Alfonso XIII of Spain

Alfonso XIII of Spain, known as “the African” (Madrid, May 17, 1886 – Rome, February 28, 1941) was King of Spain from his birth until the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic on April 14, 1931. He personally assumed the Crown when he was sixteen years old, on May 17, 1902.

The unexpected death of King Alfonso XII on November 25, 1885, at the age of 27, caused a crisis that led the Government headed by Práxedes Mateo Sagasta to paralyze the process of succession to the Crown while waiting for the widow to of the king, Maria Cristina de Habsburgo gave birth, because she was pregnant at that time. When the Queen Regent gave birth to a son, Alfonso XIII, on May 17, 1886, he was immediately recognized as king, being a unique case in history.

During his reign, Spain experienced four extremely important problems that would put an end to the liberal monarchy: the lack of true political representation of broad social groups, the terrible situation of the popular classes, especially the peasants, the problems derived from the Rif War and Catalanism. This political and social turbulence that began with the disaster of 1998 prevented the turnista parties from being able to establish a true liberal democracy, which led to the establishment of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, accepted by the monarch. With the political failure of this, the monarch promoted a return to democratic normality with the intention of regenerating the regime. However, he was abandoned by the entire political class, which felt betrayed by the king's support for the Primo de Rivera dictatorship.

He left Spain voluntarily after the municipal elections of April 1931, which were taken as a plebiscite between monarchy or republic. He died in Rome, where he was initially buried; The remains of him were not transferred to the Pantheon of the Kings of the Monastery of El Escorial until 1980.

Biography

Currency of 5 pesetas of 1888 with the effigy of Alfonso XIII, known as "Pelon".

Alfonso XIII and María Cristina la Reina Regente. Picture by Luis Álvarez Catalá of 1898.

Regency of Maria Cristina

The posthumous son of Alfonso XII and María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena, he was born in the Royal Palace of Madrid. On May 22, five days after his birth, he was baptized in the chapel of the same palace, by the major chaplain and Archbishop of Compostela, Cardinal Payá. The names Alfonso León Fernando María Santiago Isidro Pascual Antón were imposed on him, his godparents being Pope Leo XIII and his paternal aunt the Infanta Isabel. His mother served as regency during his minority, between 1885 and 1902. At the end of the Regency and shortly before beginning his reign proper, Spain, after the intervention of the United States in 1898 in the colonial war, lost its last overseas possessions in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Guam in a military defeat known as the '98 disaster.

Already in the 20th century, colonial adventures began again in the northern part of Morocco, which had been adjudicated to Spain in international deals, which would lead to the bleeding of the Rif War.

Constitutional period of effective reign

Portrait of Alfonso XIII (1905), by Julio Romero de Torres.

In 1902, when he turned sixteen, Alfonso XIII was declared of legal age and assumed the constitutional functions of head of state. During his reign he visited all the Spanish provinces and made numerous visits abroad. Among the first countries in which he was received were Germany, the United Kingdom and France. During this visit, Alfonso XIII and the President of the Republic, Émile Loubet, were the object of an attack in the streets of Paris, from which they emerged unharmed.

In this year I will take care of the reins of the state, an act of supreme transcendence as things are, because it depends on me if the Bourbon monarchy or the republic should remain in Spain; for I find the country broken by our past wars, which yearns for a person who takes it out of that situation. The social reform in favor of the needy classes, the army with a backward organisation to modern advances, the navy without ships, the outraged flag, the governors and mayors who do not comply with the laws, etc. Finally, all unorganized and poorly serviced services. I can be a king who fills himself with glory regenerating the homeland, whose name passes to History as an imperishable memory of his reign, but I can also be a king who does not rule, who is governed by his ministers and finally placed on the border. (...) I hope to reign in Spain as a righteous King. I hope at the same time to regenerate the homeland and make it, if not powerful, at least sought, that is, look for it as an ally. If God wants for the good of Spain.

From the newspaper of Alfonso XIII, January 1, 1902.

Graphical document, seconds after the anarchist attack (1906) to King Alfonso XIII on the day of his wedding; 28 people died and more than 100 were wounded, but the kings went unharmed.

Between March 26 and April 5, 1906, he visited the Canary Islands, the first royal visit to this Spanish region.

On 31 May 1906, he married British Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (1887–1969), daughter of Prince Henry of Battenberg and Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom. Victoria Eugenie was a niece of King Edward VII and granddaughter of Queen Victoria I of the United Kingdom. The marriage treaty was signed in duplicate in London on May 7, 1906.

Ena, as she was known, Most Serene Highness by birth, was raised to the rank of Royal Highness a month before her marriage, to prevent the union from being considered unequal or morganatic.

When Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia were returning to the Royal Palace after the wedding, they suffered an attack by means of a bomb hidden in a bouquet of flowers, thrown by the anarchist Mateo Morral at his carriage, in front of number 88 of Calle Mayor in Madrid, from which they emerged unharmed. As a result of the explosion, three officers and five soldiers from the royal entourage died, three more people on the balconies, and more than fourteen people who were watching the procession passed by were injured.

Alfonso XIII speaking with Antonio Maura during the ceremony of the affidavit of the flag on the Paseo de la Castellana (Campúa, 1909).

Spain experienced numerous social riots in its main cities during the first two decades of the XX century. One of the most outstanding took place in 1909 in Barcelona, known as the Tragic Week. One of the factors that triggered it was the discontent of the population with the war in Melilla: in that year the Moroccan conflict had intensified, becoming one of the main national problems. The monarch became involved in the conflict, and came to visit Melilla in 1911; upon his return, the president of the Senate Eugenio Montero Ríos gave him the nickname "el Africano".

In family terms, the situation of Alfonso XIII during the First World War, who asked the different governments to avoid showing affection for one side or the other, was complicated: while the mother of the monarch, María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena, of Austrian origin, was a supporter of the Central Powers side, his wife, Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg, of British origin, was a supporter of the Allied side.

The event that could have been the casus belli occurred in 1917. Submarines from Germany, which had announced “unrestricted” submarine warfare, ravaged the Atlantic trade routes, sinking ships in cold blood. Spanish. Fortunately, Alfonso XIII, who had already been working in the Oficina Pro Cautivos for some time, managed to reach an agreement between the two sides, getting both to respect the ships with the hospital flag.

Between May and July 1918, Alfonso XIII fell ill with an outbreak of influenza that ended up being the biggest pandemic of the 20th century. Due to Spain's neutrality in the war, the Spanish press was not subject to censorship like the press of the belligerent countries and reported the disease more freely. This gave rise to the impression that the flu affected Spain more than other countries and the pandemic was known as the "Spanish flu".

On May 30, 1919, he consecrated Spain to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the Cerro de los Ángeles in Getafe. A week later, he received in audience the priest Mateo Crawley-Boevey y Murga, promoter of the consecration. As Crawley stated, the king told him that a Freemasonry delegation had threatened him that, if he did not carry out four measures, they would cause his abdication and Alfonso refused. These measures were: his adherence to Freemasonry, decreeing that Spain would be a secular state, family reform and divorce, and secular public instruction.

Visit of Alfonso XIII to Fort de Vaux in 1919

In 1921, as a result of tactically disastrous war operations, the military headquarters of Melilla collapsed (the Annual disaster). The impact it had on public opinion generated a very critical feeling with the policy maintained up to that moment in Morocco, and in general with the entire political system of the Restoration, already shaky since the 1917 general strike. happened (with the Picasso file) in which, apparently, senior administration officials were involved in serious responsibilities, but said report never saw the light of day. Some voices extended the responsibilities for the Annual disaster to the monarch, one of the most prominent promoters and supporters of colonial policy, because he had promoted the appointment of some commanders responsible for the "Disaster" with whom he had a friendly relationship or were people close to him, such as Dámaso Berenguer or General Fernández Silvestre.

In addition, the king, according to different sources, also encouraged Silvestre to enter the Riffian territory to capture as much territory as possible, with which Silvestre sent his men out of Melilla and irresponsibly penetrated far of their supply lines and without protecting their rear.

Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera

Alfonso XIII and Primo de Rivera in 1930.

Alfonso XIII would have come to meditate on the possibility of a dictatorship throughout 1923; In August 1923, he sounded out Antonio Maura's opinion on a royal dictatorship, to which the Mallorcan politician replied that in that case, as the lesser evil, a military dictatorship would be preferable. In this context of political and social crisis, the captain General of Catalonia Miguel Primo de Rivera carried out a coup on September 13, 1923, which was supported by Alfonso XIII by entrusting him with the formation of a government. For some, one of the reasons for the coup would be that it served as an instrument to prevent the results of the Picasso File from coming to light in a parliamentary investigation that was being carried out and that could have left the monarch in a compromised position.

Primo de Rivera formed a government that he called a directory, which at first was made up exclusively of soldiers (Military Directorate) and, later (1925), had a civilian character (Civil Directory). During the Dictatorship, the war in Morocco ended with the landing of Al Hoceima in 1925, which allowed definitive Spanish control of the Rif in 1927. Despite the institutional support for Philosephardism that occurred during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, Alfonso XIII embraced anti-Semitic ideas that were gradually taking root in the anti-liberal right, when he declared to the French military attaché in Madrid around 1925 that the insurgency in the Rif constituted "the beginning of a general uprising of the entire Muslim world at the instigation of Moscow and international Jewry".

In 1929, the Universal Exhibition in Barcelona and the Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville were held, but the growing opposition generated by the dictator, especially widespread among students, intellectuals and the Artillery Corps (opposed the reform that the dictator sought from his promotion system), made Alfonso XIII remove Miguel Primo de Rivera from the government on January 29, 1930.

Berenguer's soft dictation

The king appointed General Dámaso Berenguer president of the council of ministers with the intention of returning to the constitutional regime. This new period was immediately known as "the Dictablanda", in contrast to the previous dictatorship.

Seal of Alfonso XIII overprint during the Second Republic.

Alfonso XIII in 1930

After the fall of the dictator —who died weeks later— anti-monarchist demonstrations increased, the king was accused of having sponsored the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and of having responsibilities in the Annual Disaster. That year the republican parties united against the monarchy with the signing of the Pact of San Sebastián. There were republican military pronouncements that were frustrated by the government at the Cuatro Vientos air base (Madrid) and in Jaca (the latter headed by captains Fermín Galán and Ángel García Hernández, who were shot after a court martial).

In February 1931, Admiral Juan Bautista Aznar was appointed president of the council by Alfonso XIII. His government called municipal elections on April 12, 1931. When the victory in the cities of the Republican candidacies was known in the elections, on April 14 the Second Republic was proclaimed. The king left the country that same day, in order to avoid a civil war:

The elections held on Sunday clearly reveal to me that I do not have the love of my people today. [...] I'd find plenty of ways to maintain my prerogative regimens, in effective struggle with those who fight them. But, resolutely, I want to turn away from what it is to throw a compatriot against another in fratricidal civil war.

Manifesto of Alfonso XIII, 13 April 1931

He resigned from the Head of State, but without a formal abdication:

[...] I don't give up any of my rights, because more than mine are deposit accumulated by History, whose custody is to ask for a rigorous day.

Manifesto of Alfonso XIII, 13 April 1931

On the night of the 14th to the 15th, he left Madrid for Cartagena at the wheel of his Duesenberg car and from there he set sail for Marseilles on the cruiser Príncipe Alfonso of the Spanish Navy to later move to Paris. Her family left Aranjuez by train the next morning. The king, upon leaving Spain, pronounced his most famous words:

[...] I hope I will not return, for that would only mean that the Spanish people are not prosperous or happy.

Proclamation of the Second Republic

Proclamation of the Second Republic in Barcelona.

In the early hours of the morning of Tuesday, April 14, 1931, General Sanjurjo, director of the Civil Guard, went to the house of Miguel Maura, where the members of the revolutionary committee were meeting. who were not in exile in France, nor were they in hiding: Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, Francisco Largo Caballero, Fernando de los Ríos, Santiago Casares Quiroga and Álvaro de Albornoz. As soon as he entered the house, General Sanjurjo stood up to Maura and said: "At your orders, Mr. Minister". On April 14, this committee proclaimed the Republic, and a provisional government is formed, chaired by Alcalá-Zamora, who called elections for Constituent Cortes, which were held on June 28, 1931.

The condemnation by the Responsibilities Commission

The new Republican Cortes were constituted on July 14, and among their first tasks they carried out the elaboration of the Constitution of the Republic. They also named a Commission of Responsibilities in charge of debugging the responsibilities of ex-king Alfonso XIII. The opinion of the Commission in which the dethroned monarch was condemned for "high treason" was approved by the plenary session of the Cortes at dawn on November 20. The ruling, published in the Madrid Gazette on November 28, read as follows:

To all who see and understand the present, know: That the Constituent Courts, acting as National Sovereignty, have approved the accusatory record against Don Alfonso de Borbón and Habsburg-Lorena, dictating the following:
"The Constituent Courts declare guilty of high treason, as a legal formula that summarizes all the crimes of the accusatory act, to which he was king of Spain, who, exercising the powers of his judiciary against the Constitution of the State, has committed the most criminal violation of the legal order of the country, and, consequently, the sovereign Court of the nation solemnly declares out of the law to Don Alfonso de Borbón and Habsburg-Lorraine. Deprived of legal peace, any Spanish citizen may apprehend his person if he or she enters national territory.
Don Alfonso de Borbón will be degraded from all his dignity, rights and titles, which he will not be able to hold within or outside Spain, of which the Spanish people, by the mouth of their elected representatives to vote for the new norms of the Spanish State, declares him decayed, without being able to vindicate them for him or his successors.
Of all the property, rights and actions of its property in the national territory, the State shall, for its benefit, have the appropriate use to give them.
This judgment, which is approved by the Constituent Sovereign Courts, after published by the Government of the Republic, will be printed and fixed in all the municipalities of Spain, and communicated to the diplomatic representatives of all countries, as well as to the League of Nations."
In the execution of this judgement, the Government shall issue the orders leading to its most accurate enforcement, to which all citizens, courts and authorities shall assist.

The sentence would be repealed by a law of December 15, 1938 signed by the dictator Francisco Franco.

Exile, dynastic resignation and death

Formerly photographed in 1932 in London

End of the resignation manuscript

Alfonso spent his exile staying in luxury hotels in different European cities, which he could pay for thanks to money previously deposited in Swiss and English bank accounts. Soon after he separated from his wife, Victoria.Until his transfer to Rome, his usual place of residence was Paris, where he was surrounded by a small group of courtiers, led by the former ambassador of the Monarchy. Jose Quinones de Leon.

From exile, despite the implicit support he offered to the intransigent monarchists of Renovación Española, he maintained a position of non-belligerence towards the accidentalist Spanish Confederation of Autonomous Rights of José María Gil Robles, which allowed the monarchists to continue militating in the CEDA without moral conflicts, thus putting an obstacle to the growth of his Alfonsino followers.

The last years of his life were spent in Rome. After the death of Alfonso Carlos de Borbón, Duke of San Jaime, a Carlist claimant under the name Alfonso Carlos I, in 1936 he received the possible rights of Carlism and French legitimism under the name Alfonso XIII of Spain and Alfonso I of France and Navarre.^{[citation required]}

At the start of the Spanish Civil War, he fervently supported the rebels, claiming to be an "first-time Falangist ". coup d'état that took place in Spain to (...) restore the Monarchy» and managed to get the Italian fascist government to commit to contributing 1,500,000 pesetas, 200 machine guns, rifles and hand grenades. The Spanish agreement was signed by General Barrera and representatives of the Spanish Renovation (monarchist) and Traditionalist Communion (Carlist) parties.On July 30, 1936, he gave his consent to the transfer of Juan de Borbón to rebel territory.

King Alfonso XIII's relationship with the dictator Francisco Franco is extensive and well documented. As a consequence of his successes in Morocco, he met Franco, who little by little became a royal favourite; In January 1923, the King awarded him the military medal, as well as the honorary position of gentleman of the chamber, for which reason the best man at his wedding was Alfonso XIII (represented by the civil governor of Oviedo, General Losada). Franco personally discussed with the king the possible withdrawal from Morocco. In March 1925, during a visit there, General Primo de Rivera presented Franco with a letter from the king together with a religious gold medal; The letter ended like this: «You know how much he loves you and appreciates you, your affectionate friend who hugs you. Alfonso XIII". By royal decree (January 4, 1928) he appointed him director of the newly created General Military Academy. Franco voted in favor of the monarchist candidacy in Zaragoza.

However, on April 4, 1937, Franco wrote a derogatory letter to Alfonso XIII: the king, who had just donated a million pesetas to the Francoist cause, had written to him expressing his concern about the low priority given it gave to the restoration of the monarchy; Franco made it clear that the king was unlikely to play a role in the future, given his past mistakes. At the end of the war and the monarchy was not restored, the king declared: «I chose Franco when he was nobody. He has betrayed and deceived me at every turn."

On January 15, 1941, he resigned as head of the Royal House in favor of his son Juan (his two eldest sons had withdrawn from the succession). He died on February 28, 1941 at the Grand Hotel in Rome due to angina pectoris. He was buried in the church of Santa María de Montserrat de los Españoles in the Italian capital until, on January 19, 1980, his remains were transferred to the Royal Pantheon of the Monastery of El Escorial by order of his grandson, the King Juan Carlos I

For his part, his son Juan, Count of Barcelona, renounced his rights to the throne in 1977, in favor of his son Juan Carlos, who had been named king in 1975, on the death of General Franco, by virtue of the law of succession to the head of state of 1947. With the renunciation of his rights by the Count of Barcelona, the dynastic legitimacy of the historical monarchy was recovered, as stated in article 57 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

During his reign he granted between titles of Spain and the Indies: 379 noble titles of which 83 obtained Greatness of Spain.

A search for Alfonso XIII sculpted by José Navas-Parejo.

The Office for Captives

The actions that he organized as monarch of a neutral country during the First World War remain for history, among them the Office for Captives, possibly the first governmental humanitarian action recorded in history, in order to try to get answers to the relatives who knew nothing of their military or civilian relatives in a war zone.

The monarch founded this body independently of the government, so as not to compromise its neutrality. Thus, with his own funds of one million pesetas, he established a secretariat in the Royal Palace where requests for information and intervention with the prisoners from both sides arrived; thing that was possible thanks to the good contacts and relations of the king with the diverse contending countries. He used the embassies to get information from the prisoners and allowed prisoners of war from both sides to be put in contact with their families. He thus saved approximately 70,000 civilians and 21,000 soldiers, and intervened on behalf of 136,000 prisoners of war, carrying out 4,000 inspection visits to prison camps. He also intervened in favor of hospital ships not being attacked in submarine warfare, proposing to establish a neutral inspection of these ships by the Spanish military at the exit of the port and at the entrance. With the acceptance of this request, he achieved that both parties in conflict would not repeat the tragic action of torpedoing ships flying the hospital flag, as had happened in the past. The office had such a volume of requests that the volunteers who worked in the organization did not rest even on holidays.

While all the European royal houses turned their backs on the Russian imperial family, including George V himself, cousin of Tsar Nicholas II, Alfonso XIII's attempt to free them and take them to Spain is noteworthy; however, the Bolshevik Revolution frustrated these plans. This fact caused the king deep sadness.

Regarding the humanitarian work he carried out at the head of the Office for Captives, King Alfonso XIII was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, although the winner would ultimately be the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Biography and personality

Alfonso XIII as the cover of the magazine Time (December 1924).

He defined himself as someone of firm Catholic convictions and was proud of having defended them in adverse environments. About his visit to the pope, he stated:

It was logical [...] that the pontiff received with the greatest taste, not the Catholic king by traditional title but to whom the face was played in twenty-five years by the Catholic faith. What king in the world has consecrated his homeland to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, subjugating the advice of the "prudents" and rejecting the threats of anticlericalism and masonry?

The photographic archive of the royal chronicler Francisco Goñi is preserved in the Provincial Historical Archive of Guadalajara, where you can see the best images of the family and official life of the monarch.

He was a man who knew the importance of education and research. In regards to education. He donated 320 hectares of his property in Moncloa to build the Ciudad Universitaria de Madrid, where the new graduates who would lead Spain to a scientific career would be trained. In 1927 the king sent a group of his best advisers to analyze and visit the most prestigious universities in the United States, with a view to importing the relevant lessons to the Spanish capital.

He was also a motorsport fan. From an early age, at the age of 18, he acquired a nationally manufactured vehicle of the Automóviles Anglada brand through the intermediation of a Barcelona dealer called Auto Garage Terminus and its owner, Mr. Domingo Balet Duran, delivered the vehicle to the King and gave him private driving lessons. driving, later becoming an Official Provider of Casa Real.

Advertisement Auto Garage Terminus Supplier of the Royal House

The king's support for the Hispano-Suiza automobile company helped reinforce the brand's image. He had several cars from this company in his garage. In 1909 he tested a company two-seater and suggested a number of improvements. His involvement with this model was so great that the company released a version with these recommendations, the 45 CR 14-45 HP, which was later known as the Alfonso XIII model, in 1912. He also attended automobile and motorcycle competitions. In some races in Madrid he competed himself, although when they became more demanding he chose to give up his car.

His way of meddling in political life even beyond what is provided for in the Constitution, characterized according to Javier Moreno Luzón by "short dribbling and manipulation of wills", was known as "borboneo".

According to the researcher Román Gubern, in private the king was a great fan of eroticism in general and pornographic cinema in particular; Due to this, he would have produced, in the Chinatown of Barcelona, during the 1920s, using the Count of Romanones as an intermediary, a series of pornographic films, the first of a certain quality in this genre made in Spain. Recently, the Generalitat Valenciana has restored some of these short films: The Confessor, The Minister and Ladies Office, all three commissioned by Romanones to the brothers Ricardo and Ramón Baños, owners of the Barcelona production company Royal Films.

Marriage and children

Jaime and Alfonso, photographed by Kaulak.

Juan and María Cristina, with their mother, photographed by Christian Franzen.

The royal couple had seven children:

• Alfonso (Alfonso Pío Cristino Eduardo(1907-1938), prince of Asturias was born hemophilic and renounced his rights to the throne in 1933, two years after the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, so that he could marry Edelmira Sampedro and Robato, Cuban of Spanish origin who did not belong to any royal family. He held the title of Count of Covadonga from then until his premature death. He remarried a second time, with Marta Esther Rocafort and Altuzarra, although he had no descendants of any of these marriages. He died due to injuries caused after a traffic accident, as a result of the hemophilia he suffered.
• Jaime (Jaime Leopoldo Isabelino Enrique(1908-1975), infant of Spain, was deaf at four years after a surgical intervention by a double mastoiditis; he resigned under paternal pressure his rights to the throne in 1933, when he received the title of Duke of Segovia. He inherited from his father the dynastic rights to the throne of France (1941-1975) and was known as the Duke of Anjou for the French monarchs. He contracted marriage in first nuptials with Emanuela de Dampierre. He had descended from this marriage. After her divorce, she remarried with Charlotte Luise Auguste Tiedemann. He had no children with his second wife. Father of Alfonso de Borbón Dampierre and grandfather of Luis Alfonso de Borbón.
• Beatriz (Beatriz Isabel Federica Alfonsa Eugenia(1909-2002), infant of Spain; became a princess of Civitella Cesi for her marriage to Alessandro Torlonia. It was the maternal grandmother of Alessandro Lecquio and Sibilla of Luxembourg.
• Fernando was born dead in 1910.
• Maria Cristina (Maria Cristina Teresa Alejandra(1911-1996), infant of Spain; married Enrico Eugenio Antonio Marone Cinzano (conde Marone-Cinzano); with descent.
• Juan (Juan Carlos Teresa Silvestre Alfonso(1913-1993), infant of Spain and count of Barcelona, a pretender to the throne since the death of his father in 1941 (taking into account the dynastic resignations of his elder brothers) until 1977, when he gave his rights to his son Juan Carlos, when he was already king of Spain. Don Juan married her cousin, Princess María de las Mercedes de Borbón and Orleans (1910-2000), and were parents of four children: Juan Carlos I of Spain (n. 1938, king of Spain from 1975 to 2014, the Pilar Infants (1936-2020) and Margarita (n. 1939), and the Infante Alfonso (1941-1956).
• Gonzalo (Gonzalo Manuel María Bernardo(1914-1934), infant of Spain, born hemophilic. He died without offspring.

The king also had five extramarital children:

• With the French aristocrat Melanie de Gaufridy de Dortan had Roger Leveque de Vilmorin (1905-1980);·
• With the Spanish actress Carmen Ruiz Moragas had two children whom he never officially recognized: María Teresa Ruiz Moragas (1925-1965) and Leandro Alfonso Ruiz Moragas (1929-2016), authorized by the Spanish justice to use the name Borbón on May 21, 2003 as "Leandro Alfonso de Borbón Ruiz".
• Alfonso XIII also had two daughters in view of two of the institutes of his sons. The first, whose name is unknown, was abandoned in a Madrid convent. The second, Juana Alfonsa Milan and Quiñones de León (first name adopted by his father Duke of Milan and second by the ambassador of Spain in France) (1916-2005), given Beatrice Noon, nanny Irish brought expressly to Spain for her mother-in-law, Princess Beatriz of the United Kingdom.

Titles, orders and jobs

Personal guide of King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

Monogram
Alfonso XIII.

Orders

Spanish

• Grand Master of the Order of the Golden Toy. (17 May 1886 - 15 January 1941).
• Grand Master of the Order of Charles III. (17 May 1886 - 15 January 1941).
• Grand Master of the Order of Elizabeth the Catholic. (17 May 1886 - 15 January 1941).
• Great master of the military orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara and Montesa (17 May 1886 - 15 January 1941).
• Senior Brother of the Real Maestranzas de Caballería de Ronda, Seville, Granada, Valencia and Zaragoza.

Foreign

• Knight of the Royal Seraphim Order.
• Knight of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation.
• Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle.
• Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honor (French Republic).
• Knight of the Nobilist Order of the Highway. (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland).
• Grand Collar Knight of the Supreme Order of Chrysanthemum (Japanese Empire).
• Knight of the Order of the Elephant. Kingdom of Denmark).
• 1904: Knight of the Order of St. Huberto.
• Knight of the Order of the Crown of Ruda.
• 1898: Bailio Gran Cruz de Honor de la Orden de San Juan vulgo de Malta. (Orden de Malta)
• 1923 Grand Cross of the Order of the Sun of Peru. (Republic of Peru)
• Knight of the Order of the Holy Spirit.
• Knight of the Order of St. Michael.

Jobs

Honorifics

• 1909: Honorary President of the Recreative of Huelva.
• 1921: Honorary Brother Major of the Passion Brotherhood (Huelva).

Foreigners

• 1908: Honorary colonel of the Regiment of Húsares No. 7 Olviopol of the Russian imperial army. (Russian Empire)

Tribute names

The Palaces of Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia in Barcelona.

Hotel Alfonso XIII in Seville.

Statue of King Alfonso XIII in the Alfonso XIII Park in Tegucigalpa, Honduras that commemorates the Alfonso XIII Award between Honduras and Nicaragua.

The sports car Hispano-Switzerland Alfonso XIII, manufactured between 1911 and 1914.

Ships

• Alfonso XIII (1896)
• Alfonso XIII (1915)

Places and institutions

• Costa RicaCosta Rica:
  • Saw, San José. Alfonso XIII small neighborhood and old pulp shop
• SpainSpain:
  • Barcelona: Palacios de Alfonso XIII y Victoria Eugenia
  • Huesca: Refugio Alfonso XIII
  • La Coruña: Plaza Alfonso XIII
  • Lérida: Tunnel of Viella-Alfonso XIII
  • Madrid:
    • Estación de Alfonso XIII del Metro de Madrid
    • Instituto Alfonso XIII
    • Royal Botanic Garden Alfonso XIII
  • Melilla:
    • Fortín de Alfonso XIII
    • Grupo de Escuelas Mixtas Alfonso XIII
  • Murcia: Embalse Alfonso XIII
  • Ondárroa: Alphonsus XIII rotating catwalk
  • Population of Alfonso XIII
  • Santander: Plaza Alfonso XIII
  • Seville:
    • Hotel Alfonso XIII
    • Puente de Alfonso XIII
  • Vitoria: Plaza de España (formerly Plaza Alfonso XIII)
  • Numerous avenues, streets, monuments and squares in homage to Alfonso XIII of various cities of the country.
• PhilippinesPhilippines:
  • Quezón: Alfonso XIII de La Paragua
• HondurasHonduras:
  • Tegucigalpa: Parque Alfonso XIII
• Mexico Mexico:
  • Mexico City: Alfonso XIII Neighborhood and Alfonso XIII Park in Alvaro Obregón

Others

• Brigade «Rey Alfonso XIII» II of the Legion
• Hispano-Switzerland Alfonso XIII, automobile
• Laudo Alfonso XIII, arbitral award between Honduras and Nicaragua
• Medal of the Homenage of the Town Halls to the Kings Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia

Ancestors

Alfonso XIII is a rare example of inbreeding. In the eleventh generation he has only 111 different ancestors, while in a standard situation one would expect to identify 1024. Here we are with an implexus situation of 89%.

Succession

Predecessor: Alfonso XII	King of Spain 1886-1931	Successor: Niceto Alcalá-Zamora President of the Interim Government of the Republic
Predecessor: Himself (as king reigning)	King of Spain 1931-1941	Successor: John III
Predecessor: Carlos XII	Pretending Legitimist to the throne of France (like Alfonso I) 1936-1941	Successor: Enrique VI