Based on the content of the latest biography of Joseph Bonaparte, written by Thierry Lentz, the leading French contemporary specialist on the history of the Napoleonic era, the author of the article raises a very disputable question: if the reforms of 1808-1813 undertaken in Spain by Napoleon's brother were really feasible? Referring the data of recent studies, the author of the article concludes that the cause for the failure of Joseph's liberal reforms was not only and not so much the discord in the actions of the Spanish king, the emperor Napoleon and the French marshals as the unpreparedness of the broad strata of the population of this country to adopt such a kind of changes that were also carried out with the help of cruel violence.