Empire Rising: Spain

Chapter 14: Chapter 13: Choosing the King of Spain

Time quickly moved to 1869.

Though no news had yet come from Spain, Carlo was already making full preparations for the possibility of taking over in Spain.

Firstly, there was the influential power of public opinion which Carlo heavily developed and which had achieved some results.

The largest newspaper under Carlo, the Italian 24-hour Sun Newspaper, had already become Northern Italy’s largest newspaper, with an average daily sales of over 24,000 copies in 1868.

Besides the Sun Newspaper, under Carlo’s instructions, Loren founded several other newspapers in Northern and Southern Italy, whose combined daily sales also amounted to over 10,000 copies.

Carlo had thus completed his initial setup of public opinion forces. All the assorted newspapers had a readership of thousands of devoted followers, capable of influencing at least tens of thousands.

As long as Carlo wanted, he could, in a short period of time, allow tens of thousands or even millions of Italians to learn a piece of news.

In this era of extremely inconvenient transportation, where people mostly relied on horses, ox carts, and other animals for travel, this was quite exaggerated.

These various newspapers brought Carlo nearly 250,000 Lira in revenue over two and a half years.

Thanks also to the prestige of Garibaldi which allowed the Sun Newspaper to quickly break into the market, otherwise earning more than 200,000 Lira wouldn’t have been easy.

As February 1869 came, the Spanish parliamentary elections officially commenced.

As in history, Prim, as the most powerful figure in the Provisional Government, combined with his immense reputation in the Revolutionary Army, smoothly controlled the majority of seats in the parliament.

This news allowed Carlo to breathe a sigh of relief, as it meant Spain would move towards a constitutional monarchy rather than a republic, giving Carlo a significant chance of becoming King of Spain.

The newly formed Spanish parliament immediately announced it would not abolish the monarchy but instead establish a constitutional monarchy under which to govern Spain’s affairs.

Since the Spanish throne was undecided, the parliament appointed the Prime Minister of the Provisional Government, Francisco Serrano Domínguez, as the Regent of the Kingdom of Spain, and the Secretary of State for War, Prim, as the new Prime Minister.

These two were not only the most prestigious individuals in the Provisional Government but also the two generals heavily supported within the Revolutionary Army.

This, in fact, was the real reason why Spain continued to maintain the monarchy, as both decisive individuals were supporters of the monarchy.

Thanks to that propaganda report on the advanced nature of the monarchical system, the news of Spain maintaining the monarchy didn’t cause much of a wave.

As long as it wasn’t another reign like Queen Isabel’s ruling over Spain, the Spaniards’ opposition wasn’t expected to be so intense.

The parliamentary matters temporarily drew to a close, and for the politically involved Serrano and Prime Minister Prim, the most troubling issue became selecting a suitable king for Spain.

Though they could choose anyone from the European Royal Family, the chosen candidate had to also gain public approval.

Someone with a terrible reputation was out of the question, as Spaniards couldn’t believe such a king would do better than Isabel. If it was just another Queen Isabel to rule Spain, then what had been the purpose of the Spaniards’ revolution?

Those with controversial backgrounds couldn’t be considered. For Spain, a king from a noble background with the backing of a prominent family would stabilize Spanish order.

If the new king’s background were heavily disputable, it would be a new blow to Spain’s hard-won constitutional monarchy.

Considering all various criteria, in the end, very few European princes remained suitable to become King of Spain.

After over a month of selection, Serrano and Prim finally settled on a shortlist of five candidates.

The first choice was the German Royal Family’s Prince Leopoldo. Prince Leopoldo was born into the Hohenzollern Family, backed by the recently victorious Kingdom of Prussia in the Austro-Prussian War, satisfying both the background and reputation requirements of Spain.

The second choice was Fernando, who had served as Regent of Portugal. Fernando’s wife and son were both Kings of Portugal, and his performance as King of Portugal (Queen’s husband) and as Regent met expectations, enjoying a relatively positive reputation.

The third choice was Amadeo Prince of the Italian Savoy Dynasty. Post-reunification Italy could still exert influence along the Mediterranean, and the Savoy Family’s prestige in the European Royal Family had risen slightly. To Spain, Amadeo might not be as reliable as the first two, but he was still a qualified candidate.

The fourth choice, also from the Italian Savoy Dynasty, was Amadeo’s younger brother Carlo. Carlo’s drawback was his relative youth, being a few months short of 18. However, Carlo’s reputation in Italy was no less than Amadeo’s, with the Sun Newspaper’s publicity proving quite effective.

Notably, many Italians were very fond of this youngest prince, as he traveled without much pomp and would greet Italian citizens warmly.

Through the power of public opinion, some Spaniards had also heard of this friendly prince from Italy. This was the reason Carlo could enter the candidate list, as both Prim and Serrano believed Spaniards wouldn’t reject a friendly king.

The last candidate was the brother-in-law of Queen Isabel, the Spanish Duke of Montpensier. However, considering the Spaniards’ dislike for Queen Isabel and potential associated bias, Prim ranked the Duke of Montpensier at the bottom of the candidate list and considered removing him.

After all, selecting a King of Spain was extremely stringent, and any small flaw in a candidate would be magnified multiple times. Any potential impact had to be considered by Serrano and Prim.

To Prim’s disappointment, just as the Spanish Government hinted to Fernando, Fernando immediately refused the Spanish throne.

This theoretically ended the possibility of Spain and Portugal uniting once more, as Fernando’s son was the current King of Portugal.

If Fernando could secure the Spanish throne, the future King of Portugal could have inherited the Spanish throne, achieving a merger of the two Iberian nations.

Fernando’s voluntary withdrawal reduced the list from five to four. After lengthy discussions with Serrano, Prim ultimately decided to also remove the Duke of Montpensier from the list, leaving only three candidates.

Even though Spain’s king selection process was quite secretive, there were no impervious walls in the world.

At this time, Prim and Serrano were still unaware of how their selection process would profoundly impact European affairs, potentially leading other nations to trample the dominant power of Europe.