Alfonso XIII
King of Spain from 1886 to 1931 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Alfonso XIII[lower-alpha 1] (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 became a monarch at 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 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Formal portrait, 1916 | |||||
| King of Spain (more...) | |||||
| Reign | 17 May 1886 – 14 April 1931 (1886-05-17 – 1931-04-14) | ||||
| Enthronement | 17 May 1902 | ||||
| Predecessor | Alfonso XII | ||||
| Successor | Juan Carlos I | ||||
| Regent | Maria Christina (1886–1902) | ||||
| Born | (1886-05-17)17 May 1886 Royal Palace of Madrid, Madrid, Kingdom of Spain | ||||
| Died | 28 February 1941(1941-02-28) (aged 54) Rome, Kingdom of Italy | ||||
| Burial | |||||
| Spouse | |||||
| Issue more... | |||||
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| House | Bourbon | ||||
| Father | Alfonso XII of Spain | ||||
| Mother | Maria Christina of Austria | ||||
| Religion | Catholicism | ||||
| Signature | .svg){kind=small} | ||||
Alfonso XIII's upbringing and public image were closely linked to the military estate; he often presented himself as a soldier-king.[1] His effective reign started four years after the so-called 1898 Disaster, when various social factions projected their expectations of national regeneration upon him.[2] Like other European monarchs of his time he played a political role, entailing a controversial use of his constitutional executive powers.[3] His wedding to Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg in 1906 was marred by an attempt at regicide; he was unharmed.
With public opinion divided over World War I, and moreover a split between pro-German and pro-Entente sympathizers, Alfonso XIII used his relations with other European royal families to help preserve a stance of neutrality, as espoused by his government.[4][5]
However, several factors weakened the monarch's constitutional legitimacy: the rupture of the turno system, the deepening of the Restoration system crisis in the 1910s, a trio of crises in 1917, the spiral of violence in Morocco[6] and, especially, the lead-up to the 1923 installment of the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, an event that succeeded by means of both military coup d'état and the king's acquiescence.[7]
Upon the political failure of the dictatorship, Alfonso XIII removed support from Primo de Rivera (who was thereby forced to resign in 1930) and favoured (during the so-called dictablanda) a return to the pre-1923 state of affairs. Nevertheless, he had lost most of his political capital along the way. He left Spain voluntarily after the municipal elections of April 1931 – which was understood as a plebiscite on maintaining the monarchy or declaring a republic – the result of which led to the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic on 14 April 1931.
His efforts with the European War Office during World War I[8] earned him a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, which was ultimately won by the Red Cross.[9] To date, he remains the only monarch known to have been nominated for a Nobel Prize.[10][11]