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out of a belief that he would introduce
much-needed modernization and reform,
but he had little opportunity to satisfy their
hopes. Any positive initiatives attempted by
King Joseph were promptly vetoed by
Napoléon; indeed, French officials and gen-
erals ran as much of Spain as they could
dominate between 1808 to 1814 essentially
as an extension of France. Even Spaniards
who were not actively engaged in the irreg-
ular warfare carried on throughout much
of the country were likely to be passive
opponents of the
“rey intruso”
(intrusive
king) and secret supporters of the banished
F
ERDINAND
VII.
After six years of fruitless effort the
French intruders were forced to withdraw
from Spain. Joseph resumed his former
identity, played a subordinate role in the last
months of his brother's rule in France, and
then went into decades of exile, much of
the time being spent in the United States.
A loyal henchman of his dynamic sibling,
Joseph Bonaparte was a mild and self-effac-
ing individual. Often referred to as the
“gentle Bonaparte,” he seems to have had
neither the temperament nor the practical
knowledge to deal with the situation into
which he was thrust when he became king
of Spain. In any case Joseph I, like all of
Napoléon's kin, was treated as a branch
manager in the family business rather than
an autonomous ruler. Unsurprisingly
Joseph has left little impression in the
annals of Spanish history.
priesthood, abandoning that idea in favor
of the law, and devoting his early years
(after attending the Universities of Oviedo
and Alcalá) to poetry. His literary efforts in
the neoclassical vein are unremarkable, and
he later believed that he and his friends had
wasted their time in not doing the serious
business that confronted the young men of
the rising generation. Jovellanos would
more than make up for any such neglect by
becoming one of the most active promoters
of the Enlightenment in Spain.
The so-called Bourbon Reforms that had
been talked about since the arrival of that
French dynasty in the early 18th century
did not come into full flower until the acces-
sion of C
HARLES
III in 1759. The enlight-
ened despotism of this monarch offered an
opportunity to Jovellanos to advocate some
of the reforms that he had already been
considering. His ideas ranged over the state
of the economy, the deficiencies of the edu-
cational system, and the need for adminis-
trative efficiency. His numerous writings
had brought him to the attention of pro-
gressive Spaniards and gained him the sup-
port of the monarch, although Charles III
proved far less consistent and far more dis-
tractable than champions of reform might
have expected. Jovellanos was given par-
ticular encouragement to develop agrarian
reform yet found his freedom of action in
this regard curtailed by reactionary officials
who arranged for him to be sent off into the
hinterlands. He nevertheless profited by the
chance to make detailed examinations of
agrarian life and practices throughout much
of the country, resulting in analysis and rec-
ommendations that he would later bring
together in what may be regarded as his
principal opus,
Informe sobre la ley agraria
(Report on the agrarian law, 1795).
Jovellanos, Gaspar Melchor de
(1744-1811)
Spanish statesman and writer
Jovellanos followed the not uncommon
Spanish career path of studying for the
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