Alfonso XII, King of Spain

ALFONSO XII, King of Spain. - Son of Queen Isabella II and of the king "consort" Francis Alfonso of Bourbon; b. in 1857, d. at the Prado on 25 Nov. 1885. When his mother was deposed by the revolution of Sept. 1868, A. had to follow her to France; but, as Isabella saw the insuperable difficulty of recovering the throne, two years later she abdicated in favor of her thirteen-year-old son. Since, however, the opposition to the Bourbon dynasty was so great among the liberal parties of the nation, it was preferred in 1871 to call Prince Amedeo of Savoy, who took the name Amedeo I. The latter, being unable to restore concord in the country, after two years laid down the crown, and so in 1873 the republic was proclaimed. Once this had fallen into discredit, it was easy for General Martinez Campos, in Dec. 1874, by a coup d'état, to restore the ancient monarchy, and A. on 9 Jan. 1875 was able to regain the throne. The new king contracted marriage in 1878 with his cousin Mercedes of Orléans and, when she died a few months later, married in 1879 the Archduchess of Austria Maria Christina, by whom he had two daughters and one son: King Alfonso XIII. When the Carlist civil war in the north of the peninsula ended in 1876, thanks to the constitution of that year and to the alternating domination of the liberal and conservative parties, there was a period of relative peace. The rebellion of the island of Cuba in 1878 and 1880 was suppressed, while abroad the grave conflict over the Carolines was resolved, through the agreement between Spain and Germany, brought about by Pope Leo XIII.