The Duke of Wellington... Arthur I of Spain

So let's say the Borbons just all commit suicide or die in embarrassing ways that discredit them as kings.

Well, they will then bring in other Bourbons from the Sicily branch of the family or from the Parma branch of the family. This is Salic Law.
 
Well, they will then bring in other Bourbons from the Sicily branch of the family or from the Parma branch of the family. This is Salic Law.

Salic Law is French. This is Spain, where they fought to keep the Carlists off the throne, even if they were the senior male line, in favor of Isabel II and her son, and the Spanish Bourbon claim is itself based on female line descent from the Habsburgs.
 
Salic Law is French. This is Spain, where they fought to keep the Carlists off the throne, even if they were the senior male line, in favor of Isabel II and her son, and the Spanish Bourbon claim is itself based on female line descent from the Habsburgs.

No. Salic Law was adopted by Spain as soon as the Bourbons got the throne, although of course it is not Salic Law (then not adopted in Habsburg Spain) that gained them the throne. This is why there was the carlist war : because Salic Law had not been respected.
 
No. Salic Law was adopted by Spain as soon as the Bourbons got the throne, although of course it is not Salic Law (then not adopted in Habsburg Spain) that gained them the throne. This is why there was the carlist war.

And the legitimate line remained the Alfonsines, who were the junior male-line branch, but had the senior female claim.
 
I cannot see a possibility for Wellington to be seriously offered or even consider the throne of Spain. However, I could just about imagine a situation where Wellington became Regent (under the Cortes) just to keep Spain from falling apart if the legitmate claimant was a minor. But this would require alot of very lethal butterflies
 
So why did Isabel and her son remain on the throne while the Carlists never gained it?

Because the Carlists lost the war. It was the political and military victory of the partisans of Isabella which made legal the breach to the Salic Law. But after this breach, the Salic Law was valid for the successors of Isabella, until it was abolished by the 1978 spanish constitution (or if you prefer in 1932 when the spanish republic was proclaimed).
 
Not gonna happen. Spain was a barrel of crazy most of the nineteenth century but was pretty loyal to the Borbón dynasty. If Wellington tried to take the throne Spain would start another guerilla war, this time against him. In such a scenario I can see France playing the role of Britain, continuing the peninsular war. I also can't see London or the Prince Regent authorizing such an idea and would likely withdraw their troops if Wellington tried to become Spain's King.

The initiative for this candidacy is not from the same Wellington, but a sector of deputies of the Cortes of Cadiz that saw him more worthy of merit the crown of the country that had liberated than any of the dynastic claimants to obtain it.

And as for the Spanish domestic situation, Spain had adopted the liberal revolution long before due to the absence absolutist attempts from the Spanish Crown itself (after all, the Spanish Liberal Triennium begun in 1820, was subjected to numerous absolutist conspiracies -covertly supported by Ferdinand VII himself- but was only suppressed in 1823 by the foreign intervention of Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis), while the internal situation of Spanish America could be arranged through various formulas that favor the Spanish Empire and British commercial interests in the area through a Spanish-British negotiations -without active British support, Americans separatists will likely lose their options before a Spanish monarchy newly minted from 1814 to 1816; without forgetting the possibility of threatening the British with unlimited Spanish support for US in the War of 1812 (finished in February 1815) for the US conquered Canada-.

And as dynastic legitimacy, Wellington could obtain it for his heir -his only two children by his wife were born in 1807 (Arthur) and 1808 (Charles)- if you set his future marriage with the eldest daughter of the future Pedro I of Brazil (OTL Maria II of Portugal; she was born at 1819), enabling the integration of Portugal and its colonies (except Brazil, which would be an independent empire under the Braganza house ) in the new Spanish kingdom; this possibility has a historical antecedent in the Spanish history: the first Castilian king of the Trastamara dynasty (Henry II of Castile) overthrew the legitimate king (Peter I of Castile), but years later his eldest grandson (future Henry III of Castile) was forced to marry Catherine of Lancaster, only grandchild of Pedro I, to recover dynastic legitimacy; whose fruit of that marriage was John II of Castile, father of Henry IV and Isabella I of Castile.

Because the Carlists lost the war. It was the political and military victory of the partisans of Isabella which made legal the breach to the Salic Law. But after this breach, the Salic Law was valid for the successors of Isabella, until it was abolished by the 1978 spanish constitution (or if you prefer in 1932 when the spanish republic was proclaimed).

The Spanish Salic Law was not as demanding as the French Salic Law. In France it was completely banned that a woman came to the French throne, but the Salic Law that established Philip V of Spain in 1713 stated that women could inherit the Spanish throne but only if there are no male heirs in the side main line (children) or (brothers and nephews). However, the newly crowned King Carlos IV of Spain made approve Cortes in 1789 a provision to repeal the Salic Law due to 3 reasons:
  1. First, concern for the survival of their male descendants, a line still uncertain. Of the six sons of Charles IV, four had died in his early years, Fernando and only survived with only five years old [was the ninth of the 14 descendants], and Carlos, year and a half. Another four daughters were teenagers and had already exceeded the critical moment of childhood.
  2. Second, for reasons of foreign policy, since there was the possibility, in the case of extinction of the male line of succession, the Infanta Carlota Joaquina, married to the heir to the Portuguese throne, joined the two crowns.
  3. Finally, for legal reasons, as the Salic Law of 1713 required that the heir was born and raised in Spain, a condition not met Carlos IV, who was born and raised in Naples, because although it had been sworn as Cortes heir in 1760 without any difficulty, the king was interested to repeal a law that could put in question, even remotely, the legality of his accession to the throne.
However, the Spanish succession issues regarding Carlism was because Charles IV did not publish the new inheritance law because of fears of the recent French Revolution (only was published in 1830, when was born the future Isabel II of Spain). However, if the Spanish Constitution of 1812 is in force, it repealed the Salic Law, returning to the traditional Spanish succession law, which allows access of women to the Spanish throne, identically to the provisions of the 1789 amendment by Spanish Cortes.
 
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Yes but I'm saying prior to Bernadotte being brought up as contention everyone would have said "Why would a French marshall who fought Swedish troops with next to no relation to the country take over Sweden, the people and the ruling elite wouldn't want him?" and then they would have said Prussia, Russia and Austria would never have left a French Marshall take over Sweden.

Actually, IIRC, Napoléon offered Eugène de Beauharnais in all earnestness. However when they (the Swedish delegation) approached Eugène, he refused to convert from Catholicism (his wife might've played a role in this, since she was equally opposed to her son's marriage to a Russian grand duchess and the fact that any future descendants might be Orthodox rather than Catholic). And when they mentioned Bernadotte, Napoléon was under the impression they weren't being serious and granted his permission.

Another question is whether George III/IV is going to grant permission for Wellington to accept. Arthur Wellesley is still a British subject at that point. AFAIK, Bernadotte had to receive Napoléon's permission (something that was reportedly eased by Désirée Clary).
 
Another question is whether George III/IV is going to grant permission for Wellington to accept. Arthur Wellesley is still a British subject at that point. AFAIK, Bernadotte had to receive Napoléon's permission (something that was reportedly eased by Désirée Clary).

I think the Prince Regent and the British Parliament would give permission because they would believe a Spain reigned by Wellington would be a Spain subordinate to British interests (after all, Spain was subordinated to French interests after the arrival of the Spanish Bourbons), but they did not count on the fact definitive institutionalization of a constitutional monarchy under 1812 Spanish Constitution that recognized the inhabitants of the Spanish America and the Philippines as Spanish citizens with equal rights and duties than Spaniards born in the Iberian Peninsula, with all that this implies.
 
OK no WAY IN HELL the Prince Regent would give Wellington permission. For one the future George IV couldn't stand Wellington and two he'd see it as a subject going above his station. The very idea is ludicrous at best and ASB at worst.

As to Spain's Salic law, it was abolished officially in 1830. Remember that Isabel II's oldest daughter was heiress presumptive for much of her life and Alfonso XII's daughter Mercedes nearly became Queen Regnant after her father died without a male heir (his widow was pregnant and gave birth to Alfonso XIII soon after, who automatically became King).
 
OK no WAY IN HELL the Prince Regent would give Wellington permission. For one the future George IV couldn't stand Wellington and two he'd see it as a subject going above his station. The very idea is ludicrous at best and ASB at worst.

As could be added as a key element of the POD than the Prince Regent dies during the time when the Congress of Vienna is met, being succeeded in the Regency by his brother, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (16 August 1763 - 5 January 1827), or by his only child, Princess Charlotte of Wales (7 January 1796 - 6 November 1817). His successor in the Regency could see with better eyes the possibility of Wellington as new Spanish king, managing to lay the foundations for a genuine Spanish-British friendship which benefits the interests of both countries -establishing the basis of a diplomatic alliance to defend the European balance without interference from the absolutist powers of the Holy Alliance-.

Not forgetting the fact that, since the arrival of the Habsburgs to the Spanish throne, the Spanish crown always leaned toward the interests of its ruling dynasty (Habsburg and Bourbon), even if it was against the interests of the kingdom (eg, the lengthy war in Flanders, that wastes enormous resources that could otherwise have been invested, and thus can avoid territorial losses, such as Portugal and Roussillon).
 
In a Napoleonic win scenario, can we foresee an agreement between Britain and France to make him King of Spain? Too ASB?
 
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