biography
pronunciation:
[gothoy]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1767–1851)
|
| biography:
| Spanish court favourite, and chief minister (1792–1808) under Charles IV, born in Castuera, WC Spain. An obscure guards officer, he achieved dictatorial power at the age of 25 through the favour of the Queen, Maria Luisa, whose lover he was. His rule represented a corrupt form of ‘enlightened despotism’. In 1795 he assumed the title ‘Prince of the Peace’, following Spain's defeat by Revolutionary France. In 1796 he allied with France against England - a disastrous move which turned Spain into a virtual French satellite, and contributed massively to her losing her American empire. In 1808 he was overthrown by an alliance of aristocrats and the populace, spending the rest of his life exiled in Rome and in Paris. |
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