Alfonso the Thirteenth
BY VERNON BARTLETT.
ALMOST every picture gallery of Europe must contain at least one portrait of King Alfonso XIII, or rather of some representative of the House of Bourbon who could easily have been mistaken for him. And the mental characteristics of the members of this family, which has ruled for so many centuries and over so many coun- tries, have been as pronounced and unchanging as their physical characteristics. From his boyhood the young King—for he was born a king owing to the premature death of his father—must have felt upon him the eyes of his ancestors, watching gloomily from the walls of the Escorial to see how he would carry on the family tradi- tions. Until this week Alfonso XIII has never escaped the burden of an immense responsibility, and if he has now given way beneath it, it is not that he has been untrue to his Bourbon traditions, but that the world has out-grown them.
Alfonso XII had died a young man, but he had lived long enough to add discredit to the monarchy ; his widow, Maria Christina of Austria, was unpopular ; the infant King was so much of a weakling that he was hardly expected to live—and all this at a time when the ferment of democracy was working against the rigid and narrow ideas of a family which remained as autocratic after the pro- mulgation of the Constitution of 1876 as before it. Even before Alfonso XIII took the oath to observe this Constitution on May 17th, 1902, when he came of age, there had been disturbing evidence of the friction between these two political conceptions in the reign of terror which followed the assassination, in 1897, of that arch- priest of the Bourbon tradition, Canvas. Probably the ruthless treatment meted out to anyone who might con- ceivably have had anything to do with that assassination has been in part responsible for the several attempts on the life of a man who was able to win such personal popularity as Alfonso XIII.
The young King, of course, never had a fair chance. It says much for his mother that she made of him a man who is looked upon in England, the country where games are more important than anywhere else, as the greatest " sportsman " of any ruling monarch. But neither she, nor the generals, priests and politicians who surrounded her, taught Alfonso that the carrying out of the Consti- tution should be looked upon rather as an ideal than as a curse. The inevitable tag about forgetting nothing and learning nothing became, through his up-bringing, as true of him as of other Bourbons. It is a tragic reflection that he was probably never more popular than after the attempt was Made to murder him and Princess Ena of Battenberg as they drove down the Calle Mayor to the Palace on their wedding day, for by his decision to marry a relatively unimportant princess, and by his courage at the time of the bomb explosion, he had shown qualities not always conspicuous in members of his family. Although he had for people of all classes who came into contact with him a certain geniality which aroused their enthusiasm, he gave very little evidence of a liberal out- look when political affairs were under discussion. There are, in fact, two Alfonsos—the one, well known in England, is a singularly attractive and pleasant indi vidual, with many of the qualities of the present Prince of Wales ; the other, well known in Spain, and particu- larly to those politicians who have now formed the provisional' Republican Government, is a representative of a family the French, Spanish and other branches of which have retained positions of great power as long as force could help them to retain them, but have lost them when conciliation and compromise were needed.
. Undoubtedly King Alfonso XIII has been a victim of circumstances, in that the Constitution of 1876, based in great part on the Constitution of this country, was far too advanced for Spain, where so large a section of the public is illiterate. Conceivably a very liberal monarch could have made the Constitution work, but, not being such a man, he had every temptation to make the most of constant political crises by taking more and more power into his own hands. It is impossible to say to what extent he was himself responsible for the series of weak and unimpressive governments which preceded the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, or, alternatively, to what extent such governments justified. his acceptance cf the suspen- sion of the Constitution in 1923. One can only suggest that nearly all his ancestors, Bourbons and Hapsburgs alike, would have been delighted to be freed from the necessity of professing respect for a Cortes they despised, and would have welcomed so loyal a figure-head as the general who had prevented awkward enquiries into the King's responsibility for the disasters in Morocco. But Professor de Madariaga tells us that " honour " means as much to a Spaniard as " fair play " means to an English- man, and the King made the mistake of offending the national sense of honour by failing to obtain parliamen- tary approval of the suspension of the Constitution during the period of Primo de River's dictatorship. And if public opinion concentrated its resentment against the King and not against the Dictator, it was because the dictatorship was an incident and the monarchy was a history. That neglect of national susceptibilities eight years ago has now lost him his crown.
King Alfonso is not the first of the Bourbons to renounce the throne of Spain, and his predecessors in exile, or their nearest relations, have returned in triumph after a short sojourn abroad. Although the Republicans triumphed last Sunday, even in villages where the monarchy was sure of success, few people would be bold enough to declare that there will never again be a king in Spain.
Whatever Alfonso's political errors may have been his personal courage is itself a great asset in his favour, and he is still well on the right side of fifty. Here and there in Europe are kings and princes in exile dreaming, one imagines, of an ultimate restoration to power. Possibly, during his hurried night journey to the coast on Tuesday Alfonso XIII also had visions of dense crowds in the Palace courtyard welcoming him back again. And, should this be so, he may find consolation in the reflection that he stands a greater chance than his other royal colleagues in misfortune of seeing his dreams come true,
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