Alfonso XIII of Spain

Alfonso XIII. (Spanish Alfonso XIII, born May 17, 1886 in Madrid, † February 28, 1941 in Rome) was from 1886 / 1902 to 1931 King of Spain.

Life

It was on May 17, 1886 in Madrid, the son of the late already on November 25, 1885 Alfonso XII. born of Austria of Spain and his second wife, Maria Christina and was de jure from the moment of his birth to King. By 1902, however, led his mother as regent, the official business.

His reign coincided with the era of political restoration in Spain. In this period, all significant forces were trying to solve the existing political and growing social contrasts in Spanish society, but without success. The king did not know how to implement the necessary reform in his wide-ranging constitutional rights. The marked by corruption and reform gridlock political system of Spain fell apart eventually in 1923 after the defeat of the Spanish army against Moroccan insurgents at Annual. Spain was a military dictatorship, in which the king stood in the shadow of the military dictator under General Miguel Primo de Rivera de facto. This attempt to consolidate the ailing Spanish state failed, and the local elections on 12 April 1931 as the first elections after 1923 rendered in the big cities a clear victory for the Republicans. Two days later, the Republic was proclaimed in Madrid, Alfonso went on the same day without formal abdication into exile, first to Paris and later to Rome. Only shortly before his death, on 15 January 1941 he resigned in favor of his son, Juan de Borbon y Battenberg on his claim to the throne.

Alfonso XIII. was buried in the Roman church of Santa Maria di Monserrato. In 1980 his remains were transferred to the royal crypt of the Monasterio de El Escorial.

Marriage and issue

From closed on 31 May 1906 marriage to Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, daughter of Prince Henry Maurice of Battenberg, Governor and Captain of the Isle of Wight, and his wife Princess Beatrice of Great Britain and Ireland, were born six children. The marriage was very unhappy, as Alfonso and his wife could not forgive that she was to be a carrier ( Konduktorin ) of hemophilia ( hemophilia) and this disease to two of her sons (Alfons Pius and Gonzalo Manuel ) transferred. From this marriage the following children were born:

  • Alfons Pius (1907-1938), Count of Covadonga
  • Jaime (1908-1975), Duke of Segovia and French pretender to the throne as Jacques II
  • Beatrix Isabel (1909-2002) ∞ 1935 Alessandro Torlonia, Prince of Civitella - Cessi
  • Maria Christina (1911-1996) ∞ 1940 Enrique Graf Marone
  • Juan Carlos (1913-1993), Count of Barcelona ∞ 1935 Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon- Sicily
  • Gonzalo Manuel (1914-1934)

Stamp with a portrait of Alfonso XIII.

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