Motín de Esquilache - History Lab

Provision of Charles III on the riots that occurred in the town of Madrid between 23rd and 26th March

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:32:51 +0000

The Esquilache riot was the most important social, economic and political revolt of the 18th century (1766). The shortage of basic foodstuffs, including bread, and the speculation of hoarders were two of the reasons that led the lower social classes to riot against the rulers. In the case of the Motín de Esquilache, the revolt ended with the march, via Cartagena, of the Marquis, who had to leave the peninsula in the face of the events and the demands of the lower social classes.

The post Provision of Charles III on the riots that occurred in the town of Madrid between 23rd and 26th March first appeared on History Lab.

The Esquilache Mutiny (1766)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:30:26 +0000

The Motín de Esquilache was a revolt that took place in Madrid in March 1766, when King Carlos III was king, due to the publication of a municipal regulation governing the clothing of the people of Madrid, and which was dictated by Leopoldo de Gregorio, 1st Marquis of Esquilache, the king’s main minister, who was also blamed for the high cost of bread. The measure generated such unrest that the popular mobilisation came to be considered a threat to the king’s own security. Although this revolt has been interpreted as a subsistence riot, which coincides with similar revolts in other parts of Spain, it is known to have been instigated by different groups of nobility and ecclesiastical power, belonging to different court factions, with conflicting interests, who fought for power. In the Museo del Prado catalogue, what is depicted in the work is described as follows: “Then the bailiffs, accompanied by tailors, put the disobedient into the gates, and there they pointed their hats at them and cut off their cloaks, the violence of which intimidated the faint-hearted, offended the sensible and encouraged the brave to look for noise”.

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Esquilache, the most hated minister in Madrid

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:59 +0000

Article in the magazine Historia National Geographic explaining the causes and consequences of the Esquilache riot during Easter Week in 1766. It is accompanied by different paintings and engravings of the Esquilache mutiny and portraits of Giuseppe Esquilache, Carlos III and the Count of Aranda

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Charles III, lights and shadows of Enlightenment reformism. Memory of Spain

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:59 +0000

Episode 17 of the documentary series “Memories of Spain”. The descriptor that appears on the rtve a la carte website includes the following summary: Pacifism and cultural brilliance under Ferdinand VI; The culmination of the Bourbon reformism of Charles III; The crisis of 1766 and the expulsion of the Jesuits; International politics; Catalan and Basque fuerismos… It is advised by Ricardo García Cárcel and lasts 47:24 minutes

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Expulsion and exile of the Jesuits from Charles III’s dominions

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:27:41 +0000

This website addresses the question of the Jesuit expulsion by providing bibliographical references and other texts and documentation, approaching the study from different points of view. It also contains interesting web links and shows information about the Jesuit Research Group of the University of Alicante. The Society of Jesus, created in 1540, whose nature was distinguished as Renaissance, cultured and freedom-loving in its initiatives, played an important role in the Counter-Reformation and in the evangelisation of the New World, as well as in its proximity to monarchs such as Philip V and Ferdinand VI. However, in the middle of the Enlightenment there was a clash with the political institution. The Spanish Jesuits were accused, among other things, of sympathising with the theory of regicide, of having encouraged the Esquilache mutiny a year earlier and of defending laxity in their colleges and universities. The banishment, which took place in the early hours of 2 April 1767, was part of a major political manoeuvre that had been in the making since April 1766, when the “Secret Investigation” of the public prosecutor Campomanes was launched, created with the excuse of uncovering those guilty of the riots in Madrid in March of the same year, but whose real aim was to implicate the Society of Jesus in the popular disturbances that had caused the monarch to flee Madrid. Their property was seized and they were only allowed to take some of their personal effects with them.

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