Alfonso XIII

Alfonso XIII as a cadet; by Manuel García Hispaleto

Alfonso was born at Royal Palace of Madrid in Madrid on 17 May 1886. He was the posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, who had died in November 1885, and became King of Spain upon his birth. Just after he was born, he was carried naked to the Spanish prime minister Práxedes Mateo on a silver tray.

Five days later he was carried in a solemn court procession with a Golden Fleece round his neck and was baptized with water specially brought from the River Jordan in Palestine.[1] The French newspaper Le Figaro described the young king in 1889 as "the happiest and best-loved of all the rulers of the earth".[2] His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, served as his regent until his 16th birthday. During the regency, in 1898, Spain lost its colonial rule over Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the United States as a result of the Spanish–American War.

At five years old, Alfonso became seriously ill during the 1889–1890 flu pandemic.[3] His health deteriorated around 10 January 1890 and doctors reported his condition as the flu attacked his nervous system leaving the young king in a state of indolence. He eventually recovered.

When he came of age in May 1902, the week of his majority was marked by festivities, bullfights, balls and receptions throughout Spain.[4] He took his oath to the constitution before members of the Cortes on 17 May.

He received to a large extent a military education that imbued him with "a Spanish nationalism strengthened by his military vocation".[5] Besides the clique of military tutors, Alfonso also received political teachings from a liberal—Vicente Santa María de Paredes—and moral precepts from an integrist, José Fernández de la Montaña.[5]

The nine sovereigns at Windsor for the funeral of King Edward VII, photographed on 20 May 1910. Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of the Bulgarians, King Manuel II of Portugal and the Algarve, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia, King George I of the Hellenes and King Albert I of the Belgians. Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick VIII of Denmark

By 1905, Alfonso was looking for a suitable consort. On a state visit to the United Kingdom, he stayed in London at Buckingham Palace with King Edward VII. There he met Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, the daughter of Edward's youngest sister Princess Beatrice, and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. He found her attractive, and she returned his interest. There were obstacles to the marriage. Victoria was a Protestant, and would have to become a Catholic. Victoria's brother Leopold was a haemophiliac, so there was a 50 percent chance that Victoria was a carrier of the trait. Finally, Alfonso's mother Maria Christina wanted him to marry a member of her family, the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, or some other Catholic princess, as she considered the Battenbergs to be non-dynastic.

Victoria was willing to change her religion, and her being a haemophilia carrier was only a possibility. Maria Christina was eventually persuaded to drop her opposition. In January 1906 she wrote an official letter to Princess Beatrice proposing the match. Victoria met Maria Christina and Alfonso in Biarritz, France, later that month, and converted to Catholicism in San Sebastián in March.

Photograph taken moments after the assassination attempt on Alfonso and Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg on their wedding day

In May, diplomats of both kingdoms officially executed the agreement of marriage. Alfonso and Victoria were married at the Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo in Madrid on 31 May 1906, with British royalty in attendance, including Victoria's cousins the Prince and Princess of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary). The wedding was marked by an assassination attempt on Alfonso and Victoria by Catalan anarchist Mateu Morral. As the wedding procession returned to the palace, he threw a bomb from a window which killed 30 bystanders and members of the procession, while 100 others were wounded.[6]

On 10 May 1907, the couple's first child, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, was born. Victoria was in fact a haemophilia carrier, and Alfonso inherited the condition.

Neither of the two daughters born to the King and Queen were haemophilia carriers, but another of their sons, Gonzalo (1914–1934), had the condition. Alfonso distanced himself from his wife for transmitting the condition to their sons.[7] From 1914 on, he had several mistresses, and fathered five illegitimate children. A sixth illegitimate child had been born before his marriage.

Alfonso XIII visiting Verdun in 1919

During World War I, because of his family connections with both sides and the division of popular opinion, Spain remained neutral.[8] The King established an office for assistance to prisoners of war on all sides. This office used the Spanish diplomatic and military network abroad to intercede for thousands of POWs – transmitting and receiving letters for them, and other services.[9] The office was located in the Royal Palace.

Alfonso became gravely ill during the 1918 flu pandemic. Spain was neutral and thus under no wartime censorship restrictions, so his illness and subsequent recovery were reported to the world, while flu outbreaks in the belligerent countries were concealed. This gave the misleading impression that Spain was the most-affected area and led to the pandemic being dubbed "the Spanish Flu."[10]

Alfonso (left) in 1930 with his dictatorial Prime Minister, Miguel Primo de Rivera

Following World War I, Spain entered the lengthy yet victorious Rif War (1920–1926) to preserve its colonial rule over northern Morocco. Critics of the monarchy thought the war was an unforgivable loss of money and lives, and nicknamed Alfonso el Africano ("the African").[11] Alfonso had not acted as a strict constitutional monarch, and supported the Africanists who wanted to conquer for Spain a new empire in Africa to compensate for the lost empire in the Americas and Asia.[12] The Rif War had starkly polarized Spanish society between the Africanists who wanted to conquer an empire in Africa vs. the abandonistas who wanted to abandon Morocco as not worth the blood and treasure.[13] Alfonso liked to play favourites with his generals, and one of his most favored generals was Manuel Fernández Silvestre.[14] In 1921, when Silvestre advanced up into the Rif mountains of Morocco, Alfonso sent him a telegram whose first line read "Hurrah for real men!", urging Silvestre not to retreat at a time when Silvestre was experiencing major difficulties.[15] Silvestre stayed the course, leading his men into the Battle of Annual, one of Spain's worst defeats. Alfonso, who was on holiday in the south of France at the time, was informed of the "Disaster of the Annual" while he was playing golf. Reportedly, Alfonso's response to the news was to shrug his shoulders and say "Chicken meat is cheap", before resuming his game.[16] Alfonso remained in France and did not return to Spain to comfort the families of the soldiers lost in the battle, which many people at the time saw as a callous and cold act, a sign that the King was indifferent over the lives of his soldiers. In 1922, the Cortes started an investigation into the responsibility for the Annual disaster and soon discovered evidence that the King had been one of the main supporters of Silvestre's advance into the Rif mountains.

Alfonso in uniform of Field marshal of the United Kingdom, 1928

After the "Disaster of the Annual", Spain's war in the Rif went from bad to worse, and as the Spanish were barely hanging onto Morocco, support for the abandonistas grew as many people could see no point to the war.[13] In August 1923, Spanish soldiers embarking for Morocco mutinied, other soldiers in Málaga simply refused to board the ships that were to take them to Morocco, while in Barcelona huge crowds of left-wingers had staged anti-war protests at which Spanish flags were burned while the flag of the Rif Republic was waved about.[13] With the Africanists comprising only a minority, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the abandonistas forced the Spanish to give up on the Rif, which was part of the reason for the military coup d'état later in 1923.[13] On September 13, 1923, General Miguel Primo de Rivera, seized power in a military coup. He ruled as a dictator with Alfonso's support until 1930. It is believed that one of Alfonso's main reasons for supporting the coup was his desire to suppress the publication of the damning Cortes report into the Annual disaster. The poetic Generation of '27 as well as Catalan and Basque nationalism grew in this era.

On 28 January 1930, amid economic problems, general unpopularity and an impending putschist plot led by General Manuel Goded[17] of which Alfonso XIII was most probably aware,[18] Miguel Primo de Rivera was forced to resign, exiling to Paris, only to die a few weeks later of the complications from diabetes in combination with the effects of a flu.[19] Alfonso XIII appointed General Dámaso Berenguer as the new Prime Minister, leading to the period known as the dictablanda. The King was so closely associated with the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera that it was difficult for him to distance himself from the regime that he had supported for almost seven years. The enforced changes relied on the incorrect assumption that Spaniards would accept the notion that nothing had happened after 1923 and that going back to the prior state of things was possible.[20]

In April 1931, General José Sanjurjo told him that even the army was not loyal. On 12 April, the monarchic parties won a thin majority but lost in major cities in the 1931 municipal elections, which were perceived as a plebiscite on monarchy. Alfonso left the country on night of the 14 to 15 April as the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed earlier that day in order to avoid a civil war but did not formally abdicate. He eventually settled in Rome.

By a law of 26 November 1931, Alfonso was accused by the Cortes of high treason.[21] This law would later be repealed by a new law dated 15 December 1938, signed by Francisco Franco.[22]

When the Army rose up against the democratically elected Republican Government [23] and war broke out, Alfonso made it clear he favoured the Nationalist military rebels against the Republic, but in September 1936 the Nationalist leader, General Francisco Franco, declared that the Nationalists would not restore Alfonso as king. (The Nationalist army included many Carlist supporters of a rival pretender.) Although Alfonso sent his son Juan to Spain in 1936 to participate in the uprising, General Emilio Mola had Juan arrested near the French border and expelled from the country.

On 29 September 1936, upon the death of Infante Alfonso Carlos, Duke of San Jaime, the Carlist pretender, Alfonso also became the senior heir of Hugh Capet and so was hailed by some French legitimists as King Alphonse I of France and Navarre.

On 15 January 1941, Alfonso XIII renounced his rights to the defunct Spanish throne in favour of Juan. He died of a heart attack in Rome on 28 February of that year.

In Spain, the caudillo Franco ordered three days of national mourning.[24] His funeral was held in Rome in the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. Alfonso was buried in the Church of Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli, the Spanish national church in Rome, immediately below the tombs of Popes Callixtus III and Alexander VI.[25] In January 1980 his remains were transferred to El Escorial in Spain.[26]

• 1,072nd Knight of the Golden Fleece, 1886[39]
• Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III, with Collar, 1886[40][41]
• Grand Cross of Isabella the Catholic, with Collar, 1927[42]
• Order of Santiago[43]
• Order of Calatrava[44]
• Order of Alcántara[45]
• Order of Montesa[46]
• Maestranza de caballería (Royal Cavalry Armory) de Ronda, Sevilla, Granada, Valencia y Zaragoza

•  Austria-Hungary: Grand Cross of St. Stephen, 1900[47]
•  Belgium: Grand Cordon of the Royal Order of Leopold, 1902[48]
•  Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant, 20 July 1901[49]
•  France: Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, January 1903[50]
•  German Empire: Knight of the Black Eagle[51]
  •  Bavaria: Knight of St. Hubert, 1904[52]
  •  Saxony: Knight of the Rue Crown[51]
  •  Württemberg: Grand Cross of the Württemberg Crown, 1890[53]
•  Kingdom of Italy: Knight of the Annunciation, 20 September 1900[54]
•  Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion[51]
•  Empire of Japan: Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum, 1930 – Emperor Hirohito's second brother, Prince Takamatsu, travelled to Madrid to confer the Great Collar of the Chrysanthemum on King Alfonso. This honour 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 travelled 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 daimyō 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.[55]
• Persian Empire: Order of the Aqdas, 16 May 1902 – The King received the Persian order in a special ceremony during his enthronement festivities.[56]
•  Kingdom of Portugal: 315th Grand Cross of the Tower and Sword, 1900[57]
•  Kingdom of Romania: Grand Cross of the Order of Carol I, with Collar, 1906[58]
•  Russian Empire: Knight of St. Andrew, 1902 – During his enthronement festivities.[51]
• Siam: Knight of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri, 18 October 1897[59]
•  Sweden: Knight of the Seraphim, 16 May 1902 – King Oscar II of Sweden sent his youngest son, Prince Eugen to represent him at the festivities marking the King's enthronement, and he invested the King as a Knight in a special ceremony.[56]
•  United Kingdom:
  • Honorary Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order, 28 July 1897[60]
  • Stranger Knight of the Garter, 16 May 1902 – King Edward VII's brother, the Duke of Connaught attended the festivities marking the King's enthronement, and invested him as a Knight in a special ceremony.[56][61]
  • Royal Victorian Chain, 9 June 1905[62]

In the Royal Library of Madrid, there are books containing different emblems of the Spanish monarch.[63]