Convention with Charles IV. May 5, 1808.
De Clercq, Traites, II, 246-248.
Napoleon, Emperor of the French, King of Italy, Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, and Charles IV, King of Spain and the Indies, animated by an equal desire to promptly put an end to the anarchy to which Spain is a prey and to save that valiant nation from the agitations of factions, wishing to spare it all the convulsions of civil and foreign war and to place it without disturbances in the only position which, tinder the extraordinary circumstances in which it finds itself, can preserve its integrity, guarantee it its colonies and enable it also to unite all its means with those of France in order to obtain a maritime peace, have resolved to unite all their efforts and to regulate in a special convention such precious interests . . .
. . . . .
1. His Majesty King Charles having had in view during all his life only the welfare of his subjects, and relying upon the principle that all the acts of a sovereign ought to be done only in order to attain that aim; able to be under the existing circumstances only a source of dissensions, all the more fatal since the factions have divided his own family, has resolved to cede, as he does cede by the present [convention], to His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon all his right to the throne of Spain and the Indies, as to the only one who at the point to which affairs therein have arrived can reestablish order; intending that the said cession shall take place only in order to cause his subjects to enjoy the two following conditions.
2. 1st. The integrity of the Kingdom shall be maintained; the Prince whom the Emperor Napoleon shall decide that he ought to place upon the throne of Spain shall be independent, and the boundaries of Spain shall not suffer any alteration.
2d. The Catholic, Apostolic and Roman religion shall be the only one in Spain; there cannot be tolerated there any reformed religion and still less infidelity, according to the usage established today.
. . . . .
[The omitted articles provide, inter alia, that the Spanish royal family shall have a refuge in France, a palace and grounds, a stipulated income and the enjoyment of their royal rank.]
11. The present convention shall remain secret until the Two High Contracting Parties shall see fit to make it known; it shall be ratified, and the ratification thereof shall be exchanged within eight days or as much sooner as shall be possible.
Done at Bayonne, May 5, 1808.