SPAIN AND PORTUGAL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY - Spain and Portugal: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 30

seas, while civil or military governors fulfilled the ceremonial positions
that were traditionally accorded to nobles on the basis of birth rather
than competence. The Bourbon Reforms, which had begun with many
stops and starts during the reign of Philip V and had continued more
promisingly during that of Ferdinand VI, came to a full flower after the
latter's death in 1759.
Childless, Ferdinand was succeeded by his half brother as Charles III.
For more than 20 years this serious and conscientious sovereign had
been learning his trade and promoting his ideas on the Italian penin-
sula, first in Parma, which he eventually turned over to his brother,
Philip, and then as king of Naples. He seems to have been happy during
this prolonged absence from Spain and to have enjoyed the affection of
his Neapolitan subjects. But he had long anticipated succeeding to the
Spanish throne and had developed ideas he wanted to implement there.
When he arrived at Madrid he brought with him not only his elder son,
who would eventually become Charles IV (while leaving the next son,
Ferdinand, to carry on a separate line of Bourbons in Naples), but a
group of Italian administrators, including Bernardo Tanucci and, most
famously, the marquis of Squillace. Unfortunately, his choice of helpers
got the new regime off on the wrong foot. Squillace, or Esquilache as
the Spaniards called him, soon aroused opposition by his high-handed
decrees that trampled on Spanish customs and long-established, if ques-
tionable, practices. The ultimate confrontation came over the some-
what absurd issue of the broad-brimmed slouch hats and enveloping
cloaks favored by many citizens of Madrid. These, Esquilache decided,
could be used to conceal identities and facilitate illicit activities. Span-
iards might, up to a point, endure higher taxes, but they would not be
deprived of their preferred garments. Riots broke out in Madrid and
spread to other towns. Conservative factions among the nobility and
the clergy were rumored to be inciting the malcontents in order to chal-
lenge the broader policy changes that the king was thought to be con-
templating. Shaken by the vehemence and rapid growth of these riotous
outbreaks, Charles removed his Italian advisers and made conciliatory
gestures to popular protests. Once he had recovered from the immedi-
ate crisis, however, he resolved to act with consistent firmness and to
pay particular attention to the troublemaking proclivities of the privi-
leged classes.
CHARLES III AND ENLIGHTENED DESPOTISM
Charles III was no intellectual, yet he shared the commitment of many
of his brother and sister rulers to the practical benefits of modernization