ABSTRACT
The legacy was challenged by the English, who feared that France would become the master of Europe if there were Bourbon kings on both sides of the Pyrenees. The Spanish Bourbons reversed the policies of the Hapsburgs and their predecessors, enforcing political unity by destroying almost all the fueros and the regional cortes—traditional institutions that meant nothing to the newly arrived Bourbons. During the hiatus of authority that lasted while the Bourbons were out of Spain and the Napoleonic rulers were fighting to maintain their control, self-governing juntas sprang up throughout the country. Under the Bourbon Salic law, a female could not inherit the crown; under the tradition of the Hapsburgs and earlier precedents, a woman could inherit. The Bourbons were restored in 1875 in the person of King Alfonso XII, Isabella’s son, who ruled with extensive power under a new constitution created in 1876.
