Charles III (Spain) (1716–1788; Ruled 1759–1788)

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CHARLES III (SPAIN) (1716–1788; ruled 1759–1788)

CHARLES III (SPAIN) (1716–1788; ruled 1759–1788), king of Spain. Born in Madrid on 20 January 1716, Charles III died in the same city on 14 December 1788. The son of Philip V of Spain (ruled 1700–1724, 1724–1746) and Isabella Farnese of Parma (1692–1766), he was duke of Parma (1731–1735) and king of Naples (1734–1759) before becoming king of Spain (1759–1788). Following family tradition, Charles III spent his first seven years under women's care (Isabel Ramírez, María Antonia de Salcedo) and afterward under the supervision of court noblemen appointed by his parents. During childhood he received training in geography, history, military strategy, mathematics, and foreign languages (French, Italian dialects). More than studying, he enjoyed hunting, shooting, and making small objects from wood and ivory. His relationship with his parents was close despite frequent absences and separations, according to their own testimonies in private letters that started when Charles was four years old and continued for almost forty years. The letters also reveal the enormous influence and inspiration of his parents on his religiosity, political priorities, and selection of a spouse (Amalia of Saxony). A prudent and sober reformist spirit inspired his government rather than revolution and change, as was also the case with other European kings and queens of the eighteenth century.

Charles III relied on his own judgment much more than did previous Spanish kings, who had relied on powerful ministers. Foreign policy was the greatest priority of his government because of his mother's influence, but above all because Spain was a world colonial power. Alliances with France, however, brought wars with Great Britain, and Spain lost territories (including Florida) and imperial strength during Charles's reign.

Charles III appointed pragmatic ministers whose missions were to reinforce the crown, improve the economy, and maintain a peaceful social order to achieve a strong and stable country from which they would obtain political strength and wealth. In the first seven years of Charles's government, Italians served as the ministers of war, state, and finance, with Leopoldo di Gregorio, marquis of Squillace, and the marquis of Grimaldi as the outstanding figures above the ministers Charles inherited from his half brother Ferdinand VI (ruled 1746–1759). Fiscal reforms, the rise in prices following the introduction of free trade in grain, proposals to disentail properties of privileged sectors of society, and the law forbidding men to wear traditional broad hats and long capes aroused opposition against the Italian ministers. Sectors of the nobility, the clergy, and thousands of people from Madrid and other Spanish cities initiated riots in 1766 and generated fear of social upheaval and disorder. To restore internal stability and peace, Charles III dismissed his Italian ministers, expelled the Jesuits from Spain and the colonies (1767), and sought a new team of ministers from a group of universitytrained Spanish lawyers, among them Pedro Rodríguez Campomanes y Perez (1723–1802), JoséMoñino y Redondo, count of Floridablanca (1728–1808), and JosédeGálvez (1729–1787), who functioned as a team. With his new ministers, Charles III undertook reforms in administration, ecclesiastical policy, and some aspects of commercial and agrarian policies.

First, traditional royal councils were replaced with ministers who regularly met in a council of state, independent councillors were introduced into municipal governments of towns and villages, and the French system of intendants was implemented in the colonies to reinforce the crown's direct control. The final aim of administrative reforms was to impose the power of the crown at all administrative levels in Spain and its colonies and reduce to some extent the autonomy of high aristocrats, municipal councils, and viceroys.

The subordination of the church to the Bourbon monarchy was a second major goal of Charles III. Consequently he required royal authorization for the introduction of papal documents, expelled the Jesuits from all Spanish territories in 1767, and reduced the power of the Inquisition.

Economic reforms were less successful than administrative and religious reforms. The reduction of institutional obstacles to free trade in grain in the peninsula and to free trade between cities of the Spanish Empire (1765–1778) did little to change structural limits to sustained economic growth. Mercantilist policies and privileges were the rule in Spain as in most other European countries, and they imposed similar limits to the growth of domestic and international trade. On the other hand, hunger, bad crops, and privileged ownership and distribution of land remained the norm in rural Spain. The entailed land of the nobility, the clergy, the municipal councils, and the crown, mayorazgos, manos muertas, comunes, and realengos respectively, a fundamental obstacle to increased agricultural productivity, was never seriously questioned or reformed.

Charles III and his ministers reinforced the power of the crown and rationalized imperial administration as no other ruler had before in Spain. However, they left the traditional social order intact.

See also Farnese, Isabel (Queen of Spain) ; Ferdinand VI (Spain) ; Philip V (Spain) ; Spain .