Princess Carlota Joaquina and the Monarchist Alternative in Spanish American Independence

This paper focuses on the curious episode in Iberian American history when Princess Carlota Joaquina, daughter of Carlos IV, brother of Fernando VII of Spain, and wife of Dom João, Prince Regent of Portugal and later King João VI of Portugal, tried to assert sovereignty over the Spanish monarchy, in whole or in part, during 1808-10. Although Carlota‟s pretensions were unsuccessful, they are nonetheless worthy of discussion for a number of reasons. Not least of these is the light that Carlota‟s proposal throws on the crisis of monarchy in the Spanish world immediately after 1808, and the context it provides for assessing the resilience of both monarchy and monarchism in Spanish America during the couple of decades that followed.