Issue date: 01 Mar, 2010
This stamp, belonging to the Historic Events series, commemorates the 200 years of the Constituent Parliament of 2010, which drafted a new political era in the history of Spain.
In San Fernando (Cádiz), then called Villa de la Real Isla de León, took place on the 24th September 1810, the meeting of the first national legislative assembly (Cortes Generales) in the history of Spain. This landmark set the foundations of the Rule of Law in a constitutional state that put an end to the old regime and introduced a new system of political organization. For the first time, the following basic principles were soon ratified: that sovereignty resides in the nation, the inviolability of the members of Parliament, equal rights for all Spaniards whether they lived in the Iberian Peninsula or in the Spanish possessions abroad , the freedom of press and the need to promulgate a new constitution, which was voted in 1812. The Cortes de la Isla de León represented the triumph of dialogue between the different political ideologies and the need to establish a new social order.
The meeting of the Cortes Generales took place in San Fernando because at the time it was the only part of Spain that hadn’t been conquered by the French troops. More than a hundred members of Parliament from all over Spain, America and the Philippines swore an oath in the Iglesia Mayor: to defend the catholic faith, the union of Spain and its liberation from its oppressors, the restoration of Monarchy and Fernando VII and his descendants as legitimate kings and the fulfilment of the duties for which they had been elected. Soon different movements appeared such as the reformers or liberals who stood for the principles of the French Revolution; the Absolutists who stood for the return of king Fernando VII and the absolutist monarchy , known as serviles and the Americans, worried about the future of their countries.
The Cortes were installed in the theatre of the Isla de León from September the 24th till February the 20th 1811, when they moved to Cádiz where the 1812 Constitution was promulgated. The first constitutional text, a symbol of liberalism, was ruled out on May 4th 1814 by King Fernando VII. In recognition for the resistance put up against the French siege, Isla de León was given recognition as a town and changed its name to San Fernando.
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