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Alfonso XIII (Alfonso León Fernando María
Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Austria-Lorena;
anglicised: Alphonse Leon Ferdinand Mary James Isidor Pascal
Anthony of Bourbon and Austria-Lorraine) (Madrid, 17 May 1886 – Rome, 28 February 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, was
appointed regent during his
minority. In 1902, on attaining his 16th year, the King assumed
control of the state.
Reign
Alfonso's reign began well. 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 Palacio de Oriente,
which leveraged the Spanish diplomatic and military network abroad
to intercede for thousands of prisoners of war, receiving and
answering letters from Europe.
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 Sociedad, Real Madrid,
Real Betis, 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.[3] 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 Calixtus III
and Pope
Alexander VI.[4] In
January 1980 his remains were transferred to El Escorial in Spain.[5]
Marriage
and children
1929 portrait of King Alfonso XIII
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 attempted by the anarchist Mateu Morral;
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 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 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 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, 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 (Dompierre-les-Ormes, 31 August 1876
- Paris, 23 October 1937),
daughter of Roger de Gaufridy de Dortan (1843 - 1905) and wife
Adélaïde de Verdonnet (1853 - 1918), married on 7 July 1900 to
Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin (Verrières-le-Buisson, 21 May 1872
- Verrières-le-Buisson, 29 June
1917), by whom she had two daughters and two sons (Marie Lévêque de
Vilmorin, married to Guy de Toulouse-Lautrec, Comte de
Toulouse-Lautrec and a relative of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,
without issue, Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin (Verrières-le-Buisson, 4 April 1902
– 26 December 1969), married firstly in Paris on 12 March 1925 to Henry Leigh-Hunt (Des Moines,
Polk
County, Iowa, 17 October 1886
- Neuilly, 21 March 1972),
and had issue, and married secondly in Bratislava on 27 January 1938 as his fifth
of eight wives to Pál Gróf Erdödi Pálffy (Vienna, 12 February 1890 - Untergiesing-Harlaching, 11
October 1968), without issue; Olivier Lévêque de Vilmorin, and
André Lévêque de Vilmorin; despite the resemblances of Louise with
Alfonso XIII and even his also illegitimate half-sister Ana María
Teresa, she was never claimed to be his daughter):
- Roger Marie Vincent Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin (Verrières-le-Buisson, 12 September
1905 - Paris, 20 July 1980),
married in Nice on 16 January 1926
to Pauline Roissard de Bellet (Paris, 31 March 1892 - bef. 1945), daughter of
Jean Baron Roissard de Bellet and wife Elizabeth Prodgers, and had
issue, and married secondly in Paris on 12 February 1945 as her second husband
Edith Alice Cecile Lowther (London, 2 August 1906 - ?), daughter of the
1st Baronets Lowther, and had issue:
- Nicolas Lévêque de Vilmorin (b. 21 August 1928), married to
Irène Thenard, without issue
- Jean-Baptiste Lévêque de Vilmorin (b. Paris, 11 January 1930), married firstly and
divorced as her second husband to Geneviève Fontenay (Oran, 21 November 1930 - Saint-Paul, 14 April 1987), already
divorced from her first husband, daughter of Roger Fontenay and
wife Germaine Martin, who married thirdly François Giscard
d'Estaing uncle of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and
later husband of ... Cazin d' Honincthun, without issue, and
married secondly to Monique Latil, without issue
- Elisabeth Lévêque de Vilmorin (b. Paris, 11 January 1930), married to Arnaud Baron
de Lassus, without issue
- Sophie Lévêque de Vilmorin (b. 22 January 1931), married to
Robert Miles-Reincke, without issue
- Claire Lévêque de Vilmorin (b. 20 August 1933), unmarried and
without issue
- Eleonore Lévêque de Vilmorin (b. Neuilly-sur-Seine, 28 February 1947),
married firstly in Verrières-le-Buisson on 12 April
1972 and divorced Guy-Raoul Marie Jacques de Dampierre (b. Saint-Mandé, 5
January 1938), without issue (he later married Ismène de
Saint-Anthost and had a son Matthias de Dampierre, b. 1982), and
married secondly in Paris on 3
May 1980 her first husband's cousin Aymeric de Dampierre (b. Paris, 12 January 1947), without
issue
- Philippa Victoire Lévêque de Vilmorín (b. Boulogne-Billancourt, 11 November
1948), unmarried and without issue
By Spanish
actress
María del Carmen Ruíz y Moragas (1898 - Madrid, 11 June 1936), married in Granada on 18 November 1917 to
Rodolfo Gaona y Jiménez (León de Las
Aldamas, Guanajuato, 22 January 1888 - Mexico City, 20 May
1975), without issue, and daughter of Leandro Antolín Ruíz y
Martínez, born in Almadén, and wife María de las Mercedes Moragas
y Pareja, born in Málaga:
- Ana María Teresa Ruíz y Moragas (Madrid, 9 October 1925 - Florence, 6 September 1965), married in Madrid on 26 October 1957 Arnoldo
Bürgisser y Hufenus (Florence, 9 January 1927 - Florence, 21 December 1993), son of Louis
Bürgisser and wife Agnèse Hufenus, and had issue:
- Leandro Bürgisser (b. Florence, 25 September 1958), married to
Teresa Sancristoforo (b. Genoa,
13 October 1961), and had issue:
- Cristoforo Bürgisser (b. Florence, 29 October 1999)
- Tea Bürgisser (b. Florence, 8 October 2001)
- María del Carmen Bürgisser (b. 1959), unmarried and without
issue
- Leandro Alfonso Luis Ruíz y Moragas (b. Madrid, 26 April 1929), officially recognized by
Spanish Courts on 21 May 2003 as Leandro Alfonso Luis de Borbón y
Ruíz Moragas, married firstly in June 1952 to María del Rosario
Vidal y de Barnola (- 1992), daughter of Eduardo Vidal y ... and
wife ... de Barnola y ..., and had issue, and married secondly in
1982 to María de la Concepción de Mora y ..., daughter of Manuel de
Mora y ... (- Madrid, 1971),
and wife ..., and had issue:
- María Cristina de Borbón y Vidal (b. 1953), married to ...
Tejón y ..., and had issue:
- Juan Tejón y de Borbón (b. 1977)
- Javier Tejón y de Borbón (b. 1981)
- Pilar Tejón y de Borbón (b. 1984)
- Alfonso de Borbón y Vidal (Madrid, 1955 - 2000), married in San Lorenzo de El Escorial
on 6 May 2000 to ..., without issue
- María Blanca de Borbón y Vidal (b. Madrid, 1956), married to Jesús Mateos y
Morillo, and had issue:
- Pablo Mateos y de Borbón (b. 2000)
- Eduardo de Borbón y Vidal (b. 1956), married to ... Garde y
..., and had issue:
- Almudena de Borbón y Garde (b. 1985)
- Eduardo de Borbón y Garde (b. 1992)
- María Luisa de Borbón y Vidal (1957-1959 - 1961)
- María de las Mercedes de Borbón y Vidal (b. Madrid, 1960), married to Luis de Sautú y Acha,
without issue
By Béatrice Noon:
- Juana Alfonsa Milán y Quiñones de León (Paris, 19 April 1916 - Madrid, 16 May 2005), and had issue by an
unknown father, three sons and one daughter:
- ... Milán y Quiñones de León
- ... Milán y Quiñones de León
- Pierre Milán y Quiñones de León
- María de la Soledad Milán y Quiñones de León
Honours
- 1,072nd Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
in Spain in 1886[6]
- Order of Charles III[7]
- Order of
Santiago[8]
- Order
of Calatrava[9]
- Order of Alcántara[10]
- Order of
Montesa[11]
- 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 mere presence of the
Princess could serve to underscore the range of possibilities which
could be inferred from that little-known history.[12]
Ancestors
| Ancestors of
Alfonso XIII of Spain |
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References
- ^ [
"The Happiest Living Monarch,"] New York Times. 14 August
1889.
- ^
"Alfonso's Reign Begins on 17
May; He Will Take the Oath on That Day -- Festivities to Last a
Week," New York Times, 29 March 1902.
- ^
"Mourning in Spain", The Times (3 March 1941): 3.
- ^
"Italians to Mourn Death of
Alfonso," The New York Times. 2 March 1941.
- ^
"21 Guns for Dead King's Homecoming", The Times (21
January 1980): 4.
- ^
Collier, William Miller. (1912). At the Court of His Catholic
Majesty, pp.35-36; Order of the Golden
Fleece.
- ^
Miller, pp. 37-38; Orden de Carlos III (in
Spanish).
- ^
Miller, pp. 39-39; Order of Santiago.
- ^
Miller, pp. 39-39; Order of Calatrava.
- ^
Miller, pp. 39-39; Order of Alcántara.
- ^
Miller, pp. 39-39; Order of Montesa.
- ^
"Japan to Decorate King
Alfonso Today; Emperor's Brother Nears Madrid With Collar of the
Chrysanthemum for Spanish King," New York Times, 3
November 1930; see also Nutail, Zelia. (1906). The
Earliest Historical Relations Between Mexico and Japan, p.
2.
Bibliography
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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Alfonso XIII of Spain |
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