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In 1821, France followed with passion the outbreak of yellow fever in Barcelona, that was the main focus of the press. Surprisingly, the latter scarcely used Spanish newspapers as a source of information, as was common practice at a time when news agencies did not exist. Why was it the case? By analysing the way daily newspapers reported on the sanitary crisis in the Catalonian capital, this article tries to give an answer. Although the whole kingdom expressed compassion and solidarity toward the unfortunate inhabitants of Barcelona, media focus translated in very different ways depending on whether it appeared in newspapers of the Catalonian capital, in local or national Madrid-based newspapers, or in other regional media. Obviously, except for Catalonia itself, the yellow fever was not the main focus of Spaniards: worries about the political situation came before those about the dramatic consequences of the epidemic.

Although existence, in the library of the Diocesan Seminary of Vitoria-Gasteiz, of a complete series of Joseph I’s official newspaper published when he, and what remained of his Court, had to take refuge in the capital of Alava between august and november 1808, after fleeing Madrid, was revealed nearly 30 years ago, the Gazeta de la Corte, that was soon renamed Gazeta de Vitoria, has not been used or studied by researchers until today. In that paper, that intends to remedy that situation, the reader will find a description of that paper and of its rhythm of publication ; lights on who its publisher and editors may have been ; an analysis of its content that reveals that the Gazeta de Vitoria was also a Gazette off the Empire controlled by the Emperor of France and King of Italy ; the role played by Joseph I himself in the orientation of the newspaper ; the distribution of the latter in all of the kingdom (in territories occupied by imperial troops as well as in free Spain) ; its echo in the French press and its disappearing when Joseph, following his brother Napoleon, left Vitoria. Two appendixes complete this work: the first is made by the list of royal decrees and orders published in the newspaper, and the second by a full copy of issues preserved in the Diocesan Seminary of Vitoria-Gasteiz, issues that meant the birth of press in the city and, logically, in the Basque Country.

This paper is the first study on the four French language newspapers that were published in Spain during the Trienio Liberal: L’Écho de l’Europe, Le Régulateur, L’Observateur espagnol and La Boussole. Except for the latter, which existence is known only through two advertisings for its first issue in the Spanish and French press, conditions in which these publications were created, edited and distributed are analysed, as are the life and ideological path of their editors (Bousquet-Deschamps, Chapuis and Voidet, respectively), and their impact on French and British diplomatic circles, particularly for Le Régulateur and L’Observateur espagnol, that were considered as bribed spokesmen for ministers Bardají and San Miguel. An important Annex reproduces the seven issues of L’Écho de l’Europe saved at the Biblioteca Nacional de España, an issue of Le Régulateur from the library of Parliament, and extracts or abstracts (in French or translated in Spanish) that appeared in contemporary publications.

L’Ambigu ou Variétés politiques et littéraires, published in London by French royalist expatriate Jean-Gabriel Peltier, served, during the Peninsular War, from Cadix to Saint-Petersburgh, as a major source of information for all press editors who wanted to counter the propaganda spread by Le Moniteur and the Journal de l’Empire. But before being one of the « most illustrious and fearless defenders of the throne and the altar », and incitating Spaniards to raise up in defense of the rights of Ferdinand VII, Peltier had some difficulty in dealing with the events of Aranjuez and Bayonne that corresponded to the begining of the 1808 Revolution of Spain. Writing his political column step by step, based on the sole informations published by the imperial press, and accumulating important delays in publishing the issues of L’Ambigu, Peltier was of course extremely critical against Napoleon, accusing him including of cowardness. He was nevertheless less severe toward the Prince of Peace. But he was smooth neither for Charles IV, neither, mostly, for Ferdinand (« the Simpleton ») and his advisers (« children » and « donkeys »), and he condemned with no ambiguity a popular uprising that could only aggravate the fate of Spaniards. Only after the Parliament session closure speech of Georges III, on the 4th of July, 1808, did he become the advocate of the « holy uprising of Spain » and the enthusiastic defender of Ferdinand The Desired, giving up the use of informations given only by Le Moniteur and publishing many documents issued in London from the 10th of June by the delegates of the General Junta of Asturias near the British governement. Beyond the vacillations of a journalist who had to deal with unexpected events, Peltier’s attitude also gives us indications on that of his master, Louis XVIII, who considered himself as the « head of the Bourbon home », and who did not appreciate either the behaviour of the Prince of Asturias in Aranjuez and Bayonne.

The collection of the Gazeta de Valencia, published in 1812 under the control of Mariscal Suchet, stored in the Biblioteca Valenciana, provides important information on the relationship between Suchet and the King Joseph I. In addition to the traditional informationconcerning the condition of the subscription, the prologue, published on the 1st of February, 1812 (one month after the arrival of Frencharmy in Valencia), shows clearly that the Marshal of the Empire acted on behalf of Napoleon and paid less attention to his brother. The independence of Suchet with regard to Joseph also becomes apparent in the choice of news from Madrid, which were carefully chosen with the aim of not overshadowing Duke of Albufera. By the time when the « rey errante » retired in Valencia, the Gazeta de Valencia continued in the hands of Suchet, despite the fact that Llorente, one of the accredited propangandists of the new dynasty along with Moratin and Estala, collaborated in the Gazeta, Not being able to spread the journal in the former Kingdom of Valencia (Alicante was never occupied by the imperial army), Suchet managed to spread the correspondence of auxiliary bishop Miguel Suarez de Santander, which was published in the Gazeta in Zaragoza. Therefore, the Gazeta stand for the official organ of journal in the viceroyalty, that Aragon and Valencia represented for Suchet.

Juan Antonio Llorente was one of the numerous ecclesiastics who wrote for the press, a new means of communication in the Spain of the eighteenth century. He passed to posterity as the first historian of the Inquisition. Beside that, Juan Antonio Llorente is an interesting case as he collaborated both to French and Spanish newspapers and published in Paris, in 1820, a periodical intended for his compatriots : Conversaciones entre Cándido y Prudencio sobre el estado actual de España . This paper presents and analyzes his career as a journalist, something that has not been much studied up to now.

After presenting the official press published during the Peninsular War, by the afrancesado government as well as by the Junta Central and the Regency, the way intercepted letters (genuine or not) were used by both sides, and the efficiency of this use, are analyzed.

We know the importance of propaganda in the War of Spain. On the French side, the attempt to convince the Spanish public opinion of the uselessness of all resistance starts even before the beginning of the conflict with the seizure from the French military authorities of the Gaceta de Madrid which receives without any difficulty the translations of the proclamations of the Bulletin de l’Armée d’Espagne, especially in special issues which emphasize the will of the Emperor’s lieutenant, Murat, consisting in dramatizing the situation. The new sovereign, Ferdinand VII and his Secretary of State, Pedro Ceballos, did try to retake the control of the Gaceta, but in vain.

To convince their fellow countrymen to embrace the new dynasty, the afrancesados often used the press – most of the time in vain. One of these failed attempts is analyzed there: the creation by one of the most brilliant literary men of his time, Pedro Estala, of a biweekly, El Imparcial, which advertising, inserted in the Gazeta de Madrid, permits to understand the strategy of its editor, and the reasons of his failure.

This article analyses the participation of the two main ecclesiastical publications of the time (The Friend of Religion and the King and Tablets of the clergy and of the Friends of Religion, funded 1814 and 1822) to the real crusade that was waged by the Ultra press, as soon as the end of January, 1820, in favor of a French military intervention in Spain, to protect the « legitimate » rights of the Throne and the Altar.It shows how information provided to French clergymen, on the fate reserved to their Spanish colleagues by revolutionaries, awoke in them memories of the Terror and persecutions endured at that time, that they may have to face again if evil was left spreading. It shows how, based on (true or false) news such publicized, priests engaged in their sermons (with the utmost success) the faithful to demonstrate through public prayers, their wish to see France restore Ferdinand VII as an absolute monarch.

At a time when anything relevant had to be versified, the study of poems on Spanish events published between 1820 and 1823 in a straightly censored French press, permits to comprehend the dialectic between the power and the different factions of public opinion that would result, despite reluctance of Louis XVIII himself, in France's military intervention to re-establish Ferdinand VII as an absolute monarch.81 poems on the events of Spain published in the French press (1820-1823) can be found in the appendix to this study.

A "servil" newspaper established by P. Manuel Martinez in June, 1823, El Restaurador was the Spanish version of L'Ami de la Religion et du Roi, an ultraroyalist and ultramontanist newspaper created in France in 1814 by Mr Picot. The same goals appear in both, as well as the same themes - including exaltation of the victims of the Revolution, systematically, and sometimes difficultly, elevated to the status of Martyrs of Faith. Although a difference can be found on the treatment of information about the death of Riego, both publications are perfectly identical. Nevertheless, motivations of their editors were not : that of L’Ami de la Religion et du Roi is ultraroyalist because only absolute monarchy can ensure triumph of ultramontanism that he wants to bring to France ; that of El Restaurador is ultramontanist because it is the only way to justify the absolutism he stands for.

European nations were not the only ones to follow with interest - or even passion - the events of what was then called the Second Spanish Revolution, and the press (both official and unofficial) of the Republic of Haiti informed its readers as regularly as it could on the evolution of the situation in the Iberian Peninsula between 1820 and 1823. Although, at first, it cared about being perfectly neutral between the opposing sides, its sympathy for the Liberals who had ended the inquisition and expelled the Jesuits could be perceived. But when the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis crossed the Bidassoa, despite indifference of some of its fellow countrymen, it clearly took sides in favour of the Constitutionalists, fearing that, in case of success, France, which had not yet recognised the island's independence, would turn its weapons against it.

The role of the clergy (given huge influence through predication and confession) was decisive in public opinion building during the Trienio Liberal. Therefore, absolutists and liberals used all means available to convince the privileged cultural influencers that priests were to embrace their cause, and to give them decisive arguments for convincing the faithful. This is how journals specifically aimed at them appeared, thus as El Amigo de la Religion, to which this paper is dedicated. After examining conditions of its establishment and the way it was distributed, analysis focuses on the very specific way in which the consitutional text was used to paralyse action of the liberals, and how an other journal in Barcelona, El verdadero amigo de la Religion, tried to counterbalance its influence.