Alfonso XIII of Spain

Alfonso XIII King of Spain

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.

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 Pío Cristino Eduardo, 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 (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 Beatriz Isabel Federica Alfonsa Eugenia (1909-2002), who married Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince di Civitella-Cesi.
* Infante Fernando, stillborn (1910)
* Infanta Maria Cristina Teresa Alejandra (1911-1996), who married Enrico Eugenio Marone-Cinzano, 1st Conte di Marone.
* Infante Juan Carlos Teresa Silvestre Alfonso (1913-1993), named heir to the throne and Count of Barcelona, whose son is current king Juan Carlos I of Spain.
* Infante Gonzalo Manuel María Bernardo (1914-1934), a hemophiliac.

Alfonso XIII sculpted by Jose Navas-Parejo

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:
** Ana María Teresa Ruíz Moragas (born in 1926, died 19??). Married and had issue.
** Leandro Alfonso Ruíz Moragas (born in 1929), officially recognized by Spanish courts on May 21 2003 as Leandro Alfonso de Borbón Ruíz, son of the King, Infante of Spain. Has married twice and has issue.

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.

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. 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.

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.)