[Footnote 140: Ferdinand VII. King of Spain (1784-1833) had been compelled to grant a Constitution to his subjects in 1820,çoisRené but revoked it, with the material aid of the King of France, in 1823. It was owing to Ferdinand's unconstitutional repeal of the Salic Law, without the consent of the Cortes, that the present Alphonsist Branch occupies the throne of Spain, to the prejudice of the Legitimist, or Carlist, Branch, and as the result of a long series of bloody civil wars.--T.]
[Footnote 141: John VI. King of Portugal and Brazil (1767-1826) was proclaimed Regent of Portugal in 1792, when his mother, Mary I., became insane. In 1807, attacked by the French, he withdrew with the Royal Family to the Colony of Brazil, which he raised to a kingdom. In 1816, on the death of his mother, he was proclaimed King of Portugal, but did not return to Europe until 1821. On his arrival, he found himself obliged to accept a Constitution, which he abolished two years later. Meanwhile, Brazil had declared her independence (1822) and proclaimed John's son, Peter I. (IV. of Portugal), Emperor. Civil wars, curiously similar in their origin to those in Spain, broke out in Portugal soon after his death, in 1826.--T.]
[Footnote 142: Troubles broke out in Piedmont so soon as the Neapolitan revolution had died away. On the 10th of March, the garrison at Alessandria mutinied. Turin, Pinerolo and Ivrea followed suit. On the 13th, King Victor Emmanuel I. abdicated in favour of his brother, Charles Felix. In the absence of the latter he gave the regency to Charles Albert, the King's cousin, who promptly proclaimed the constitution of the Spanish Cortes, but, at the end of a few days (21 March), he was obliged to fall back before the Austrian intervention. The conspirators of Alessandria and the Italian "federates" were dispersed at Novara, and the victorious army entered Turin on the 10th of April. Victor Emmanuel maintained his abdication and Charles Felix restored the old government.--B.]
[Footnote 143: He gave bold advice which was disregarded at Versailles.--_Author's Note._]
[Footnote 144: Max Jose Garnerin, Count von Montgelas (1759-1838), the favourite minister of Maximilian I. King of Bavaria, under whom he held successively pretty well all the great departments of State.--T.]