Alfonso XIII of Spain

Alfonso XIII (Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Austria-Lorena; 17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941) was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority. In 1902, on attaining his 16th year, the King assumed control of the state.

Reign

Alfonso was born in Madrid, posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, and became King of Spain upon his birth. The French newspaper Le Figaro described the young king as "the happiest and best-loved of all the rulers of the earth".^[1]

When he came of age in 1902, the week of his majority was marked by festivities, bullfights, balls and receptions throughout Spain.^[2]

During his reign, Spain lost its last colonies in the Americas (Cuba and Puerto Rico) and the Philippines; fought and, after several setbacks, won a war in Morocco; witnessed the start of the Spanish Generation of 1927, and endured the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, which ultimately cost him the throne.

During the First World War, because of his family connections with both sides and the division of popular opinion, Spain remained neutral. The King ran an office for captives from the Royal Palace, which leveraged the Spanish diplomatic and military network abroad to intercede for thousands of prisoners-of-war, receiving and answering letters from Europe. However, he became gravely ill during the 1918 flu pandemic and, since Spain was neutral and thus under no wartime censorship restrictions, his illness and subsequent recovery were covered worldwide, giving the false impression (in the absence of real news from anywhere else) that Spain was the most-affected area. This ultimately led to the pandemic getting the nickname "the Spanish Flu."^[3]

Alfonso was a promoter of tourism in Spain. The problems with the lodging of his wedding guests prompted the construction of the luxury Hotel Palace in Madrid. He also supported the creation of a network of state-run lodges (Parador) in historic buildings of Spain. His fondness for the sport of football led to the patronage of several "Royal" ("Real" in Spanish) football clubs such as Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Real Betis, Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña and Real Unión.

When the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, he fled and left Spain, but did not abdicate the throne. He settled eventually in Rome where he lived in the Grand Hotel.

Once the Spanish Civil War broke out, Alfonso made it clear he favoured the military uprising against the Popular Front government, but General Francisco Franco in September 1936 declared that the Nationalists would never accept Alfonso as King (the supporters of the rival Carlist pretender made up an important part of the Franco Army). First, he went into exile in France. Nevertheless, he sent his son, Juan de Borbon, Count of Barcelona, to enter Spain in 1936 and participate in the uprising. However, near the French border, General Mola had him arrested and expelled from the country.

On 15 January 1941, Alfonso XIII abdicated his rights to the Spanish throne in favour of his third (of four), but second-surviving, son Juan, father of the current King, Juan Carlos. He died in Rome a month and a half later.

The Spanish Government ordered three days of national mourning.^[4] His funeral was held in Rome in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. He was buried in the Church of Santa Maria in Monserrato, the Spanish national church in Rome, immediately below the tombs of Pope Callixtus III and Pope Alexander VI.^[5] In January 1980 his remains were transferred to El Escorial in Spain.^[6]

Marriage and children

On 31 May 1906, at the Royal Monastery of San Geronimo in Madrid, Alfonso married Scottish-born Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (1887–1969), a niece of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. A Serene Highness by birth, Ena, as she was known, was raised to Royal Highness status a month before her wedding to prevent the union from being viewed as unequal.

As Alfonso XIII and Ena were returning from the wedding, they narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by the anarchist Mateu Morral who threw a bomb from a high window; instead, the bomb explosion killed or injured many bystanders and members of the Royal procession.

Alfonso and Ena had seven children:

• Infante Alfonso Pio Cristino Eduardo Francisco Guillermo Carlos Enrique Fernando Antonio Venancio of Spain, Prince of Asturias (1907–1938), a hemophiliac, he renounced his rights to the throne in 1933 to marry a commoner, Edelmira Ignacia Adriana Sampedro-Robato, and became Count of Covadonga. He later remarried to Marta Ester Rocafort-Altazarra, but had no issue by either of them.
• Infante Jaime Luitpold Isabelino Enrique Alberto Alfonso Victor Acacio Pedro Maria of Spain (1908–1975), a deaf-mute as the result of a childhood operation, he renounced his rights to the throne in 1933 and became Duke of Segovia, and later Duke of Madrid, and who, as a legitimist pretender to the French throne from 1941 to 1975, was known as the Duke of Anjou.
• Infanta Beatríz Isabela Federica Alfonsa Eugenia Cristina Maria Teresa Bienvenida Ladisláa of Spain (1909–2002), who married Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince di Civitella-Cesi.
• Infante Fernando, stillborn (1910)
• Infanta Maria Cristina Teresa Alejandra Guadalupe Maria de la Concepción Vittoria Eugenia of Spain (1911–1996), who married Enrico Eugenio Marone-Cinzano, 1st Conte Marone-Cinzano.
• Infante Juan Carlos Teresa Silvestre Alfonso of Spain (1913–1993), named heir to the throne and Count of Barcelona, whose son is the current King, Juan Carlos I of Spain.
• Infante Gonzalo Manuel Maria Bernardo Narciso Alfonso Mauricio of Spain (1914–1934), a hemophiliac, like his elder brother Alfonso. He died due to bleeding from injuries suffered in a car crash.

Illegitimate issue

The King also had four illegitimate children:

By French aristocrat Mélanie de Gaufridy de Dortan (1876 - 1937), he had Roger Marie Vincent Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin (12 September 1905 - 20 July 1980)

By Spanish actress María del Carmen Ruíz y Moragas (1898 - 1936):

• Ana María Teresa Ruíz y Moragas (9 October 1925 - 6 September 1965)
• Leandro Alfonso Luis Ruíz y Moragas (born 26 April 1929), officially recognized by Spanish Courts on 21 May 2003 as Leandro Alfonso Luis de Borbón y Ruíz Moragas

By Béatrice Noon he had Juana Alfonsa Milán y Quiñones de León (19 April 1916 - 16 May 2005)

Honours

• 1,072nd Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain in 1886^[7]
• Maestranza de Caballeria (Royal Cavalry Armory) de Ronda, Sevilla, Granada, Valencia y Zaragoza
• Order of Charles III^[8]
• Order of Santiago^[9]
• Order of Calatrava^[10]
• Order of Alcántara^[11]
• Order of Montesa^[12]
• 315th Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword in 1900
• 815th Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1902
• Order of the Chrysanthemum, 1930: Emperor Showa's second brother, Prince Takamatsu, traveled to Madrid to confer the Great Collar of the Chrysanthemum on King Alfonso. This honor was intended, in part, to commemorate the diplomatic and trading history which existed long before other Western nations were officially aware of Japan's existence. Prince Takamatsu traveled with his wife, Princess Takamatsu, to Spain. Her symbolic role in this unique mission to the Spanish Court was intended to emphasize the international links which were forged by her 16th-century ancestor, Ieyasu Tokugawa. In the years before the Tokugawa shogunate, that innovative daimyo from Western Japan had been actively involved in negotiating trade and diplomatic treaties with Spain and with the colonies of New Spain (Mexico) and the Philippines; and it was anticipated that the mere presence of the Princess could serve to underscore the range of possibilities which could be inferred from that little-known history.^[13]

Media

Alfonso XIII appears as "King Buby" in Luis Coloma's story of Ratoncito Pérez (1894), which was written for the King when he was 8 years old. The story of Ratoncito Pérez has been adapted into further literary works and movies since then, with the character of Alfonso XIII appearing in some. Alfonso XIII is also mentioned on the plaque to Ratoncito Pérez on the second floor of "la calle del Arenal".

Ancestry

References

Bibliography

• Barry, John M. (2004). The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Greatest Plague in History. Viking Penguin. ISBN 0-670-89473-7. 

• Churchill, Winston. Great Contemporaries. London: T. Butterworth, 1937. Contains the most famous single account of Alfonso in the English language. The author, writing shortly after the Spanish Civil War began, retained considerable fondness for the ex-sovereign.

• Collier, William Miller. At the Court of His Catholic Majesty. Chicago: McClurg, 1912. The author was American ambassador to Spain from 1905 to 1909.

• Noel, Gerard. Ena: Spain's English Queen. London: Constable, 1985. Considerably more candid than Petrie about Alfonso the private man, and about the miseries the royal family experienced because of their hemophiliac children.

• Nutail, Zelia. (1906). The Earliest Historical Relations Between Mexico and Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press....Link to digitized version from the collection of Harvard University

• Petrie, Charles. King Alfonso XIII and His Age. London: Chapman & Hall, 1963. Written as it was during Queen Ena's lifetime, this book necessarily omits the King's extramarital affairs; but it remains a useful biography, not least because the author knew Alfonso quite well, interviewed him at considerable length, and relates him to the Spanish culture of his time.

• Pilapil, Vicente R. Alfonso XIII. Twayne's rulers and statesmen of the world series 12. New York: Twayne, 1969.

• Sencourt, Robert. King Alfonso: A Biography. London: Faber, 1942.

External links

• Royal House of Spain
• Princely House of Battenberg
• Historiaantiqua. Alfonso XIII; (Spanish) (2008)