Evening star., 1941-03-01
King Alfonso XIII

Ming AlfOnSo Nil
Americans who were acquainted
with the last King of Spain admired
him. His courage, his liberality, his
courtesy to people of every class and
condition made Alfonso XIII
popular personality with them. Yet
even those who saw him only from
a distance were conscious of his
tragic destiny. If any monarch could
be said to have been born to tribula-
tlon, the man who died in exile at
Rome yesterday was that unlucky
sovereign.
Born on May IT, 1886, and intended
to reign but never to rule, Alfonso
was educated to the role of an in
telligent, graceful but unambitious
head OF a state already declining
toward anarchy. During his boy
hood he was schooled to an amiable
recognition of purely nominal re-
sponSibility. The government actu-
ally was in the hands of an aristo-
cratic clique determined to concede
nothing whatever to militant oppo-
sltion. His announced intention Ito
be modern king and go everywhere
and do everything that other kings
do" brought the unhappy youngster
only another in series of miSfor-
tunes which began with his birth as
the posthumous child of an invalid
father. His mother was regent until
he attained his majority at sixteen.
Meanwhile, Spain lost Cuba, Puerto
Rico and the Philippine Islands in
an unWanted war with the United
States. Domestic conditions became
steadily more and more chaotic.
TerroriSts repeatedly attempted to
aSSasSinate the symbol of the royal
prerogative. When Alfonso was
married to Princess Victoria of Bat
tenberg, granddaughter of the Eng
lish Queen of the same name, a
bomb was thrown at their carriage
as they drove through the streets of
Madrid. Twenty-four bystanders
were killed, eighty were injured. The
bride arrived at the royal palace with
her gown spattered with blood. On
the evening of the same day the
King and his frightened young wife
dared to show themselves to their
beloved subjects" again. They were
permitted to escape unharmed, but
their ordeal was not finished. A
dozen different times intending regi-
cides attempted to kill the heir of
the Bourbons. He told reporters that
he had become accustomed to being
attacked.
Yet the fatalistic attitude which
Alfonso studiously cultivated could
not conceal altogether the pain
through which he passed. His mar
| riage was unfortunate, his sons were
afflicted with an inherited disease,
his ministers involved him in all
manner of unwise procedures, he
was engaged in long and costly
war in Morocco, permitted the de-
basement of the coin of the realm,
put too much faith in military politi-
clans, finally fed his country on
April IA, 1881. The last decade OF
his career was spent wandering over
Europe in quest of recreation. A few
weeks ago he attempted to provide
for his family's retention of the
throne from which he never abdi-
Gated.
Such was Alfonso's fate. He might
have been a distinctive success if he
had been his own master. Since that
was denied him, he departs from the
world scene as a personification of
failure and sorrow. The peasants
who called him "the sympathetic
King" had the wit to guess what he
might have been. He himself knew
the futility of all that he was per-
nitted to be. Hence his death-bed
observation that monarchs are GER
tain to suffer. He spoke from an
abundant experience.