Whose regency government finally suppressed the Inquisition in 1834?

Maria Christina of Bourbon’s regency government finally suppressed the Inquisition in 1834.

Maria Christina became regent after the death of her husband, Ferdinand VII, on 29 September 1833. She governed for their young daughter, Isabella II, whose succession was challenged by Ferdinand’s brother Carlos María Isidro. That dispute sparked the First Carlist War, with many Carlists defending traditional absolutism and seeking the Inquisition’s restoration.

In this political crisis, Maria Christina sought support from moderate liberals. Her government, headed by Francisco Martínez de la Rosa, issued the decree of 15 July 1834 that definitively suppressed the Spanish Inquisition. The decree was published in the Gaceta de Madrid on 17 July.

This was the institution’s fourth abolition: Napoleon suppressed it in 1808, the Cádiz Cortes abolished it in 1813, and Ferdinand abolished it again under pressure from the 1820 Riego uprising. The 1834 decree was therefore the final formal abolition, even though inquisitorial-style diocesan Juntas de Fe survived briefly until 1835.