Alfonso XIII

**Alfonso XIII**, also known as **El Africano** or **the African**, is the current King of Spain. He became King upon his birth, as his father Alfonso XII had died very early in 1885, but his mother, Maria Christina of Austria, ruled the country as queen regent from 1885 to 1902.

Despite ruling Spain for almost 50 years, Alfonso is not very popular among his people; Instead, his effete playboy lifestyle, spoiled and vulgar behavior and increasingly ignorant stance towards the Spanish democratic constitution even threatens the position of the monarchy as a whole in the country. Soon everything took a toll as they won WWI and Miguel Primo de Rivera and Francisco Franco led a coup against the Liberal Party and eradicated the Spanish Democratic Constitution and create a glorious resurrection of the Spanish Empire.

## History

### Origin

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 Sagasta 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 Israel. The French newspaper *Le Figaro* described the young king in 1889 as "the happiest and best-loved of all the rulers of the earth". 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. 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. 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". Besides the clique of military tutors, Alfonso also received political teachings from a liberal—Vicente Santa María de Paredes [es]—and moral precepts from an integrist, José Fernández de la Montaña.

### Falling in love with his future Wife

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.

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.

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 (b. 1914), had the condition. Alfonso distanced himself from his wife for transmitting the condition to their sons. From 1914 on, he had several mistresses, and fathered five illegitimate children. A sixth illegitimate child had been born before his marriage.

### World War I

Spain had joined the War on Germany's side as they invaded Southwestern France and the rest of West Sahara Africa. This was not likable to the King and Queen as they distanced themselves from the war, especially the Queen who was British fearing she would have resentment from her own family and the French who are "Natural Bullies and pesky turds to the English for thousands of years." However she later on went to be against her family and homeland after she saw the horrible racist behavior and brutality of their colonial rule in Africa.

The British invasion took a toll on her and Maud of Norway as they (other than Edward, Prince of Wales who retreated to Canada with Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom who married Philippe Pétain) are the last remaining members of the British Royal Family to live after the mass purge against the Royal Family. The war even saw the vast destruction of her homeland's vast Empire and the creation of the New German, Spanish, Italian, American, Japanese and Indo-Persian Empires.

The war also was a glorious venture for Alphonso for he had restored his French cousins as puppets and gained the Virgin Islands with French West Africa territory with Nigeria, Ghana and Serria Leone.

## Marriages

Alfonso and his wife Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (Ena) had seven children:

1. Alfonso, Prince of Asturias (b. 1907), married Edelmira Sampedro y Robato.
2. Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia (b. 1908), married Emmanuelle de Dampierre
3. Infanta Beatriz (b. 1909)
4. Infante Fernando (stillborn);
5. Infanta María Cristina (b. 1911)
6. Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona (b. 1913)
7. Infante Gonzalo (b. 1914)

Alfonso also had a number of reported illegitimate children that are known, including: Roger Marie Vincent Philippe Lévêque de Vilmorin [es] (1905–1980; by French aristocrat Mélanie de Gaufridy de Dortan, married to Philippe de Vilmorin); Juana Alfonsa Milán y Quiñones de León (1916–2005; by Alfonso's *governess* Béatrice Noon); Anna María Teresa Ruiz y Moragas (1925–1965) and Leandro Alfonso Luis Ruiz y Moragas [es] (1929–2016; both last two by Spanish actress Carmen Ruiz Moragas); and Carmen Gravina (by Carmen de Navascués).