This section includes interviews with the speakers who participated in the Tribute to Alberto Gil Novales, May 6, 2022.

Manuel Chust Calero. Professor of Contemporary History. Universitat Jaume I

-What were the greatest achievements of the Liberal Triennium due to its transcendence for the historical future of Spain?

The Liberal Triennium represents a before and an after within the context of the absolute monarchy in both Spain and Europe. In the 1920s, this is the first time that a state has begun to re-establish a liberal Constitution and begin a parliamentary path, because we must not forget that the context is that of the restoration of the Holy Alliance and the Congress of Vienna after the defeat of Napoleon. In that sense, what they are going to do is to implement the Constitution, which between 1812 and 1814 had not been able to be developed, and begin to decree a series of freedoms, facts that are going to be emblematic both in Europe and in America. The echo of the Liberal Triennium will be reflected in Portugal, in Naples and in Sicily, it will reach Russia and, of course, in Latin America. It was a magnificent parliamentary activity, where a division of liberalism is formed between exalted and moderate and where a reform begins at many levels: education, freedom of expression, depreciation in the Church of the regular orders, and the question of America remains, what to do with America, because they are developing in triumphant insurgent movements.

-At a time when the importance of historical memory is being questioned in certain areas, what role do specialized meetings such as the International Congress “The Liberal Triennium two hundred years later” have to play?

In the last twenty or twenty-five years the Spanish 19th century is a part of Spanish history that has been forgotten, especially, as I see it, the first half. They are the parliamentary and constitutional origins not only of Spain, but also of quite a few Latin American countries and with influences on European constitutionalism. In that sense it is a return to rescue the constitutional and parliamentary parents of the homeland. I believe that there has been a reading of the contemporary history of Spain that is predominantly militarist, of pronouncements, of coups d’état, of anarchy, of ups and downs, however, if we look at these Members in all their legislative and constitutional work, it is of tremendous scope. If we look at the panorama of Europe in those years, it was dominated by absolutism, except for England, which was a very moderate monarchy. We must rescue the vision of a parliamentary, constitutional Spain that influences Europe and Latin America and not the vision that has dominated an unstable, invertebrate, militarist Spain, with pronouncements that, while being true, I think has overshadowed the other.

-One of the sessions will delve into the civic formation of citizens during the period. Can this formation in constitutional values explain that only thanks to foreign intervention could absolutism be restored?

Sure. In reality the Liberal Triennium did not fail, the Liberal Triennium was defeated. And he was defeated by an army far superior to the Spanish and with the clear connivance of the king, of factual powers and of a part of the officiality of the Spanish army that remained absolutist.

- Are you satisfied with the Congress program?

A lot. Official events have been held in commemoration of this moment in Portugal, in Italy, of course in Mexico, in Central America, in Peru... in the context of their independence. The Spanish State should commemorate, not only in the sense of celebration, but also in the sense of remembering, valuing by professionals, historians of law, people of culture in a broad sense, those constitutional and parliamentary origins that Spain had and that radiated in Europe in the adverse military, ideological, religious context... of absolutism; without forgetting the importance that this had in Latin America, especially in Mexico, Central America and Peru, as the origin of its nation-states and as the origin of its parliamentary systems. It should be remembered that there were American deputies who came to the Cortes of Madrid, especially in the years 1820 and 1821.

Emilio La Parra López. Professor of Contemporary History. Universitat d'Alacant

-In the acknowledgements of his book Fernando VII. A desired and detested king, he points out "the extraordinary aid for research that the magnificent Biographical Dictionary of Spain (1808-1833) of the remembered Alberto Gil Novales represents". Has the contribution of Professor Alberto Gil Novales to the studies on the Liberal Triennium been sufficiently valued?

Yes. First because he was one of the pioneers in the study of the Triennium; secondly, because he addressed one aspect, that of patriotic societies, as the embryo of political parties in Spain; and thirdly, because Gil Novales has made a documentary contribution, especially bibliographic, extraordinary for the knowledge of the Triennium in general and, in particular, apart from patriotic societies, of the figure of Rafael del Riego, a key person. It has been highly valued, it is still highly cited in all the scientific studies that are done on the Triennium. On the other hand, with the Biographical Dictionary it has done all historians a favor, because it offers us a lot of data and bibliographic references especially of characters.

-As a specialist in Ferdinand VII, do you consider that the Liberal Triennium forced to partially change the monarch’s subsequent policy?

I think not, because Fernando VII assumed the beginning of the Triennium, the restoration of the Constitution, as an act against his wishes, something that he in no way intended to be established in Spain. Consequently, the only thing that, from my point of view, means for him is, in the first place, a radical nuisance; from the very first moment he is manoeuvring to put an end to the constitutional regime. On the other hand, perhaps he somewhat accentuated his inquina towards the liberators, which was already very much the one he had. Of course, it was a serious setback for him, a manifest discomfort.

Mª Cruz Romeo Mateo. Professor of Contemporary History. Universitat de València

On whether Gil Novales has been valued enough, he considers that he has, with a nuance: “I think that the Biographical Dictionary, first because we are not in the habit in Spain of having these tools, which are needed and are not usually very valued, has not been valued enough, this and others that went a little unnoticed.”

On the importance of congresses such as “The Liberal Triennium two hundred years later”.

“In general, congresses, while well organized and posing a historical problem, drive research. In the case of the Liberal Triennium, my idea is that it has had a bad historiographical press, it has not had historiographical luck. Precisely Gil Novales is the historian of the Liberal Triennium because at the time there was not much and what was said had much to do with approaches from other historiographical currents and in the world of Franco’s regime. The Triennium was uncomfortable for the liberals themselves, because the mobilization conditioned liberalism. The legacy of the Triennium was not assumed by liberalism as a whole and that has marked historiography, both to denigrate the triennium and to skip it. The congress can help rethink all these issues and make it easier to open up new avenues.”

Major achievements of the Triennium:

“It was fundamental to the formation of liberalism, for what had to be a liberal system with rights and codes, it is to introduce political modernity, eliminate privileges, make the Constitution of 12 a reality”.

Jose Manuel Sánchez Saudinos, Professor of Institutional Law Carlos III

Main achievements of the Triennium:

“The Triennium is an attempt to recover the Constitution of Cadiz and to retake the path of liberalism that had been interrupted with the return of Fernando VII in 1814 and the Persian Manifesto, to try a liberal-constitutional path in Spain in line with what had begun in the Cadiz Courts”

On the role of this type of Congress in times in which the historical memory is questioned:

“In Spain, we have spent a lot of time thinking about what was the civil war and the subsequent repression, the long dictatorship, without sometimes paying too much attention to our 19th century. We were a nation that went in parallel with other Europeans in a process I will not say of democratisation, because there was no universal suffrage, but in that line with its anomalies, with its problems, of fighting for a constitutional state. We have to turn our eyes to the whole stage, to the 19th.

Assessment of the figure of Gil Novales (collaborated with him in the Athenaeum)

You think you haven't been valued enough.

“He was a key person in all the historiography of a time, a person with a somewhat Anglo-Saxon style, in the sense of a researcher, a person very close to the people who started, but he was not a conspirator nor did he intend to create a school of researchers to grow”

Antonio Elorza Domínguez. Professor of Political Science

On the contribution of Gil Novales to the historiography of the Triennium:

“It’s a double contribution. On the one hand, a style of work that as usually happens in these cases is somewhat buried by the magnitude of his work; and on the other hand, a decisive work for the knowledge of one of the periods that he has discovered keys to the history of contemporary Spain, which is the Liberal Triennium»

Has it been recognized?

“Yes. The Liberal Triennium was somewhat the poor brother in the history of Spanish liberalism. There was that image of the Cortes de Cádiz, Fernando VII... and then a kind of parenthesis that commits suicide, which with its exaltation, with its radicalism, digs up its own tomb; an image similar to the one that is now being created of the Second Republic. So Alberto’s answer is that of historical analysis. The Triennium does not sink because it sinks, but because the Hundred Thousand Sons of St. Louis come, an external intervention that collapses it. And, above all, its job is to discover and highlight that it is a capital period of political participation, which is frustrated like so many things in the history of Spain. Society is politicized, something that had not happened in Cadiz, the problems are in the public space and the instruments for that participation are sought, which are patriotic societies. It is a revolutionary moment in the double sense of trying to make the revolution that was only outlined in Cadiz, but a revolution for the people, for the collective interests, and, on the other hand, to create the instruments still incipient for that transformation. I think that Gil Novales does an exemplary job, which links with his idea of the citizen, that is why he is enthusiastic about Machado and that is why he claims to Watering. (...) His enormous work, the Biographical Dictionary, first of the Triennium, after 1808-1833, are thousands of pieces that are there. What's the point of that? Contributing to the story, yes, but above all creating the platform so that other historians can then address this collective task. He thinks that history is not a teacher of life but he explains the conditions so that men’s hopes can be realized.”

What role can the International Congress “The Triennium Liberate Two Hundred Years Later” play in the image of that period?

‘Continue researching the Liberal Triennium and linking it with the European phenomenon. Portugal also has its Triennium. At that time there is talk of the Santa Alianza and outbreaks in Spain, etc., but it is the alternative to the Santa Alianza, the liberal democratic alternative to a predominance of the absolutist reaction, and this is something that Gil Novales proposed and in what must be followed.