Background
Alfonso was born in Madrid on May 17, 1886, 6 months after the death of his father, King Alfonso XII. His mother, Maria Cristina of Hapsburg, served as regent during Alfonso's minority.
Alfonso XIII, the King of Spain. The posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, was proclaimed King at his birth. He reigned from 1886 to 1931. His mother, Queen Maria Christina, was appointed regent during his minority. In 1902, on attaining his 16th year, the King assumed control of the state. (Photo by Culture Club)
1910
Alfonso XIII (1886-1941), king of Spain from 1886 to 1931, wearing a ceremonial uniform and carrying a plumed hat. (Photo by Hulton Archive)
1912
King Alfonso XIII of Spain (1886-1941), mounted and ready for polo. (Photo by Topical Press Agency)
Portrait of Alfonso XIII, King of Spain, wearing business attire. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection)
Portrait of King Alfonso XIII of Spain (1886-1941, reigned 1886-1930). (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection)
Alfonso XIII, the King of Spain. The posthumous son of Alfonso XII of Spain, was proclaimed King at his birth. He reigned from 1886 to 1931. His mother, Queen Maria Christina, was appointed regent during his minority. In 1902, on attaining his 16th year, the King assumed control of the state. (Photo by Culture Club)
Alfonso XIII (Photo by API/Gamma-Rapho)
Alfonso was born in Madrid on May 17, 1886, 6 months after the death of his father, King Alfonso XII. His mother, Maria Cristina of Hapsburg, served as regent during Alfonso's minority.
Alfonso's mother was very anxious to build up his physical strength, and he was encouraged to spend much time swimming, sailing, and riding. This Spartan open-air regime gradually changed the delicate child into a strong and energetic young man. His education was carefully supervised, and not for generations had a Spanish sovereign received as thorough an education. He was very fond of history and became an excellent linguist, but his chief joy was military instruction. The love of soldiering evident in his early boyhood was something he never outgrew.
On May 17, 1902, at the age of 16, Alfonso was crowned king of Spain. These were troubled times for his country. In 1898 Spain had suffered a humiliating defeat in the Spanish-American War and had lost Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines to the United States. The Catalan and Basque peoples in Spain were demanding autonomy, and in the cities, socialist and anarchist labor groups were becoming increasingly violent. Political life was very unstable, and between 1902 and 1906 the young Alfonso had to deal with 14 ministerial crises and 8 different prime ministers.
In May 1921 Alfonso delivered a speech denouncing the parliamentary system in Spain, and in July a Spanish force of 10,000 men was annihilated by rebellious tribes in Spanish Morocco. The army and the monarchy came under increasing criticism. The situation became so critical that in September 1923 General Miguel Primo de Rivera took over the government and set up a military dictatorship. Alfonso supported the dictator, and during a visit to Italy he introduced Primo as "my Mussolini."
In early 1930 the dictatorship came to an end; it had become so unpopular that even the army refused to support it. Alfonso's association with the dictatorship had disgraced him and the monarchy, and in the municipal elections of April 1931, the republicans won in Spain's main urban centers. Rather than risk civil war, Alfonso left the country. After traveling to Austria, Switzerland, England, and Egypt, he finally settled in Rome.
In 1931 Spain became a republic. The republicans, however, proved unable to bring political stability and social order to the country. In July 1936 the army rebelled, and the Spanish Civil War began. The war lasted until 1939 and was followed by the long dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.
Alfonso XIII was a Roman Catholic.
Alfonso XIII tended to present himself as a pacifist and humanitarian king. After helping a French washerwoman find her husband, who was missing in action, in 1914, thousands of letters were sent asking for the Spanish king’s intervention in personal affairs. An office dealing with prisoners-of-war and missing personnel was established at the Royal Palace in Madrid. Forty members of the royal staff, as well as volunteers, worked together with Spanish diplomats all around Europe for prisoners’ relief. This office, in coordination with the Red Cross, consisted of several sections: missing-in-action soldiers; communications with occupied territories; war prisoners; repatriation of injured soldiers and civilians; internments in Switzerland; commutations; funding assistance for isolated people; and inspections carried out by Spanish delegates in Berlin, Vienna, and Rome. The office provided relief to more than 200,000 prisoners-of-war and evacuated nearly 70,000 civilians from unsafe zones. Official Alfonso XIII biographies argue that several blunders committed by the king during his reign were offset by his humanitarian work during the First World War; this was also a point made by the royalist propaganda in the Second Spanish Republic.
Alfonso XIII was an avid promoter of tourism. He ordered the construction of Madrid's luxurious Hotel Palace for his wedding guests.
Alfonso's fondness for football led him to support several "Royal" football clubs, including Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña, Real Madrid, Real Unión, and Real Zaragoza.
During a visit to the United Kingdom in 1905, Alfonso XIII of Spain stayed at Buckingham Palace where he met the granddaughter of Queen Victoria and niece of King Edward VII, Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. Victoria Eugenie was a Protestant.
The two developed feelings for each other and decided to marry. After converting to Catholicism in March 1906, Victoria married Alfonso in May at the Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo, Madrid, in the presence of guests, including her cousins King George V and Queen Mary.
Their wedding was marked by an assassination plot on the king and his wife by Catalan anarchist Mateu Morral who threw a bomb at the gathering, eventually killing and injuring many. The king and his wife were able to escape.
On May 10, 1907, their first child, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, was born. He had inherited hemophilia from his mother.
Victoria later gave birth to more children, including Jaime, Beatriz, María, Juan, and Gonzalo. As their son Gonzalo also suffered from hemophilia, Alfonso distanced himself from Victoria later on.