Alfonso XIII of Spain
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Alfonso XIII of Spain (May 17, 1886 – February 28, 1941), King of Spain, posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, was proclaimed King at his birth. He reigned from 1886-1931. His mother, Queen Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority. In 1902, on attaining his 16th year, the King assumed control of the government.
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[edit] Marriage and children
On May 31, 1906 he 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 Queen Ena were returning from the wedding they narrowly escaped the assassination attempted by the anarchist Mateu Morral; instead, the bomb explosion killed or injured many bystanders and members of the royal procession.
The royal couple 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 Sampedro Ocejo y Robato, and became Count of Covadonga. He later remarried to Marta Esther Rocafort y 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 Bievenida 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 di Marone.
- Infante Juan Carlos Teresa Silvestre Alfonso of Spain (1913-1993), named heir to the throne and Count of Barcelona, whose son is current king Juan Carlos I of Spain.
- Infante Gonzalo Manuel Maria Bernardo Narciso Alfonso Mauricio of Spain (1914-1934), a hemophiliac.
The king also had three illegitimate children:
- By French aristocrat Mélanie de Gaufridy de Dortan:
- Roger Leveque de Vilmorin (1905-1980)
- By Spanish actress Carmen Ruíz Moragas:
[edit] Personality
He 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" clubs like Real Sociedad, Real Madrid, Real Betis and Real Unión.
[edit] Reign
During his reign Spain lost its last colonies in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines; lost several wars in north Africa; saw 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, despite his family connections with both sides and the division of popular opinion, Spain remained neutral. The king ran an office for captives from the Palacio de Oriente, that leveraged the Spanish diplomatic and military network abroad to intercede for thousands of prisoners of war, receiving and answering letters from all Europe.
When the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed on April 14 1931, he abandoned the country with no formal abdication, perhaps remembering the fate of the Tsar, whose family had been abandoned by his foreign relatives at the hands of the Bolsheviks. 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 an important part of the Franco army). First he went into exile in France. He sent, however, his son Juan de Borbon, Count of Barcelona to enter Spain in 1936 and participate in the uprising but near the French border, however general Mola arrested him and sent him back. Later he moved to Fascist Italy, and died in Rome in 1941 after leaving his successory rights to his fourth, but second surviving, son Juan de Borbon, Count of Barcelona, the father of the later King Juan Carlos. The count of Barcelona renounced his rights to the throne in 1977, in favor of his son, Juan Carlos.
[edit] Ancestors
| Alfonso XIII of Spain | Father: Alfonso XII of Spain | Paternal Grandfather: Francis I of Spain | Paternal Great-Grandfather: Francisco de Paula, Duke of Cadiz |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Princess Luisa Carlotta of the Two Sicilies | |||
| Paternal Grandmother: Isabella II of Spain | Paternal Great-Grandfather: Ferdinand VII of Spain | ||
| Paternal Great-Grandmother: Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies | |||
| Mother: Maria Christina of Austria | Maternal Grandfather: Archduke Karl Ferdinand | Maternal Great-Grandfather: Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen | |
| Maternal Great-Grandmother: Princess Henriette Alexandrine of Nassau-Weilburg | |||
| Maternal Grandmother: Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria | Maternal Great-grandfather: Archduke Joseph of Austria, Palatine of Hungary | ||
| Maternal Great-Grandmother: Maria Dorothea von Württemberg |
[edit] Further reading
- Sir Winston Churchill: Great Contemporaries (London, 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.)
- Sir Charles Petrie: King Alfonso XIII and His Age (London, 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.)
- Gerard E. Noel: Ena: Spain's English Queen (London, 1985). (Considerably more candid than Petrie about Alfonso the private man, and about the miseries the royal family experienced because of their hemophiliac children.)
- Gabriel Jackson : The Spanish Republic and the Civil War 1931-39. New Jersey Princeton, 1967
| House of Bourbon Born: 17 May 1886; Died: 28 February 1941 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Regnal Titles | ||
| Preceded by: Alfonso XII | King of Spain 1886–1931 with Maria Christina (1886–1902) | Second Republic declared |
| Preceded by: Alfonso XII | Spanish Head of State 17 May, 1886–14 April 1931 | Succeeded by: Niceto Alcalá-Zamora (President of Spain) |
| Titles in pretence | ||
| Second Republic declared | * NOT REIGNING * King of Spain (1931–1941) * Reason for Succession Failure: * Second Republic Spanish Civil War Spanish State | Succeeded by: Juan III |
| Preceded by: Alphonse Charles XII | * NOT REIGNING * King of France Legitimist claimant (1936–1941) | Succeeded by: Jacques Henri VI / Jaime IV |
| * NOT REIGNING * King of Spain Carlist claimant (1936–1941) | ||
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Categories: Spanish monarchs | House of Bourbon | Pretenders to the French throne | British Field Marshals | Knights of the Garter | Knights of the Golden Fleece | Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order | Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav | Recipients of the Royal Victorian Chain | 1886 births | 1941 deaths
