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Alfonso XII Birth
Alfonso XIII was born at Royal Palace of Madrid in Madrid on 17 May 1886. He was the son of Alfonso XII of Spain, who had died in November 1885. Just after he was born, he was carried naked to the Spanish prime minister Práxedes Mateo Sagasta on a silver tray. -
Full age of Alfonso XIII
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. -
Wedding of Alfonso XIII and Victoria
Alfonso and Victoria (United Kingdom) were married at the Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo in Madrid on 31 May 1906, with British royalty.The wedding was marked by an assassination attempt on Alfonso and Victoria by Catalan anarchist Mateu Morral. 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. -
Alfonso becames father
On 10 May 1907, the couple's first child, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, was born. Victoria was in fact a haemophilia carrier, and Alfonso inherited the condition. Neither of the two daughters born to the King and Queen were haemophilia carriers, but another of their sons, Gonzalo(born in 1904), had the condition. Alfonso distanced himself from his wife for transmitting the condition to their sons.He had several mistresses, and had five illegitimate children. -
World War One
During World War I, because of his family connections with both sides and the division of popular opinion, Spain remained neutral.He also established an office in the royal palace for assistance to prisoners of war on all sides. He was also ill because of the Spanish Flu. -
Rif War
Spain entered the Rif War (1920-1926) to preserve its colonial rule over northern Morocco. Alfonso wanted to conquer a new empire in Africa to compensate for the lost empire in America and Asia. There were two sides the Africanists who wanted to conquer an empire in Africa and the abandoners who wanted to leave Morocco because it was not worth it. Alfonso had a favorite general Manuel Fernández Silvestre. -
Annual Disaster
In 1921, Alfonso sent a telegram to Silvestre so that even if there were problems they would continue. Silvestre didnt get back and led his men to the Battle of Annual, one of Spain's worst defeats. Alfonso, who was on vacation in France at the time, was informed of the "Annual Disaster" while he was playing golf. Alfonso remained in France and did not return to Spain to comfort the families of the soldiers death in battle. Spanish didnt like this. -
Consequences of the war
After this, the war in the Rif went from bad to worse, and support for the defectors grew as the war went poorly. In 1923, Spanish soldiers going to Morocco mutinied. Also in Barcelona there were many protests against the war in which Spanish flags were burned. while waving the flag of the Republic of the Rif. The people who supported the war were less and less so early Spain was going to left the war. -
The military coup d'état in 1923
On September 13, 1923, General Miguel Primo de Rivera took the power in a military coup. He ruled as dictator with Alfonso's support until 1930. It is believed that one of Alfonso's main reasons for supporting the coup was because he wanted to suppress the publication of the Cortes report about the Annual disaster. -
Downfall
On January 28, 1930 there were problems and Manuel Goded also attempted a coup, it is said that Alfonso XIII was probably aware of this. Miguel Primo de Rivera had to resign, going into exile in Paris. Alfonso XIII appointed General Dámaso Berenguer as the new Prime Minister, this period is the soft dictatorship. The imposed changes were that the Spanish would accept the notion that nothing had happened after 1923 and that it was possible to return to the previous situation. -
Second Republic
On 12 April, the monarchic parties won a thin majority but lost in major cities in the 1931 municipal elections, which were perceived as a plebiscite on monarchy.Alfonso left the country on the night of April 14-15 when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed that same day to avoid a civil war, but he did not formally abdicate. He finally settled in Rome. Alfonso was accused by the Courts of high treason. -
Succession
In 1933, his two eldest sons, Alfonso and Jaime, renounced their claims to the defunct throne on the same day, and in 1934 his youngest son Gonzalo died. This left his third son Count Juan his only male heir. Juan later had his son crowned as King Juan Carlos I. -
Civil War
The 17th of July of 1936 the Army rose up against the democratically elected Republican government so the war become, Alfonso favoured the Nationalist military rebels against the Republic, but in September 1936 the Nationalist leader, General Francisco Franco, declared that the Nationalists would not restore Alfonso as king.
Although Alfonso sent his son Juan to Spain in 1936 to participate in the war, but he was arrested near the French border and expelled from the country. -
He inherits France and Navarre
On 29 September 1936, because of the death of Infante Alfonso Carlos, Duke of San Jaime, the Carlist pretender, Alfonso also became the senior heir of Hugh Capet and because of this it was called by some French legitimists as King Alphonse I of France and Navarre. -
Renunciation of claims to the defunct throne and death
On 15 January 1941, Alfonso XIII renounced the defunct Spanish throne of Juan. He died of a heart attack in Rome on 28 February that year.