Alfonso XIII
King of Spain
Alfonso XIII(Spanish: Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena; French: Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon; 17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also known as El Africano or the African due to his Africanist views, was King of Spain from his birth until 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He was a monarch from birth as his father, Alfonso XII, had died the previous year. Alfonso's mother, Maria Christina of Austria, served as regent until he assumed full powers on his sixteenth birthday in 1902. Alfonso XIII's upbringing and public image were closely linked to the military estate, often presenting himself as a soldier-king. His effective reign started four years after the so-called 1898 Disaster, with various social factions projecting their expectations of national regeneration upon him. Similarly to other European monarchs of his time, he played an important political role, entailing a highly controversial use of his constitutional executive powers. Alfonso XIII was born at the Royal Palace of Madrid on 17 May 1886. He was the posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, who had died in November 1885, and became king upon his birth. Just after he was born, he was carried naked to the prime minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta on a silver tray. Five days later, he was carried in a solemn court procession with a Golden Fleece around his neck and was baptised with water specially brought from the
River Jordan in Palestine. 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 sixteenth 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. Alfonso became seriously ill during the 1889–1890 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 Alfonso 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. Alfonso 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 Santamaría de Paredes, and moral precepts from an integrist, José Fernández de la Montaña.
The Spanish Army has existed continuously since the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (late 15th century). The oldest and largest of the three services, its mission was the defense of Peninsular Spain, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Melilla, Ceuta and the Spanish islands and rocks off the northern coast of Africa. Spain faced a sequence of challenges across her colonies in the second half of the XIX century that would result in a total defeat of empire at the hands of the growing power of the United States. Spain's colony of Cuba rebelled in 1868, leading to a sequence of brutal guerrilla insurgencies and retaliations, through the Ten Years' War (1868–1878), the Little War (1879–1880) and finally the Cuban War of Independence (1895–1898). Spain, although militarily occupied with the Carlist troubles at home, put increasing resources into the conflict, slowly taking the upper hand, and assisted by American sales of modern weaponry. By 1898, however, increasing U.S. political interests in Cuba were encouraging a more interventionist policy. The sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbour provided the trigger for the Spanish–American War, in which Spain's aging navy fared disastrously. Cuba gained its independence and Spain lost its remaining New World colony, Puerto Rico, which together with Guam and the Philippines it ceded to the United States for 20 million dollars. In 1899, Spain sold its remaining Pacific islands – the Northern Mariana
Islands, Caroline Islands and Palau – to Germany, reducing Spain's colonial possessions to Spanish Morocco, the Spanish Sahara and Spanish Guinea, all in Africa. Despite successes in the late 19th century, the first Rif War (1893–94) around Melilla had also shown the potential weakness of the Spanish position along the coast. Spain faced a series of internal dynastic conflicts, collectively known as the Carlist Wars (1833–1876), during the 19th century; these conflicts led the Spanish state to undergo a series of reforms directed at its military, administrative, and social structures. As consequence of the Carlist Wars, and the weakness of the central structures of government under the Spanish monarchy, many generals with political ambitions staged coup d'états, known as pronunciamientos, which continued to occur until Bourbon Restoration in Spain under King Alfonso XII. These military interventions against the civil government eventually shaped a permissive cultural and political mentality, with a tacit expectation in Spain of "special emergency interventions" from the military that would pervade well into the first third of the 20th century.
The House of Bourbon is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France and is a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century, and by the 18th century, members of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma. Today Spain and Luxembourg have monarchs of the House of Bourbon. The royal Bourbons originated in 1272, when Robert, the youngest son of King Louis IX of France, married the heiress of the lordship of Bourbon. The house continued for three centuries as a cadet branch, serving as nobles under the direct Capetian and Valois kings. In 1700, at the death of King Charles II of Spain, the Spanish Habsburgs became extinct in the male line. Under the will of the childless Charles II, the second grandson of King Louis XIV of France was named as his successor, to preclude the union of the thrones of France and Spain. The prince, then Duke of Anjou, became Philip V of Spain. Permanent separation of the French and Spanish thrones was secured when France and Spain ratified Philip's renunciation, for himself and his descendants, of the French throne in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, and similar arrangements later kept the Spanish throne separate from those of Naples, Sicily and Parma. The Spanish
House of Bourbon (rendered in Spanish as Borbón) has been overthrown and restored several times, reigning 1700–1808, 1813–1868, 1875–1931, and since 1975. Bourbons ruled in Naples from 1734 to 1806 and in Sicily from 1735 to 1816, and in a unified Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1816 to 1861. They also ruled in Parma from 1731 to 1735, 1748–1802 and 1847–1859, the Kingdom of Etruria 1802–1807 and Duchy of Lucca 1814–1847.
The king is dressed in the uniform of Captain General. He wears the collar and sash of the Royal and Much Distinguished Order of Charles III, as well as the collar of the Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece. On the king’s chest there are stars of the highest Spanish orders: the Order of Charles III, Order of Isabella the Catholic and the Spanish military orders: Order of Santiago, Order of Calatrava, Order of Alcántara and Order of Montesa.
