On the “inexistence” of the Bayonne Constitution

Authors

  • Claude Morange Universidad de la Sorbonne Nouvelle

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17811/hc.v0i10.225

Keywords:

Constitutions - Bayonne - Napoleon - Joseph Bonaparte - Independence war.

Abstract

It is consensually agreed among contemporary scholarship that although in July 1808 Napoléon hastily instituted a provisional assembly composed of well-established members of the Spanish social elite so as to write and approve a constitution, this document actually never really came into being. Indeed as it was never implemented, it is often considered that this constitution remained largely unknown to the Spanish people. This paper challenges this conception. It argues, on the contrary, that in both the occupied and the free regions of Spain under the reign of Joseph Bonaparte, it is likely that people had heard a lot about this constitution, much more than is generally acknowledged. We notably show that this constitution therefore bore upon the debates that took place within the Cortés of Cadix at that time.

Submission date: 18/10/2008

Acceptance date: 21/12/2008

Author Biography

Claude Morange, Universidad de la Sorbonne Nouvelle

Claude Morange es profesor jubilado de la Universidad de la Sorbonne
Nouvelle, y autor de varios libros y numerosos artículos sobre el
tránsito entre Antiguo Régimen y modernidad en España. Entre ellos:
Siete calas en la crisis del Antiguo Régimen, Alicante, 1990; Miñano,
Sátiras y panfletos del Trienio constitucional, Madrid, 1994;
Paleobiografía del Pobrecito Holgazán, Sebastián de Miñano, Salamanca,
2002; Una conspiración fallida y una Constitución nonnata, 1819,
Madrid, 2006; y, Juan de Olavarría, Reflexiones a las Cortes y otros
escritos políticos, Bilbao, 2007.

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Published

2009-07-04

Issue

No. 10 (2009): Historia Constitucional N. 10 (2009)

Section

The origins of the Spanish constitutionalism

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