of the monarch and the subsequent accession of his son Ferdinand VII.

[3] Before the mutiny, Charles IV's valido, or prime minister, Manuel de Godoy, a former member of the Royal Guard, had become unpopular among both the nobles and the Spanish people.

The people were upset about Godoy's ambitious nature, his flirting with many women of the court and his willingness to have Catholic Spain make treaties with atheist Revolutionary France against Christian (though Anglican) Great Britain.

In addition, under the terms of the Treaty of Fontainebleau, the King and Godoy had allowed French Emperor Napoleon's troops to cross Spain to attack Portugal.

French troops rapidly occupied the important cities of San Sebastián, Pamplona, and Barcelona, fuelling Spanish resentment towards Godoy.