Isabella's reign spanned the death of Ferdinand VII in 1833 until the Spanish Glorious Revolution of 1868, which forced the Queen into exile and established a liberal state in Spain.

[1] After the death of Ferdinand VII on 29 September 1833, his wife Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies assumed the regency with the support of the liberals, on behalf of their daughter Isabella.

Her reign was greatly influenced by the personality of Queen Isabella, who had no gifts for government and was under constant pressure from the Court, especially from her own mother, and also from Generals Ramón María Narváez, Baldomero Espartero and Leopoldo O'Donnell, which prevented the transition from the Old Regime to the Liberal State from being consolidated, and Spain reached the last third of the 19th century in unfavorable conditions compared to other European powers.

The absence of liberal gains forced the departure of Cea and the arrival of Martínez de la Rosa, who convinced the Regent to enact the Royal Statute of 1834, a charter that did not recognize national sovereignty, which was a step backwards, compared to the Constitution of Cadiz of 1812, granted by Ferdinand VII.

The most prominent figure of this period was Juan Álvarez Mendizábal, a politician and financier of great prestige who institutionalized the "revolutionary juntas" that had arisen during the liberal revolts of the summer and initiated several economic and political reforms, including the confiscation of the property of the regular orders of the Catholic Church.

The fight against the army of the Carlist Tomás de Zumalacárregui, who had been in arms since 1833, forced the Regent to place a large part of her trust in the Christian military, who achieved great renown among the population.

On 11 June 1843 the revolt of the moderates was also backed by Espartero's trusted men, such as Joaquín María López and Salustiano Olózaga, which forced the general to abandon power and go into exile in London.

He also appointed the City Council and the Diputación de Madrid – which was also a violation of the Constitution- to prevent the "Spartacists" from taking over both institutions in an election —López justified it as follows: "when fighting for existence, the principle of conservation is the one that stands out above all: one does what one does with the sick person who is amputated so that he may live".

It was then that the "Olózaga incident" occurred, which shook political life as the president of the government was accused by the moderates of having forced the queen to sign the decrees of dissolution and calling of the Cortes.

Thus the progressive leaders Cortina, Madoz and Caballero were imprisoned for six months -Olózaga was not arrested because he was in Lisbon and Joaquín María López remained in hiding until his companions were released from prison-.

The division of the Moderate Party soon emerged, which contributed to the political instability that manifested itself in the continuous changes in the presidency of the government, beginning with the dismissal of Narváez on 11 February 1846, associated with the conflictive marriage that was arranged for the Queen.

Francisco Javier de Istúriz's government managed to hold on until 28 January 1847, when a struggle for control of the Cortes with Mendizábal and Olózaga, who had returned from exile after the Queen's personal authorization, forced him to resign.

Once in power, Bravo Murillo tried to appease the confrontation with the Holy See as a result of the disentailment processes carried out by Mendizábal in the previous period by signing a Concordat in 1851 with Pope Pius IX, the second in the history of Spain, which, in short, established a policy of protection for the assets of the Catholic Church against possible new disentailment processes, especially civil ones; The sale of those still in the hands of the State was halted and the Church received financial compensation.

A group of some 200 senators and congressmen tried to find a political solution, but they received no response and in February 1854 an uprising was suppressed in Saragossa, although the conspiracy continued, led by Narvaecists and Puritans.

The next uprising took place in Vicálvaro, "La Vicalvarada", with O'Donnell and Dulce, who did not achieve much success at first, something that changed in Manzanares (Ciudad Real), where they were joined by General Serrano.

During Bravo Murillo's conservative government, a high degree of corruption was evident as a result of disorderly economic growth and internal intrigues to obtain advantages in public concessions, a situation in which the entire royal family itself was implicated.

Meanwhile, Leopoldo O'Donnell, a former collaborator of the former Regent María Cristina, joined the more liberal moderates and tried to organise an uprising, relying on a number of officers and some of the figures who, years later, would become prominent politicians such as Antonio Cánovas del Castillo.

On 17 July, in Madrid, civilians and soldiers took to the streets in a succession of violent acts, endangering the very life of the queen's mother, María Cristina, who had to seek refuge.

The most important actions were the major investments in public works, including the approval of extraordinary credits, which allowed the development of the railways and the improvement of the army; the policy of confiscation continued, although the State handed over public debt to the Church in exchange and reinstated the Concordat of 1851; various laws were passed that would later be key and whose validity extended into the 20th century: the Mortgage Law (1861), internal administrative reform of the Central Administration and the municipalities and the first Road Plan.

To its detriment, the government did not manage to banish the political and economic corruption that reached all levels of power, did not approve the announced press law and, from 1861 onwards, saw its parliamentary support wane.

These foreign policy actions were an attempt to halt Spain's decline as a colonial power, which had occurred after the independence of the South American countries and the defeat at Trafalgar, while its role in Europe had diminished considerably.

Influential people such as Cánovas, Antonio de los Ríos Rosas -one of its founders- and General Juan Prim himself, among others, left the Liberal Union due to disagreements with the cabinet.

In the end, the queen entrusted the government to Manuel Pando Fernández de Pineda, Count of Miraflores, who had little support, and although he tried to involve the progressives in the political game, they decided to withdraw.

For their part, the progressives considered Espartero to have been defeated, and Olózaga, together with Prim, began to form an alternative that had no confidence in Isabella II's ability to overcome the permanent crisis.

Narváez formed a government on 16 September 1864 with the intention of uniting forces and bringing together a unionist spirit that would allow the progressives to integrate into active politics, fearful that the questioning of the reign would go further.

University students in the capital were protesting against the measures of Antonio Alcalá Galiano, who tried to remove the spirit of rationalism and Krausism from the classrooms, maintaining the old doctrine of the official morality of the Catholic Church, and against the expulsion of Emilio Castelar from the chair of history for his articles in La Democracia, where he denounced the sale of the Royal Heritage with the queen's appropriation of 25% of the revenue.

Prim revolted in Villarejo de Salvanés in a clear political turn that was committed to seizing power by force, but the coup was not properly planned and failed.

Once again, the hostile attitude of the progressives enervated O'Donnell, who reinforced the authoritarian content of the government, which led to the uprising at the San Gil Barracks on 22 June, again organised by Prim, but which again failed and filled the streets with blood, with more than sixty people condemned to death.

O'Donnell retired, exhausted, from political life and on 10 July he was replaced by Narváez, who condoned the unexecuted sentences of the rebels but maintained the authoritarian rigour with expulsions of republicans and Krausists from the professorships and the strengthening of censorship and public order.

When Narváez died, he was succeeded on 23 April 1868 by the authoritarian Luis González Bravo, but the revolution had been forged and the end of the monarchy approached on 19 September with La Gloriosa to the cry of "Down with the Bourbons!