Alfonso XIII, King of Spain

ALFONSO XIII, king of SPAIN. — Posthumous son of the preceding, b. 17 May 1886, d. 28 February 1941. Under the care of his mother Maria Cristina, he received a sound religious and literary education. During the regency, one had to deplore the war in Cuba, which began in 1895 and was followed by the revolt of the Philippine Islands, which fatally led to the armed intervention of the United States of America on behalf of the insurgents. After a useless shedding of blood and futile heroism, peace was concluded at Paris in 1898, by which Spain ceded to the American Republic the islands of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the entire Philippine archipelago. The war in Morocco was likewise resumed and won. The king was sixteen years old when, in 1902, he was declared of age and head of state. In the journeys he subsequently undertook, he won widespread sympathy and strengthened his throne, especially after he married, in 1906, Princess Ena Vittoria of Battenberg, granddaughter of King Edward VII of England, who, shortly before being crowned queen of Spain, had converted to Catholicism. But subversive forces and secret societies had conceived an implacable hatred of the young monarch. The first anarchist attempt against the king’s person took place in Paris on 31 May 1905; on the same date the following year, during the wedding procession itself, a bomb endangered the royal couple; on other occasions as well, attempts were made, always unsuccessfully, on the monarch’s life. On the other hand, the instability of the governing parties, especially after the assassination of Canovas and the death of Sagasta, prevented the implementation of excellent projects, against which advantage was taken of the severe repression of the revolutionary disturbances in Barcelona (1900) and the consequent execution of Francesco Ferrer. Among the religious acts during the reign of A., the International Eucharistic Congress of Madrid (1911) stands out, in which he took part despite the temporary coolness in relations with the Holy See on account of the government of Canalejas (assassinated shortly afterward), and above all the solemn consecration of Spain to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, carried out at the “Cerro de Los Angeles” by A. in May 1919. Among international political events, mention must be made of the Conference of Algesiras of 1906, concerning the question of Morocco, and the various treaties with France regarding the two zones of that region. The uprising of the Rif tribes under the leadership of Abd-el-Krim in 1921, the revolutionary disturbances, and the prevailing indiscipline induced General M. Primo de Rivera in 1923 to carry out a coup d’état, which established a dictatorship and seemed to bring the nation a revival of order and prosperity. During this period, King Alfonso’s and Queen Vittoria’s visit to Pope Pius XI (November 1923) and the universal exhibitions of Barcelona and Seville (1928; 1929) deserve mention. Nevertheless, after the disaster in Morocco in 1921, A.’s popularity declined. After Primo de Rivera’s dictatorship fell, in January 1930, the elections of 12 April 1931 for the renewal of the municipal councillors produced a strong anti-monarchical majority. This alone sufficed for A. to be immediately ordered to leave the country; he left Madrid on the 14th of the same month, while the Second Republic was proclaimed. The dethroned monarch first lived in Paris and finally in Rome, where all his children had married, and where he died on 28 February 1941.