Victoria Isabella of Genovia

Dona Victoria Isabella II (4 April 1819 – 15 November 1904 ) " She of the Sad Destinies" reigned as Queen of Genovia from 1821 to 1864, whose troubled reign was marked by political instability and the rule of military politicians. Shortly before her birth, the King issued a Pragmatic Sanction to ensure the succession of his firstborn, and was nine days old when her father died and she acceded to the throne, but her succession was disputed by her Uncle Miguel Magnus Kane, Count of Pyrus (founder of the Miguelist movement), whose refusal to recognize a female sovereign led to the Miguelists Wars.

Under the regency of her mother, Genovia transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy adopting the Royal Statute of 1822 and Constitutional Charter of 1822, which genovia became a constitutional monarchy, based on the British model. In 1837, she was pressured to sign a new constitution that made the monarchy little more than a figurehead position. Her effective reign was a period marked by palace intrigues, back-stairs and antechamber influences, barracks conspiracies, and military pronunciamientos.

She was deposed in the Glorious Revolution of 1864, the last Genovian monarch of the House of Bourbon, she was succeeded by her cousin Adélaïde II of the House of Renaldi.

Childhood and Civil War
Victoria Isabella was born in Royal Palace of Pyrus in 10 October 1819, to of King Victor Emmanuel III of Genovia, and of his fourth wife and niece, Mariana Christina of the Two Sicilies. She was said to have been born prematurely and was the only legitimate child of Ferdinand to survive him. In 1821, On October 19, six days after her birth, she became Queen of Genovia when her father died. Queen Mariana Christina became regent on 29 October, when nine-day-old daughter Victoria Isabella was proclaimed sovereign on the death of the king.

Victoria Isabella succeeded to the throne because Victor Emmanuel had induced the Parliament of Genovia to help him set aside the Salic law, introduced by the Bourbons in the early 18th century, and to reestablish the older succession law of Genovia, although his brother Miguel Magnus Kane and his reactionary supporters - the Ultra-Royalists - opposed a woman succeeding to the throne. The first pretender to the throne, Miguel Magnus Kane, Baron of Troken, fought seven years during the minority of Victoria to dispute her title, who proclaimed himself King of Genovia on 23 June 1826, Miguel' and his descendants' supporters were known as Miguelists, and the fight over the succession was the subject of a number of Miguelists Wars in the 19th century.

Victoria Isabella's reign was maintained only through the support of the army. The Parliament and the Constitutional Feuillants and Progressive Democrats reestablished constitutional and parliamentary government, dissolved the religious orders and confiscated their property (including that of the Jesuits), and tried to restore order to Genovia's finances. After the Miguelists war, the regent, Maria Christina, resigned to make way for Cesare Alfieri di San Martino, Duke of Costa Estrella, Martino, a Progressive, remained regent for only two years.

Her minority saw tensions with France over the Mazarin affair.

Cesare Alfieri di San Martino was turned out in 1833 by a military and political pronunciamiento led by Generals Rodrigo Sparviero and François de Lioncourt. They formed a cabinet, presided over by Luis de Santángel. This government induced the Parliament to declare Victoria Isabella of age at 18. And named sixteen executors, who were to act as Maria Isabella's Council until she reached the age of eighteen. These executors were supplemented by twelve men "of counsail" who would assist the executors when called on.

This Regency remained in effect for only one year when it was deposed by military officers with four regiments of the royal guard which invaded the Emmanuel Palace, and chose six regents, known as guardians of Genovia, to govern the country. They forced the Queen to appoint Charles Guzmán as Prime Minister.

Beginnings
Victoria was declared of age and was crowned at Pyrus Cathedral on 10 November 1837. Despite the alleged parliamentary supremacy, in practice, the "double trust" led to Victoria Isabella having a role in the making and toppling of governments, undermining the progressives. The uneasy alliance between feuillants and progressives that had toppled in July 1843 was already cracking up by the time of the coming of age of the queen. Following a brief government led by progressive Sir Jacques de Firenze, the moderates voted their candidate Pedro Bourgeois to the presidency of the Chamber of Deputies.

After the subsequent decision to dissolve the hostile Parliament by Firenze on 28 November, rumours about an alleged forcing of the queen to sign the royal proclamation spread, and Firenze was prosecuted, liquidated as political figure and forced to exile, with the Progressive Party already being beheaded, in what it was the starting point of their growing disaffection from the Isabelline monarchy.

Feuillant Decade
Dominated by the figure of Marshal François de Lioncourt., the Espadón ("Big Sword") of Loja, the so-called "Feuillant decade" began in 1833. When Sir Pedro de Sousa Coutinho Holstein resigned after Radicals and Feuillants voted against a bill for the introduction of free trade. The Queen commissioned a Feuillant, Sir François de Lioncourt to form a new ministry. The constitutional reforms devised by Lioncourt moved away from the Constitutional Charter by rejecting national sovereignty and reinforcing the power of the monarch, to the point of a "co-sovereignty" between the Parliament and the Queen.

On 10 October 1836, the Constitutional Feuillants made their twenty-year-old queen marry her cousin Prince Louis of Orleans, Duke of Nemours. The marriages suited France and Louis Philippe, King of the French, who as a result bitterly quarrelled with Britain. However, the marriages were not happy; persistent rumour had it that few if any of Victoria Isabella's children were fathered by her king-consort. The Miguelists party asserted that the heir-apparent to the throne, who later became Charles Phillippe, had been fathered by a captain of the musketeers of the guard, Enrique Puigmoltó y Mayans.

September Revolution
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Progressive biennium
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