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The 'Spanish Constitution of 1812' was promulgated by the Cádiz Cortes, the national legislative assembly (Cortes Generales "General Courts") of Spain acting while in refuge. The Spaniards baptised the constitution '''"La Pepa"''' because it was adopted on Saint Joseph's Day,^[1] (''Pepe'' in Spanish is the standard nickname for ''José'' comparable to ''Joe'' for ''Joseph''. ''Pepa'' is the female equivalent, a nickname for ''Josefa'', used because ''constitución'' is a feminine noun).
At the time the Cortes adopted the Constitution, they were taking refuge at Cádiz from the Peninsular War, which the Spanish call the ''Guerra de la Independencia'', a war against the French Empire and the installed King Joseph. That war began on the night of May 2, 1808 immortalized by Francisco Goya's painting ''The Second of May 1808'', also known as ''The Charge of the Mamelukes''. The war was underway on Spanish territory, with Napoleon's forces facing Spanish partisans and the British under the Duke of Wellington.
The opening session of the new Cortes was held on September 24, 1810. Several basic principles were soon ratified: that sovereignty resides in the nation (''see popular sovereignty''), the legitimacy of Ferdinand VII as King of Spain, and the inviolability of the deputies. The Cortes of Cádiz worked feverishly, and the first written Spanish constitution was promulgated in the city of Cádiz on March 12, 1812. Prior to the Napoleonic intervention, Spain had been ruled as an absolute monarchy by the Bourbon and their Habsburg predecessors. The Constitution of 1812 is regarded as the first example of classic liberalism in Spain, and one of the first worldwide.
When Ferdinand VII was restored in March 1814 by the Allied Powers, he promised to uphold the new charter of Spanish government, but within a matter of weeks, encouraged by conservatives backed by the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy, he repudiated the constitution (May 4) and arrested the liberal leaders (May 10), justifying his actions as repudiating a constitution made by the cortes in his absence and without his consent. Thus he had come back to assert the Bourbon doctrine that the sovereign authority resided in his person only.
When Ferdinand's harsh rule resulted in a mutiny of army officers in 1820, the Constitution of 1812 was the unifying document of the liberals, who wished to see a constitutional monarchy in Spain. After the Battle of Trocadero liberated Ferdinand in 1823, he turned on the liberals and constitutionalists with fury. Since 1812, Spain has had a total of seven constitutions, including the one of 1978, currently in force as of 2007.

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1. Otras constituciones on the official Spanish government site about the Spanish constitution. Accessed 16 April 2006.