The Council of Regency of Spain and…

The Council of Regency of Spain and the Indies is compelled to summon a Cortes in order to legitimize the situation created by the absence of Ferdinand VII, who remains a prisoner in France.

Conservatives conceive of its task as the mere supply of the sinews of war on behalf of an absent king.

The Council has overseen the almost complete recovery of the Spanish mainland and the formation of the Cortes of Cadiz, which will draft the Spanish Constitution of 1812.

Under its watch the Regency had approved on a technicality the controversial decision to convene the Cortes as a unicameral body (the original royal decrees by the Junta had failed to mention the traditional estates).

The Cortes, when it meets at Cadiz in 1810, is dominated by liberals who wish to go beyond the mere support of the war effort and establish a constitution that will make impossible the revival of rule by a favorite like Godoy.

Once the Cortes begin functioning on September 24, 1810, it assumes legislative powers and oversight of the Regency.