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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 behaviour and increasingly ignorant stance towards the Spanish democratic constitution even threatens the position of the monarchy as a whole in the country; after three Carlist Wars, multiple abdications, coups and revolutions, the surprising death of Alfonso XII, the loss of most of the once prestigious Spanish Colonial Empire and decades of economic downturn and political uncertainty under the current King, Spain is at a crossroads: Many are sure that with the fall of Alfonso, the fall of the Kingdom as a whole will occur.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Alfonso was born at the Royal Palace in Madrid on 17 May 1886 as the posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, who had died of Tubercolosis 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.
From an early age on, young Alfonso was spoiled by his family and court ladies: For his baptism, water from the River Jordan was imported from the Ottoman Empire and he was carried in a solemn court procession with a Golden Fleece round his neck; The French newspaper Le Figaro described the young king in 1889 as "the happiest and best-loved of all the rulers of the earth".
At only five years old, Alfonso became seriously ill during the 1889–1890 flu pandemic. His health drastically deteriorated and doctors reported his condition as the flu attacked his nervous system leaving the young king in a state of indolence. He eventually recovered, but with harsh aftereffects.
Ascension to the Throne[]
When he came of age in May 1902, the week of his majority was marked by festivities, bullfights, balls and receptions throughout the Kingdom. He took his oath to the constitution before members of the Cortes Generales, the Spanish parliament, on 17 May. He received to a large extent a military education that imbued him with "a Spanish nationalism strengthened by his military vocation".
Alfonso XIII with his eldest sons, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, and Infante Jaime
In 1906, Alfonso married Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, the daughter of Edward's youngest sister Princess Beatrice, and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria. This caused great controversy within his family; His mother had expected him to marry a fellow catholic noblewoman, preferably from Austria-Hungary or Italy. Victoria was willing to change her religion, and Alfonso's mother was eventually persuaded to drop her opposition. 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 a Catalan anarchist; 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. Later, it turned out that Victoria was in fact a haemophilia carrier - and therefore, young Alfonso inherited the condition Neither of the two daughters born to the King and Queen were haemophilia carriers, but another of their sons, Gonzalo (1914–1934), 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 already been born before his marriage.
Further Decline of the Kingdom[]
During the Weltkrieg, Spain remained neutral, as they maintained good relations with Central Powers and Entente alike. To relief victims from both sides of the conflict, Alfonso personally set up the "European War Office", governed directly by the Private Secretary of the King and based in the Royal Palace of Madrid. One of the King's most imperative achievements was to create a compromise between both sides of the conflict, to prevent the further sinking of hospital ships. As consequence of this, Spanish naval observers sailed hospital ships of various countries, in order to ensure that the vessels were being used for their intended purpose, as opposed to military expeditions. The King also collaborated in the creation of a dedicated signal code for hospital ships.
When the American flu hit the European continent in 1918, Alfonso became gravely ill and many feared for his life. He would once again survive his illness, but it would further weaken his physical and mental conditions.
In 1920, an anti-colonial revolt in Spanish Morocco kicked off the lengthy Rif War, which would stretch until 1927 and only could be ended with German assistance. Critics of the monarchy thought the war was an unforgivable loss of money and lives and as a horrendous embarrasment for Spain in front of the other global powers, as the well equipped Spanish Army suffered multiple devastating losses against Moroccan irregulars, most prominently during the Battle of Annual, during which 3000 Moroccan tribesman almost entirely wiped out a Spanish brigade of 20,000 men. Alfonso, who was on holiday at the time, was informed of the "Disaster of the Annual" while he was playing golf. Reportedly, Alfonso's response to the news was to shrug his shoulders and say "Chicken meat is cheap", before resuming his game. Alfonso did not return to Spain to comfort the families of the soldiers lost in the battle, which many people at the time saw as a callous and cold act, a sign that the King was indifferent over the lives of his soldiers.
For his dedictation to continue the pointless war in Africa, Alfonso soon gained the nickname "El Africano" (The African). Alfonso had not acted as a strict constitutional monarch and supported, without consulting the parliament, the so-called Africanists who wanted to conquer a new Spanish Colonial Empire in Africa to compensate for the lost empire in the Americas and Asia. The Rif War had starkly polarized Spanish society between the Africanists who wanted to conquer an empire in Africa vs. the "abandonistas" who were in favour of abandoning Morocco as it was not worth the blood and treasure.
The Puppet King[]
After the "Disaster of the Annual", Spain's war in the Rif went from bad to worse, and as the Spanish were barely hanging onto Morocco, support for the abandonistas grew steadily. Mutineers broke out in Morocco, soldiers in Málaga simply refused to board the ships that were to take them to Morocco and leftists began to burn Spanish flags in Barcelona while mounting the banner of the Rif tribesmen. With the Africanists comprising only a minority, it was clear that it was only a matter of time before the abandonistas would force the Spanish to give up on the Rif; To prevent that, the military would strike in September 1923.
On 13 September 1923, General Miguel Primo de Rivera, a veteran of the Rif War, marched on the capital and seized power in a bloodless military coup. Alfonso reluctantly supported the coup, fearing that in case the abandonistas would come to power, he would be punished for his involvement in the Moroccan war effort.
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