Consort Profile: Maria Christina of Austria

The last Queen mother of Spain to date was born Maria Christina Henrietta Desideria Felicitas Raineria of the House of Hapsburg-Lorraine on July 21, 1858 in Moravia to Archduke Karl Ferdinand and Archduchess Elizabeth Franziska of Austria. Her paternal grandfather was the famous Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen, who gained fame for his brilliant victories over the forces of Napoleonic France. Amongst her many illustrious relatives were two cousins who attained the rank of emperor; Francis Joseph I of Austria and his brother Ferdinand Maximilian who was the ill-fated Emperor of Mexico. Her childhood was relatively uneventful and she grew into fine royal lady, fairly tall, very well educated with strong principles and good common sense. When she became old enough to consider marriage attention soon fell upon His Catholic Majesty King Alfonso XII of Spain whose first wife had recently died and who was looking to marry again. Only five years earlier Alfonso XII had become King of Spain after the failure of the first Spanish Republic, formed after the abdication of the Italian King Amadeus I. His mother, Queen Isabella II, was still alive but the problems associated with her had not changed. She was too conservative for the liberals and belonged to the wrong branch of the family for the conservative Carlists. Alfonso XII, however, was an acceptable candidate for the liberals and moderates and he succeeded in defeating the Carlists to become King of Spain in 1874.

All the proper arrangements were made on Maria Christina was married to King Alfonso XII on November 29, 1879 at the Basilica of Atocha in Madrid. Because of all of the civil war and the bitter political divisions in Spain, it was not an attractive country for most royals but the new Queen Maria Christina showed considerable strength in dealing with a less than ideal situation. The proof of what a dangerous position she had come into was revealed almost immediately when a pastry chef tried to shoot the royal couple on their honeymoon. Nonetheless, with typical Hapsburg determination, she pressed on and did her duty both publicly and privately. In 1882 she gave birth to her first child, Princess Maria de las Mercedes of Asturias, followed by Princess Maria Teresa in 1882 and King Alfonso XIII in 1886. One will note that the last child was born a king as his father Alfonso XII, whose health had been deteriorating due to tuberculosis, died in 1885 at the age of only 27. This left Queen Maria Christina essentially in charge of a country that was torn by internal conflict and political divisions with many factions openly hostile to the monarchy. When King Alfonso XIII was born Queen Maria Christina immediately became regent of the Kingdom of Spain on his behalf. It was an unenviable position and one she had not been prepared for, however, she was intelligent enough to handle the situation as well as being intelligent enough to know her own limitations. When it came to business and economics, for example, she had little familiarity with such things and took the advice of those who did.

Subsequent Spanish historians have praised Queen Maria Christina for her impeccable commitment to upholding the law and observing all of the proper rules and customs for the government. Spain entered a relatively stable period, at least when compared to the earlier chaos and civil war, with power alternating between the moderate conservative and liberal factions. Universal suffrage and the Law of Associations were both passed during the regency and signed into effect by Queen Maria Christina on behalf of her young son. However, there was at least one very major foreign policy crisis that arose during the regency and that was the Spanish-American War. It was a crisis the Queen met with admirable courage and determination. The war with the United States came about mostly due to American sympathy for the rebels in Cuba who had been waging a long and irritating war against the local Spanish authorities. There were also those in America who had been pressing for (and even attempting) the conquest and annexation of Cuba to the United States all the way back to the earliest days of the republic. Dealing with the local rebels had not been particularly difficult for Spain, even after many years of steady decline starting with the conquest by Napoleonic France and followed soon after by the Carlist civil wars. Cuba still generated income for the Spanish economy and the insurrection provided a place for Spanish army officers to gain combat experience. However, what had been a Spanish problem suddenly became a potential international crisis when the United States and especially the American media began to seize upon Cuba as a major object of interest.

Queen Maria Christina was the one who had to deal with this problem and, like most people in Spain, was rather perplexed by why the U.S. would suddenly be inserting itself into the situation in Cuba as well as by the public outcry aroused by the American media. Part of the problem was economic. When the Carlist civil wars and the government instability in Spain caused the economy to collapse, Cuban planters looked to America for loans and this resulted in many Americans having a financial interest in Cuba. The U.S. began to champion the cause of Cuban independence, which Spain could not abide as Cuba was considered, not a colony, but a part of Spain itself. A plan was devised to end the rebellion in Cuba by granting the island autonomy, similar to what had already been given to Puerto Rico by the Spanish government. However, the United States still persisted in demanding the Spain make concessions to the rebels though most authorities in Spain had no idea what more concessions they could offer. Queen Maria Christina decided to ignore the saber rattling from Washington DC and pinned her hopes on the plan for autonomy to calm the situation. Unfortunately for her, America would not give Spain time for the plan to take effect. With the media having worked the American public into an anti-Spanish frenzy the declaration of war was swift after the destruction of the battleship USS Maine in Havana Harbor in 1898. The U.S. blamed a Spanish mine while Spain protested that the ship had exploded on its own, a fact later proven by a U.S. investigation in 1974.

There was no doubt from the very beginning that Spain was hopelessly outmatched in the war against the United States. Nonetheless, the U.S. sent an ultimatum to Madrid demanding that the Spanish withdraw from Cuba and when Spain broke off diplomatic relations with the United States an American declaration of war soon followed. Queen Maria Christina was horrified by this turn of events but had no choice but to take Spain to war as she could no more order the abandonment of Cuba than the President of the United States could abandon New York or Massachusetts just because a foreign power demanded it. Queen Maria Christina did appeal to the other crowned heads of Europe (which was all of Europe at that time save for France, Switzerland and tiny San Marino) to come to the aid of Spain. She protested, with considerable foresight, that if the monarchies of Europe did not come together to oppose this blatant aggression on the part of the American republic on behalf of Spain, the United States would only grow stronger and stronger and soon other countries would suffer the fate of Spain until America was completely dominant and not a monarchy remained in Europe. There was some sympathy for Spain in some quarters but, as we know, no other countries decided to get involved. The Spanish fleet was decimated by the American navy, Cuba was conquered and the few remnants of the once mighty Spanish empire fell to the United States. When Spain finally had no choice but to sue for peace the United States gained Cuba (temporarily), Puerto Rico, Guam and The Philippines. Manila had fallen after only symbolic resistance with the Spanish garrison effectively tossing America the keys on their way out and, while gaining the islands, America also gained her first colonial rebellion as U.S. forces had to be rushed over to suppress the Filipino independence movement that Spain had already been dealing with.

It seemed as though disaster was breaking out everywhere. In Spanish Morocco there was rebellion in the air and in Spain itself political divisions and potential civil war began to threaten yet again. Queen Maria Christina dealt with it all with admirable dedication and persistence but wanted nothing more than to be able to hand power over to her son. This finally happened in 1902 when King Alfonso XIII reached his majority and was able to exercise his full constitutional powers as reigning monarch. With immense gratitude Queen Maria Christina withdrew from the halls of power and devoted her time to charity work. She remained a familiar and respected figure in Spanish society for the rest of her life. On the night of February 5, 1929 she retired to her bedroom and after midnight felt a sharp pain in her chest. A maid asked if she should call for the King but the Queen mother said no, not wishing to disturb anyone. A short time later she had another pain in her chest and passed away. She was buried in the royal monastery at El Escorial having guided Spain through what was, in some ways, her most difficult and traumatic period since the end of the civil wars. She was a lady of great character, strength and insight and one of the most dedicated rulers Spain has ever had. She was also eerily prescient in predicting the coming dominance of the United States and republicanism in the Twentieth Century.

Consort Profile: Queen Maria Luisa of Savoy

Queen Maria Luisa of Savoy was consort to the first Bourbon King of Spain and also showed herself to be not only a popular and beloved consort but a talented and confident woman who would have been perfectly capable of ruling a country herself, as she did on occasion when her husband was out of town. She was born in Turin on August 17, 1688, the third daughter of Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and Princess Anne Marie of Orleans (daughter of the Duke of Orleans and Princess Henrietta of England). She was a bright, playful and happy child but it was a childhood that did not last long since, as with so many princesses, she had to grow up quite rapidly for the sake of a political marriage. It was not as much a case of her own parents seeking a match for her but her husband-to-be who sought her out for political reasons. Over in Spain the House of Hapsburg had died out with King Carlos II and the grandson of King Louis XIV of France was set to be imported as the new King of Spain, the first of the dynasty that continues to the present day. Only 16-years-old at the time, the French and Spanish governments came to an agreement and the teenage Duke of Anjou became King Felipe V of Spain.

However, although Spain and France were in agreement, there were few doubts that the spread of Bourbon influence to the Iberian Peninsula would arouse opposition amongst the other great powers of Europe, particularly in Great Britain and Austria. War seemed inevitable and the marriage of the young Felipe V would be used to secure his claim to the Spanish throne by linking him with the House of Savoy which also had marriage ties with the Kingdom of France and even a possible claim on the Spanish throne by way of the dowry of the great-grandmother of Duke Victor Amadeus II (Infanta Catherine Michelle) which had gone unpaid. In this way the choice fell on the 13-year-old Savoy princess and the marriage was arranged by the Duke of Savoy and King Louis XIV with proxy wedding ceremonies taking place in both Turin and Versailles. By her marriage in 1701 she became Queen consort of Spain before she had ever set foot in the country or even met her husband face-to-face. Nonetheless, the Savoy princesses had a reputation for putting duty first and the well educated, fun loving new Queen set out for Spain. While passing through Nice she met Pope Clement XI who showed his favor by presenting her with a Papal Golden Rose, an honor still given out today but since the reign of Pius XII only to religious places rather than individual people.

Happily, when Queen Maria Luisa arrived in Barcelona and met her young husband King Felipe V she was not disappointed. Despite the circumstances of their union the two had a successful marriage and a genuine romance. As she settled in to life in Spain her most constant guide and companion was the formidable Princess des Ursins who became head of the Queen’s household and, unofficially, the most powerful woman in Spain. It had to be a difficult time for her as the War of Spanish Succession broke out which placed her father, the Duke of Savoy, on the side of Great Britain, Austria and others in opposition to France and Spain. As fighting raged from northern France and the Low Countries to the Italian peninsula, King Felipe V had to leave Spain to defend family territory in Naples. This left Queen Maria Luisa in Madrid as regent for her husband for quite some time but she proved herself to be more than up to the challenge. She was extremely thorough in her work, listening to all sides, investigating every complaint and checking all reports herself. She helped to reorganize the government and rallied the Spanish people to unite in support of the war effort. The patriotism she displayed and the care she showed toward the people made her popularity soar and the population adored her, affectionately calling her “La Savoyana”.

Although the Queen was very young, and of course depended on the assistance of more experienced ministers, everyone was impressed by how she rose to the occasion and devoted herself totally to her husband and her new country. Her prestige was unmatched and her authority unquestioned. The war ended with her husband secure on the Spanish throne and some may have wondered how the couple would behave once the King returned to Madrid. He had been forced to leave so early in their marriage and with the Queen so beloved and respected and the King having been so long distant, it would have been natural to wonder if Queen Maria Luisa would easily step into the background and leave the center stage to Felipe V. Fortunately, there were no problems. She was thrilled to simply have him back, the royal couple just as in love as ever and from being a ruling monarch in all but name Queen Maria Luisa willingly and happily devoted herself to being a consort once again.

The only problem for the Queen was her long-time ‘right arm’ Princess des Ursins who, one year after the King returned, was forced to leave the court because of pressure from King Louis XIV. This was mostly due to the fact that she had strongly advised the King and Queen to keep the French at a distance and surround themselves with Spaniards to make sure there was no mistaking that the new Bourbon monarchy would be Spanish and not simply an extension of France. Queen Maria Luisa was extremely distraught to see the Princess go who she had come to depend on so much. However, it was only temporary and to the great delight of the Queen the princess was able to return in 1705. Two years later the Savoy queen did her duty for the Spanish succession and gave birth to a son and heir, the future King Luis I. Two years later another baby boy followed but, sadly, did not live out the year. In 1712 the Queen gave birth to another son, who greatly resembled his mother. However, like the rest, his health was not robust (usually attributed to the degree of relation between the King and Queen) and he would die at only seven years old. In 1713 the Queen presented her husband with another son, the future King Fernando VI, who would thankfully have a long life and go on to enact many reforms in Spain and across the Spanish empire.

Queen Maria Luisa, despite the difficulty she often had with the health of her children, had a happy life with her two sons and a husband she was devoted to and who was devoted to her. She was talented, compassionate and adored by the Spanish people. It was thus very worrying when, not long after the birth of her last child, the Queen fell ill with tuberculosis. There was some hope that she would recover but complications eventually set in and, sadly, she passed away on February 14, 1714 at the age of only 25. She was buried in El Escorial, deeply mourned by her husband, her sons and all the people of Spain. From start to finish she had been an exemplary Queen consort, a star in the royal history of Spain and a credit to the House of Savoy.

Consort Profile: Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg

Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg was born Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena on October 24, 1887 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland to Prince Henry of Battenberg and Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom. Her father was the third son Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine by his morganatic wife Countess Julia von Hauke, a fact which put Princess Victoria Eugenie on a rather lower rung of the social ladder than other royals. On the other hand, her mother was the youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and royals did not come much more prestigious than that. She was named in honor of her grandmother, Queen Victoria, and her godmother the Spanish-born Empress Eugenie of France who was living in exile in Britain at the time after the downfall of the Second French Empire. She grew up at the court of Queen Victoria and Princess Ena (as she was called) grew to be a very lovely young lady, good natured but rather distant. Her mother, Princess Beatrice, considered her rather problematic as a youngster but she was well liked and her family, Queen Victoria included, were very protective of her.

Because her father came from a morganatic marriage many viewed Princess Ena as rather sub-standard. It was only by decree of Queen Victoria that she had been born “Her Highness, Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg” rather than the lower “Her Serene Highness”. Her mother had been allowed to marry only on the condition that she remain close to the Queen and few probably expected any great prospects for marriage for Princess Ena, no matter how striking her appearance might have been. However, her uncle, King Edward VII, to the joy of his sister, took it upon himself to throw her a lavish and popular “coming out” party in November of 1904. Just in the nick of time as it happened for in the summer of the following year Edward hosted a prominent visit by His Catholic Majesty King Alfonso XIII of Spain. The King of Spain was only nineteen-years-old but his love of sport, friendly and joking personality made him popular with King Edward and, after all, a king is a king. It was not, however, Princess Ena who first caught the eye of the young King of Spain; that was Princess Patricia, daughter of the Duke of Connaught. However, she was not fond of Latin temperaments and when visiting Spain and Portugal was disgusted by the national sport of bullfighting (silly girl). She would later marry a commoner and lose her royal status anyway.

It also cannot be denied that the Kingdom of Spain at that time was, sadly, far from being an attractive adopted homeland for marriage-minded royals. King Alfonso XIII presided over a country that had lost its last colonies in Asia and America in a disastrous war with the United States, his father had grown up in exile, regaining his throne only to die before the age of 30 and had just survived an assassination attempt. Social divisions were deep, rebellions and civil war near constant and the government was often corrupt and ineffective. In short, the Spanish monarchy had a reputation for being dangerously unstable and this was certainly not what most royal families wanted for their daughters of marrying age. Princess Patricia was certainly less than impressed, with Spain or King Alfonso, and was not too subtle in showing it. So, the young King looked elsewhere and finally his gaze fell on Princess Ena. Soon after their first meeting the smitten Spaniard was writing letter after letter and postcard after postcard to Princess Ena from Madrid, which went on for about a year as the Spanish court negotiated the terms of marriage with King Edward VII. It was all close to unprecedented for the two countries who had once been the most bitter rivals.

This was a bigger issue than most today would realize. Princess Ena, to become Queen of Spain, would have to convert to Catholicism. A number of high-ranking clerics in the Church of England objected to this, portraying the court of Alfonso XIII as a hot-bed of theocratic, ultramontane Catholic zealots (which no doubt would have surprised the Carlist rebels in Spain who considered the family of Alfonso XIII insufficiently Catholic). According to the Anglican prelates Madrid and Rome were hotbeds of corruption and pointed to the detrimental effects of Catholic rebellions in Portugal and Spain as proof that Catholic countries were dangerous and violent (presumably they ignored Catholic monarchies like Belgium or Italy because these were not confessional states). However, the Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury failed to de-rail the engagement and the wedding went ahead as planned. The Catholic Bishop of Nottingham presided when Princess Ena formally entered the Catholic Church in a low-key ceremony attended by most Spanish high officials and royals but boycotted by the British Royal Family. This is not to say that the British royals were in any way opposed to the match, indeed Princess Beatrice could not be dissuaded by any objections, however their attendance would have been problematic. Princess Ena lost her place in the British royal succession and, in fact, one could argue that the marriage would have been void in British law but it was stated that Princess Ena was of a “foreign” family and could slip through a legal loophole in the Royal Marriages Act.

Again, this did not mean the British Royal Family was in any way opposed to the match. In fact, King Edward VII raised Princess Ena to the status of “Her Royal Highness” prior to the marriage. The Prince and Princess of Wales (later King George V and Queen Mary) attended the wedding on May 31, 1906 at the Royal Monastery of San Geronimo in Madrid. The happy occasion was marred however as the royal newlyweds narrowly avoided death at the hands of a would-be assassin who hurled a bomb at the royal carriage as they were leaving the Church. It was a rather rude introduction to the new Queen of Spain about the level of violence and social unrest existed in the country she had just married into (during the Second Spanish Republic a street was actually named after the assassin by the Madrid city council). The newlyweds were happy enough but the marriage was not any more popular in Spain than it had been in Britain. Republicans hated all royals indiscriminately, Carlists did not consider Alfonso the true king anyway and would have disliked anyone he married as much as the King himself and among the supporters of the monarchy most were not thrilled with having a Queen from England who until recently had been a Protestant.

Things got better, for a while at least, when Queen Ena did her duty and produced an heir to the Spanish throne when Alfonso, Prince of the Asturias, was born on May 10, 1907. Everyone was thrilled, but the happiness was interrupted when the infant was circumcised and it was discovered that he had hemophilia. The bad blood of Queen Victoria had struck again and King Alfonso XIII was positively furious and blamed his wife for endangering the future of his family line (which was not resting on the most solid of foundations as it was). Ena was devastated and her marriage with Alfonso XIII was never the same again. Four more sons and two daughters were born to the couple but the King took a number of mistresses afterward and was never very close to the Queen again. For her part, Queen Ena did her best to carry on and do her duty as the Queen of Spain. She undertook numerous charitable activities to benefit the poor, education and especially nursing and hospital care. She took an active role in reforming the Spanish Red Cross and it can be said that the system of healthcare in Spain greatly improved because of her. In recognition of her great work Pope Pius XI awarded her the prestigious Golden Rose in 1923.

All the while, of course, things in Spain were spiraling out of control. While the moderate monarchists (supporting the King) and traditionalist monarchists (supporting the Carlist claimants) remained at odds the republicans became ever stronger and increasingly radical. In 1931 the republicans came to power as the feuding monarchists were sidelined by the communist and nationalist factions. Hoping to avoid a civil war, after the victorious leftists declared the birth of the Second Spanish Republic, King Alfonso XIII and his family left the country (without abdicating) and eventually settled in Rome. Queen Ena and the King eventually separated and the Queen returned to Great Britain. However, with monarchist supporters of King Alfonso backing the nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, the British (sympathetic to the republic oddly enough) encouraged her to leave the country and she settled in Switzerland. She saw her husband again in 1938 for the baptism of the baby boy who would one day become King Juan Carlos I. King Alfonso XIII died in 1941 and was succeeded by his son Don Juan, Count of Barcelona (the Prince of Asturias removed himself from the succession through an unequal marriage).

Queen Ena spent most of the rest of her life in Switzerland but remained a popular and active figure in royal circles. In 1968 she briefly returned to Spain (then under the rule of Generalissimo Francisco Franco) to stand as godmother for her great-grandson Prince Felipe (the current Prince of Asturias). She also took Princess Grace of Monaco under her wing when she was a new royal and still finding her footing. The Queen was also godmother of Prince Albert II of Monaco, Queen Fabiola of Belgium and the Duchess of Alba. Queen Ena died in Lausanne, Switzerland on April 15, 1969 at the age of 81, 38 years to the day that she had been forced to leave Spain. Her engagement was troublesome, her marriage often unhappy and her time as Queen of Spain was extremely tumultuous. That said, she did a lot of good in Spain while she was there and though she lost two sons to hemophilia, did her duty in ensuring that the Spanish Royal Family would go on and survive to see the monarchy in Spain restored. Originally buried in Spain, her grandson King Juan Carlos I had her moved to the Escorial in Madrid to rest alongside her husband and two sons, reuniting the family in death.