THE MORENTIN MANIFESTO
The Morentin Manifesto of 19 July 1874 marks the beginning of a political movement accused of absolutism
In a generic way Carlism is usually described as a dynastic, absolutist and religiously fundamentalist movement. In reality, from its origins, it placed great importance on preserving the old laws contained in the fueros. This fact explains their approach to other political options, such as the progressives, republicans or federalists during the second and third Carlist Wars, as well as internal evolutionary processes involving important personalities like General Cabrera or the pretenders Juan and Carlos VI, sons of Carlos María Isidro. however it was the Morentin Manifesto, in July 1874 by Carlos VII in the Navarre village of the same name, which initiated a political movement that a century later led Carlism into clearly left-wing positions. In that manifesto, the ‘Carlist king’ acknowledged that Generals Prim, Serrano and Topete offered him the throne of Spain after the September Revolution, albeit under unacceptable terms. The pretender then reiterated his respect for the ‘freedom letters’ of the people of Spain. he acknowledged that there are immutable principles but also doctrines “subject to the mutability of human nature and the circumstances of the times”. Then he rejected the persecution of other religions and condemned despotism. “I will not go,” he said, “one step beyond the Church of Jesus Christ.”
In addition he ensured that he always defended the right of people to ‘freely’ choose their representatives and that there must be “a legitimate representation of the country in the Cortes”. Carlos denies “the slander that some spread among the common people”, he intends to
“restore courts and institutions that may not agree with the character of modern society”. This was a clear reference to the Inquisition which, according to Liberals, Carlism wanted to restore in Spain.