Toreno remained in exile till the outbreak of the revolution of 1820. Between that year and 1823 he was in Spain serving in the restored Cortes, and experience had abated his radical ardour. When the French intervened in 1823 Toreno had again to go into exile, and remained abroad till the king published the amnesty of October 15, 1832. He returned home in July 1833, but remained on his estates till the king's death on September 29. As hereditary standard bearer of Asturias (Alferez Mayor) it fell to him to proclaim the young queen, Isabella II. In 1834 his now moderate opinions pointed him out to the queen regent, Maria Christina, as a useful man for office. In June 1834 he was minister of finance, and became the 2nd Prime Minister of Spain on June 7. His tenure of the premiership lasted only till September 14 of the same year, when the regents attempt to retain a practically despotic government under a thin constitutional veil broke down. The greater part of the remainder of his life was spent in voluntary exile, and he died in Paris on September 16, 1843. Toreno is chiefly remembered as the author of the History of the Rising, War and Revolution of Spain, which he began between 1823 and 1832 and published in 1836–1838 in Paris. It was one of the earliest and more comprehensive studies of the Peninsular War written by a Spaniard who held a prominent role in those events. Further reading Raymond Carr, Spain 1808-1975 (Oxford, 1982) José Luis Comellas, 'Las Cortes de Cádiz y la constitución de 1812', Revista de Estudios Politicos 126 (1962), 69-112 W. Fehrenbach, 'Moderados and Exaltados: the liberal opposition to Ferdinand VII, 1814-1823', Hispanic American Historical Review 50 (1970), 52-69 Miguel Artola Gallego, La España de Fernando VII (Madrid, 1968) Jonathan Harris, 'Los escritos de codificación de Jeremy Bentham y su recepción en el primer liberalismo español', Télos. Revista Iberoamericana de Estudios Utilitaristas 8 (1999), 9-29 Gabriel H. Lovett, Napoleon and the Birth of Modern Spain, 2 vols (New York, 1965) Sebastian Miñano, Histoire de la révolution d'Espagne de 1820 à 1823, 2 vols. (Paris, 1824) Notes References |- |- |- |- 1786 births 1843 deaths People from Oviedo Counts of Toreno Moderate Party (Spain) politicians 19th-century Spanish politicians Prime Ministers of Spain Ambassadors of Spain to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Spanish nobility