La mémoire du conflit carliste et ses enjeux : entre usage politique et mise en ordre du passé

In Europe, during the First Carlist War, were published a large number of memoirs by « storytelling soldiers » who fought on the Carlist side. These books, which were part of a broader trend of publications focused on Spain, very quickly became editorial hits. I am going to demonstrate that these « memory agents » share a strong collective identity, and I am going to analyze their motivations regarding the planned preservation of memories. These soldiers support different memory projects. First, their writings seek to provoke an immediate interest towards this conflict. Some officers, just back from the front, tell the Carlist epic in order to mobilize supports to win the war. These authors also make every effort to build and preserve the collective memory of the Legitimist community to whom they belong in order to encourage them to continue the fight everywhere it may emerge. In this storytelling endeavor, they often mix up their role as memorialists and their role as historians. Finally, some of them are willing to commit themselves to a long-term mission as guardians of the memory of the defeated. They are moved by the will to educate future generations and save from oblivion their own version of History.