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Spanish-Philippines King
Alfonso XIII 1890 -
1898 Nigel Gooding Collection
King
Alfonso XIII King Alfonso XIII was the son of
King Alfonso XII and his second wife, Maria Christina of Austria, who he
married on 29 November Although Alfonso was proclaimed
King Alfonso XIII of Spain upon his birth, his mother continued as his regent
until his sixteenth birthday in 1902. 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. When he came of age in May 1902,
the week of his majority was marked by festivities, bullfights, balls and
receptions throughout Spain. He took his oath to the constitution before members of the
Cortes on May 17, 1902. By 1905, Alfonso was looking for
a suitable consort. On a state visit to the United Kingdom, he stayed 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. Alfonso and Victoria were married at the
Royal Monastery of San Jeronimo in Madrid on May 31, 1906, with British
royalty in attendance, including Victoria's cousins the Prince and Princess
of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary). Alfonso and Victoria had six
children (four sons and two daughters). However, Victoria was a haemophilia
carrier and two of her sons inherited the condition. Alfonso distanced
himself from his Queen for transmitting the condition to their sons. From
1914 onwards, he had several mistresses, and fathered five illegitimate
children to add to one born before his marriage. During World War I, because of
his family connections with both sides and the division of popular opinion,
Spain remained neutral. 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 prisoners of war by
transmitting and receiving letters for them, and other services. 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'.
After the disaster of the Battle
of 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. In August 1923, Spanish soldiers
embarking for Morocco mutinied, other soldiers in Malaga 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.
With the Africanists comprising only a minority, it was clear that it was
only a matter of time before the abandonistas would have forced the Spanish to give up on the Rif.
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. On 28 January 1930, amid economic problems,
general unpopularity and an impending plot to overthrow the government led by
General Manuel Goded (of which Alfonso XIII was most probably aware), Miguel
Primo de Rivera was forced to resign, exiling to Paris (only to die a weeks
later of the complication of a diagnosed diabetes in combination with the
effects of a flu). Alfonso XIII appointed General Damaso Berenguer as new
Prime Minister. The King had so closely associated with the Primo de Rivera dictatorship that
it was difficult for him to distance himself from the regime he had supported
for almost seven years. The enforced changes relied on the incorrect
assumption that Spaniards were going to accept nothing has happened after
1923 and that going back to the prior state of things was possible. In April 1931, General Jose Sanjurjo
told Alfonso that even the army was not loyal. On April 12, 1931, the
Republican Parties won a landslide victory in the municipal elections. This
resulted in the deposition of Alfonso, who left the country on April 14, 1931
as the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. Alfonso did not formally
abdicate and eventually settled in Rome. By a law of November 26, 1931,
Alfonso was accused by the Cortes of high treason. This law would later be
repealed by a new law dated December 15, 1938, signed by Francisco Franco. In
1933, Alfonso's two eldest sons, Alfonso and Jaime, renounced
their claims to the defunct throne, and in 1934 his youngest son Gonzalo
died. This left his third son Juan, Count of Barcelona his only male heir. When the Army rose up against
the democratically elected Republican Government 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. Nevertheless,
Alfonso sent his son Juan to Spain in 1936, to participate in the uprising.
However, General Mola had Juan arrested near the French border and expelled
from the country. Francisco Franco Bahamonde (December 4, 1892 -
November 20, 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who ruled over Spain
from 1939 until his death in 1975. During his rule Franco assumed the title
Caudillo (Dictator). This period in Spanish history, from the Nationalist
victory in the Spanish Civil War to Franco's death, is commonly known as
Francoist Spain or the Francoist dictatorship. On January 15, 1941, Alfonso
XIII abdicated his rights to the Spanish throne in favour of his son Juan and
died shortly later in Rome on February 28, 1941. In Spain, Francisco Franco
ordered three days of national mourning. 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. In
January 1980 his remains were transferred to El Escorial in Spain. In 1947, Spain's status as a
monarchy was affirmed and a law was passed allowing Francisco Franco to
choose his successor. The logical choice would have been Juan, the son of
King Alfonso XIII and remaining heir to the throne. However, Juan was seen by
Franco to be too liberal and in 1969 was bypassed in favour of Juan's son, Juan Carlos, as Franco's successor as head of state. Juan Carlos
spent his early years in Italy and came to Spain in 1947 to continue his
studies. After completing his secondary education in 1955, he began his
military training and entered the General Military Academy at Zaragoza.
Later, he attended the Naval Military School, the General Academy of the Air,
and finished his tertiary education at the University of Madrid. In 1962,
Juan Carlos married Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark in Athens. The
couple had two daughters and a son together: Elena, Cristina, and Felipe. Due
to Franco's declining health, Juan Carlos first began periodically acting as
Spain's head of state in the summer of 1974. Franco died in November the
following year and Juan Carlos became king on November 22, 1975, two days
after Franco's death, the first reigning monarch since 1931; although Juan,
his exiled father, did not formally renounce his claims to the throne in
favour of his son until 1977. After 44 years the Bourbon monarchy was
re-established in Spain by King Juan Carlos, the grandson of King Alfonso
XIII. |
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