Alfonso XII

For the ship, see Spanish cruiser Alfonso XII.

Alfonso XII
King of Spain
Reign	28 December 1874 – 25 November 1885
Predecessor	First Spanish Republic
Successor	Alfonso XIII
Born	(1857-11-28)28 November 1857 Madrid
Died	25 November 1885(1885-11-25) (aged 27) El Pardo
Burial	El Escorial
Spouse	Mercedes of Orléans Maria Christina of Austria
Issue	Mercedes, Princess of Asturias Infanta Maria Teresa Alfonso XIII of Spain
House	House of Bourbon
Father	Francis, Duke of Cádiz
Mother	Isabella II of Spain
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Alfonso XII (born Alfonso Francisco de Asís Fernando Pío Juan María de la Concepción Gregorio Pelayo) (Madrid, 28 November 1857 – El Pardo, 25 November 1885) was King of Spain, reigning from 1874 to 1885, after a coup d'état restored the monarchy and ended the ephemeral First Spanish Republic.

Political Background, Early life and paternity

Alfonso was the son of Queen Isabella II of Spain, and allegedly, of her husband and King Consort, Francis, Duke of Cádiz. Alfonso's biological paternity is uncertain: there is speculation that his biological father may have been Enrique Puig y Moltó (a captain of the guard), or even an American dental student. These rumours were used as political propaganda against Alfonso by the Carlists.

Alfonso was the eldest son of Prince Francisco de Asis de Borbón-Dos Scilias and Queen Isabel II, whose reign was marked by a constant political crisis which had several causes. The first one was the fact that queen Isabel II was a woman, and her father, king Ferdinand VII, had modified the Succession Law in order for her to be queen, excluding his brother Carlos. This created the second cause of instability, which was the Carlist Wars. The supporters of Prince Carlos as king of Spain rose to have him throned. In addition, within the context of the post-Napoleonic restorations and revolutions which engulfed the West both in Europe and the Americas, both the Carlistas as well as the Isabelino conservatives were opposed to the new Napoleonic constitutional system. Much like in Britain, who subtracted itself from the liberal constitutional process, Spanish conservatives wanted to continue with the Traditional Spanish Organic Laws such as the Fuero Juzgo, the Novísima Recopilación and the Partidas of Alfonso X. This led to the third cause of instability of worth, the "Independence of the American Kingdoms", recognised between 1823 and 1850.

A SPLIT NATION

The first Spanish Constitution was in 1812. The first article said "the Spanish Nation is comprised of the Spaniards from both sides of the Atlantic". Modern Latin America was not a British-style system of overseas colonies. It was not an overseas possesion but national soil, much like Alaska or Hawaii are US National soil despite being 'discontinuous'. The Indies were administered as a federation of commonwealth kingdoms fashioned after the Aragonite Crown, but united under the Castilian system America was divided in 4 kingdoms, and Autonomous 5 Captainships autonomous within those kingdoms. There were administrative border overlaps in civil, military, ecclesiastical and judicial affairs. I.e. Venezuela was judicially dependent on the High Court of Santo Domingo, ecclesiastically dependent on the Bishopric of Puerto Rico, militarily dependent on the Budget from New Granada (Bogota), administratively autonomous but overseen by the Viceroy of New Granada and the Bogota Presidency.

Mexico and Peru were kingdoms fashioned under the respectively Aztec and Inca laws and borders. They expanded under Spanish regency to encompass half of North America and half of South America. They were granted sovereignty in 1717. In English terms it would be similar to the Canadian or Australian commonwealth status of the 20th century. The president of the Mexico City and Lima Audiencia, was the Prime Minister, and the viceroys represented the Crown.

Dependent of the kingdom of Mexico/New Spain was: 1. the Captainship General of Guatemala, encompassing all of Central America excluding Panama. 2. The Captainship General of Cuba, encompassing Cuba and the governorships of Florida (safe the English occupation between 1763-83), Santo Domingo (until 1795), Puerto Rico, and the entire Louisiana Territory (1763-1803) 3. The Captainship general of the Philippines, including that Archipelago, the Marianas, Carolinas, Guam and Palau.

The Kingdom of Peru was the entire South American Sub-continent. But in 1736, the viceroyalty of New Granada was incorporated as a separate administration. In 1776, the viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, was segregated and incorporated. Dependent on the Kingdom of Peru was the Captainship General of Chile

New Granada, with the vice regal capital at Bogota, encompassed modern day Colombia, Ecuador and Panama. Dependent of New Granada the Captainship General of Venezuela.

Rio de la Plata, with the vice regal capital in Buenos Aires, encompassed modern day Argentina, Uruguay Paraguay and Bolivia.

All kingdoms and captainships had full representation in the Cortes Españolas, the new Constitutional Parliament. Spain had 9 Latin-American prime ministers during the 19th century, and over a dozen Latin-American Speakers of Parliament.

The Issue was that the Criollos, or Spaniards born, raised or residing in the Latin-American kingdoms, were not in agreement. Some wanted the modern liberal constitutional system, some wanted the continuance of the Ancient Regime, some wanted independence. Within those seeking independence there were several parties. In Peru and Rio de la Plata many powerful figures proposed an American Monarchy such as those who wanted an independent Peruvian king of the still alive Inca Royal House, and those who requested a Prince of the Spanish house of Bourbon to come and rule directly in Lima, Mexico City or Bogota, as the Portuguese House of Orleans-Braganza had done in Rio de Janeiro. i.e. The 1813 Mexican constitutional project of the Kingdom of Anahuac, a non-Spanish Mexican kingdom.

Some others, like in Europe wanted republican independence as the French and Americans. But many Criollos did not want to lose the class privileges, in any new republics, and the most among the coloured majorities (indians, blacks and mixed-bloods) did not want to lose the backing that they had from the Crown and Catholic Church. Such backing guaranteed the ownership of their ancestral lands, commons, and welfare.

The Napoleonic and Post-Napoleonic years pushed all sides in the Spains (both sides f the Atlantic) into civil and military strife in 1810. It continued until 1880. Both sides of the Atlantic filled with economic and political refugees from the other side.

In European Spain, or just "the Peninsula" in the jargon of the Spains, after economic and human ravages of the Napoleonic Invasion (1808) and the War of Liberation (1808-1814) there ensued the aforementioned Latinamerican conflicts, in addition to the Carlist wars, the liberal-conservative wars, and the bleeding of people and resources into Latin America. There was an additional republican secessionist process in the Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, a Cantonal republican uprising in Murcia and Andalucía, and a constant political tug of war between the Antillean Criollo Spaniards (Cuban and Puerto Rican) abolitionists and slavers.

(ref.http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es; Enciclopedia Espasa-Calpe: Historia de España)

When Queen Isabella and her husband were forced to leave Spain by the Revolution of 1868, Alfonso accompanied them to Paris. From there, he was sent to the Theresianum at Vienna to continue his studies. On 25 June 1870, he was recalled to Paris, where his mother abdicated in his favour, in the presence of a number of Spanish nobles who had tied their fortunes to that of the exiled queen. He assumed the title of Alfonso XII, for although no King of united Spain had borne the name "Alfonso XI", the Spanish monarchy was regarded as continuous with the more ancient monarchy represented by the 11 kings of Asturias, León and Castile also named Alfonso.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place.

The first son of Elizabeth II lived an adolescence marked by the crisis that led to the overthrow of his mother in 1868. The Military and the parties were weary of 30 years of instability. This led to Prime Minister Miguel Prim, to seek a change of dynasty.

The dethroning of queen Isabel II meant a vacuum that was profited by the Bank of New York and some Cubans opposed to the projected extension of the 1837 Abolition Act to finance a Texas style "independence" revolution known as the Cuban 10 Years War (1868-78) lost by the Cubans. The aim was to secede Cuba from Spain, and annex it as a US state as Florida had been in 1824 through the Adams-Onis Treaty. and Texas in 1845.

The Spanish parliament chose amongst several candidates, including a French Prince, which led to the Franco-Prussian War, when Hindenburg refused to have another Frenchman in the Spanish Throne. Finally Amadeus of Savoy, Duke of Ostia, was elected by Parliament as new King of Spain.

However, king Amadeus could do little within the rarefied peninsular political climate. The Puerto Rican activist Julio Vizcarrondo had moved the Spanish Abolitionist Society from San Juan de Puerto Rico to Madrid at the request of premier Miguel Prim, himself a former Puerto Rico governor. The Cuban slavers counteracted with a fierce media campaign and political action committees in Madrid and the coastal comecial cities with great economic and family ties to the Antilles. While in Puerto Rico slavery was 2% of the population and blacks were less than 11%, Cuba was 30% black and slaves wee the backbone of the plantation economy. In Cuba peninsular Spaniards began to boycott Cuban products made by slaves, and the issue turned nationalistic. From insular v. peninsular it turned Spanish against Cuban. Then New York Intervention made more sense.

When King Amadeus finally had the bill in his desk, which would extend the 1837 Abolition Act to the Antilles, he was put on notice of a coup financed by Cuban plantationers and industrialists if he signed. As a result, he simply abandoned Spain, sick and tired, never to return.

The Republic

After Amadeus abandonment in 1873, Parliament declared the Federal Republic (including the Cuba, Puerto Ico and he Pacific Archipelagos), the first act of President Estanbislao Figueras was to extend the Abolition Act to Puerto Rico. Cuban slaves would have to wait until 1889.

But the republicans were not in agreement either, and they had to contend with the War in Cuba, the Islamist terrorists in Spanish Morocco and the continuance of the Carlist Wars. This led to the creation of a group in favor of the Bourbon restoration, made by some sectors of the moderates led by Canovas del Castillo.

The Prince of Asturias, Alfonso, is the person chosen to develop the new roadmap proposed by Canovas, which led to the June 1870 abdication of Queen Isabel II in favour of her son Prince Alfonso. The new roadmap which indeed ended the eternal crisis begun in 1810 was called 'Alfonsismo' and the moderate centrist Cánovas del Castillo became the spokesman. As having Alfonso in Spain, would be a problem Cánovas became responsible for his education. So, he sent Alfonso to the Sandhurst Military Academy in England, where the training Alfonso received was severe but more cosmopolitan than Spain, given the current athmosphere

In December 1, 1874, Alfonso issues the Sandhurst Manifesto where he sets the ideological basis of the Bourbonic Restoration. It is drafted in reply to a birthday greeting from his followers, a manifesto proclaiming himself the sole representative of the Spanish monarchy. At the end of 1874, when Field Marshal Serrano left Madrid to take command of the northern army in the Carlist War, Brigadier Martínez Campos, who had long been working more or less openly for the king, led some battalions of the central army to Sagunto, rallied to his own flag the troops sent against him, and entered Valencia in the king's name. Thereupon the President resigned, and his power was transferred to the king's plenipotentiary and adviser, Antonio Cánovas. The December 29, 1874, military coup of Gen. Martinez Campos, in Sagunto ended the failed republic and meant the rise of of the young Prince Alfonso.

Return from exile

Within a few days after Canovas del Castillo took power as Premier, the new king, proclaimed on 29 December 1874, arrived at Madrid, passing through Barcelona and Valencia and was acclaimed everywhere (1875). In 1876, a vigorous campaign against the Carlists, in which the young king took part, resulted in the defeat of Don Carlos and the Duke's abandonment of the struggle.

Initially led by Canovas del Castillo as moderate prime minister, what was thought at one time as a coup aimed at placing the military in the political-administrative positions of power, in reality ushered in a permanent civilian regime tat lasted until the 1931 Second Republic. Cánovas was the real architect of the new regime of the Restoration.

In order to eliminate one of the problems of the reign of Elizabeth, the single party and its destabilizing consequences, the Liberal Party was allowed to incorporate and participate in National Politics, and the 'turnism' or alternanation was to become the new system. Turnismo would be endorsed in the Constitution of 1876 and the Pact of Pardo Palace (1885). It meant that a liberal and a conservative prime minister would succeed each other ending the strifes.

This led to the end of the Carlist revolts and the victory over the New York backed Cuban revolutionaries, and led to a huge backing both by insular and peninsular Spaniards of Alfonso as a wise and able king.

Alfonso's short reign established the foundations for the final socioeconomic recuperation of Spain after the 1808-1874 crisis. Both European (the coastal regions, such as the Basque Country, Catalonia, and Asturias)and Overseas - Antilles and pacific were able to grow uninteruptedly. Cuba and Puerto Rico, reached tremendous levels of development and wealth, to the point that Spain's First Train was between Havana and Camaguey, and the world's first telegraph was in Puerto Rico, as Samuel Morse lived there with his daughter, married to a Puerto Rican businessman. Upon the American INvasion of Puerto Rico, 10 US dollars were needed to buy 1 Puerto Rican peso.

On 23 January 1878 at the Basilica of Atocha in Madrid, Alfonso married his cousin, Princess Maria de las Mercedes, daughter of Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, but she died within six months of the marriage.

Towards the end of 1878 a young workman of Tarragona, Juan Oliva Moncasi, fired at the king in Madrid.

Second marriage and rule

Alfonso XII and his second wife Maria Christina of Austria, 1885.

On 29 November 1879 at the Basilica of Atocha in Madrid, Alfonso married a much more distant relative, Maria Christina of Austria, daughter of Archduke Karl Ferdinand of Austria and of his wife Archduchess Elisabeth of Austria. During the honeymoon, a pastry cook named Otero fired at the young sovereign and his wife as they were driving in Madrid.

The children of this marriage were:

• María de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias, (11 September 1880 – 17 October 1904), married on 14 February 1901 to Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and titular heiress from the death of her father until the posthumous birth of her brother
• María Teresa, (12 November 1882 – 23 September 1912), married to Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria on 12 January 1906
• Alfonso XIII (17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941). Born posthumously. He married Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg

In 1881 Alfonso refused to sanction a law by which the ministers were to remain in office for a fixed term of 18 months. Upon the consequent resignation of Canovas del Castillo, he summoned Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, the Liberal leader, to form a new cabinet.

Death and impact

Funeral procession of Alfonso XII, from the 5 December 1885, issue of L'Illustration

In November 1885, Alfonso died, just short of his 28th birthday, at the Royal Palace of El Pardo. He had been suffering from tuberculosis, but the immediate cause of his death was a recurrence of dysentery.

Coming to the throne at such an early age, Alfonso had served no apprenticeship in the art of ruling, but he possessed great natural tact and a sound judgment ripened by the trials of exile. Benevolent and sympathetic in disposition, he won the affection of his people by fearlessly visiting districts ravaged by cholera or devastated by earthquake in 1885. His capacity for dealing with men was considerable, and he never allowed himself to become the instrument of any particular party. During his short reign, peace was established both at home and abroad, finances were well regulated, and the various administrative services were placed on a basis that afterwards enabled Spain to pass through the disastrous war with the United States without the threat of a revolution.

He was the 996th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain, the 104th Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword in 1861 and the 775th Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1881.

Illegitimate issue

Alfonso had two sons by Elena Armanda Nicolasa Sanz y Martínez de Arizala (Castellón de la Plana, 15 December 1849 – Paris, 24 December 1898), who also had another son by an unknown father other than the King named Jorge Sanz y Martínez de Arizala:

• Alfonso Sanz y Martínez de Arizala (28 January 1880, Madrid – 1970), married in 1922 to María de Guadalupe de Limantour y Mariscal (d. 1977, Marbella), daughter of Julio de Limantour y Marquet (17 June 1863, Mexico City – 11 October 1909, Mexico City) and wife Elena Mariscal y ..., paternal granddaughter of French Joseph Yves de Limantour y Rence de la Pagame (1812, Ploemeur – 1885, Mexico City) and wife Adèle Marquet y Cabannes (1820, Bordeaux – ?), and maternal granddaughter of Ignacio Mariscal y ... (5 July 1829, Oaxaca, Mexico – 17 April 1910, Mexico City) and wife ..., and had issue:
  • Elena Sanz de Limantour (1922–1979), married in 1949 to Robert Borgs, and had issue:
    • Bruce Borgs (b. 1953)
    • Warren Borgs (b. 1957)
  • María Luisa Sanz de Limantour (1925 -), married in 1944 to Alberto Wittig y Cooke, son of Alberto Wittig and wife Cecilia Cooke, and had issue:
    • Leslie Wittig y Sanz (b. Santiago, Chile), unmarried and without issue
    • Jaime Wittig y Sanz (b. Lisbon), unmarried and without issue
    • Priscilla Wittig y Sanz (b. Paris, 1945), married to Gonzalo García y Rawson (b. Valparaiso-Chile), and had issue:
      • Priscilla García y Wittig (b. 1982, Marbella, Spain)
      • Alejandra García y Wittig (b. 1984, Madrid)
    • Patricia Wittig y Sanz (b. 1946, Paris), married to Luis González y López de Carrizosa (b. Jerez de la Frontera), and had issue:
      • Pablo González y Wittig (b. 1975)
      • Marcos González y Wittig (b. 1979)
      • Bruno González y Wittig (b. 1981)
      • Moira González y Wittig (b. 1985)
    • Jennifer Wittig y Sanz (b. Lisbon), unmarried and without issue
• Fernando Sanz y Martínez de Arizala (28 February 1881, Madrid – 1922, Nice, France), unmarried and without issue

See also

• Monument to Alfonso XII

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

Ancestry

Family of Alfonso XII

16. Charles III of Spain 8. Charles IV of Spain 17. Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony 4. Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain 18. Philip, Duke of Parma 9. Princess Maria Luisa of Parma 19. Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France 2. Infante Francis of Spain, Duke of Cádiz 20. Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies 10. Francis I of the Two Sicilies 21. Archduchess Marie Caroline of Austria 5. Princess Luisa Carlotta of the Two Sicilies 22. Charles IV of Spain (=8) 11. Infanta Maria Isabella of Spain 23. Princess Maria Luisa of Parma (=9) 1. Alfonso XII of Spain 24. Charles III of Spain (=16) 12. Charles IV of Spain (=8) 25. Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony (=17) 6. Ferdinand VII of Spain 26. Philip, Duke of Parma (=18) 13. Princess Maria Luisa of Parma (=9) 27. Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France (=19) 3. Isabella II of Spain 28. Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (=20) 14. Francis I of the Two Sicilies (=10) 29. Archduchess Marie Caroline of Austria (=21) 7. Princess Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies 30. Charles IV of Spain (=8) 15. Infanta Maria Isabella of Spain (=11) 31. Princess Maria Luisa of Parma (=9)

External links

• Royal House of Spain
• Imperial House of Austria
• Historiaantiqua. Alfonso XII; (Spanish) (2008)