'Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg' (Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena;
24 October 1887 -
15 April 1969), was
queen consort of
King Alfonso XIII of Spain. She was a granddaughter of
Queen Victoria. The current
King of Spain,
Juan Carlos is her grandson.
Early life
Victoria Eugenie was born on
October 24 1887 at
Balmoral Castle,
Scotland. Her father was
Prince Henry of Battenberg, the fourth child and second son of
Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine by Countess
Julia von Hauke. Her mother was
Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter and youngest child of
Queen Victoria.
As her father was the product of a
morganatic marriage, Henry took his style of ''Prince of Battenberg'' from his mother, who had been created Princess of Battenberg in her own right. As such Henry's daughter would have been born ''Her Serene Highness Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg'', but on
13 December 1886 Queen Victoria decreed that Beatrice and Henry's children would bear the style of "Highness" (deemed higher than that of "Serene Highness" in non-Latin monarchies). She was named for her two grandmothers and for her godmother,
Empress Eugénie, the Spanish-born widow of the former Emperor of the French
Napoleon III, who lived in exile in
England. The last of her given names was chosen because of her birth in
Scotland (her younger brother Maurice would receive "Donald" as the last of his given names for the same reason) and due to her lineage (as a descendant of the
House of Stuart and the Anglo-Scottish
Ferrers): Princess Beatrice had written 'Eua' on the birth document (a Gaelic name), but this was misread by Dr. Cameron Lees, who presided at her christening, as 'Ena'. To her family, and the British general public, she was ever afterwards known as ''Ena''.
Victoria Eugenie grew up in Queen Victoria's household, as the British monarch had reluctantly allowed Beatrice to marry on the condition that she remain her mother's full time companion and personal secretary. She therefore spent her childhood at
Windsor Castle, Balmoral, and
Osborne House on the
Isle of Wight. Her father died while on active military service after contracting fever in Africa in
1896. After the death of Queen Victoria in
1901, the
Battenbergs moved to
London and took up residence in
Kensington Palace.
Queen Victoria died in 1901 when Victoria Eugenie was 13 years old and Princess Beatrice and her children established their residence in Kensington Palace. During a summer in Osborne, Victoria Eugenie met
Grand Duke Boris Vladimirovich of Russia, a cousin to
Nicholas II. The Grand Duke felt attracted to the beautiful English princess and when they met again in
Niza in
1905, he proposed marriage to her. She was about to accept but declined at the last moment.
Engagement
In
1905 King
Alfonso XIII of Spain made an official visit to
England. Victoria Eugenia's uncle, King
Edward VII, hosted a dinner in
Buckingham Palace, in honour of the Spanish King. Alfonso sat down between
Queen Alexandra and
Princess Helena, King Edward's sister. Suddenly he noticed Victoria Eugenie and he asked
Princess Helena who was that princess with almost white hair. When she noticed the King had his eyes on her, Victoria Eugenie felt ashamed. Everybody knew that King Alfonso was looking for a suitable bride and one of the strongest candidates was
Princess Patricia of Connaught, daughter of King Edward's brother, the
Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. But now Victoria Eugenia had kept the King's attention and, as Princess Patricia seemed not to be impressed by the Spanish monarch, Alfonso's interest grew towards Victoria Eugenie. So the courtship began and when Alfonso returned to Spain he constantly sent postcards to Victoria Eugenia and seemed very enthusiastic about her. His mother,
Maria Christina of Austria, didn't agree with her son's selection, in part because she considered the Battenbergs a non-Royal family, because of the obscure origin of Prince Henry's mother, and in part because she wanted her son to marry within her own family, the Habsburgs from Austria. There was another great obstacle for Alfonso to marry Victoria Eugenia, and he was advised about it. Victoria Eugenie was a potential carrier of haemophilia, the blood disease the Queen Victoria had transmitted to some of her descendants. In fact, Victoria Eugenie's brother Leopold was haemophiliac, so there was a fifty percent probability that Victoria Eugenie would be a carrier, although the degree of risk was not yet known. Still, if Alfonso married her, their issue could be affected by the disease. However, Alfonso was not dissuaded.
After a year of rumours about which princess the King of Spain would marry,
Maria Christina of Austria finally acceded to her son's selection in January 1906 and wrote a letter to
Princess Beatrice, Victoria Eugenie's mother, telling her about the love Alfonso felt for her daughter and asking for a non-official contact with King
Edward VII. Some days later in Windsor, King Edward congratulated his niece on her future engagement.
Princess Beatrice and her daughter arrived in
Biarritz on 22 January and stayed at the Villa Mauriscot where some days later King Alfonso met them. At the Villa Mauriscot, the King and his future bride had a three-days-romance. Then, Alfonso took Victoria Eugenia and her mother to San Sebastian to meet
Maria Christina of Austria. On 3 February, the King left San Sebastian to go to Madrid and Victoria Eugenie and her mother went to Versailles where the Princess would be instructed in the Catholic faith; as the future Queen of Spain, she had to change her Anglican religion for the Catholic one. The official reception of Victoria Eugenie into the Catholic faith took place on
5 March 1906 at Miramar Palace in San Sebastian.
The terms of the marriage were settled by two agreements, a public treaty and a private contractual arrangement. The treaty was executed between Spain and the
United Kingdom in London on 7 May 1906 by their respective
plenipotentiaries, the Spanish Ambassador to the
Court of St. James's Don Luis Polo de Bernabé, and the British Foreign Secretary Sir
Edward Grey, Bt.
Ratifications were exchanged on 23 May following. Among other conditions, the treaty stipulated:
BE it known unto all men by these Present that whereas His Catholic Majesty Alfonso XIII, King of Spain, has judged it proper to announce his intention of contracting a marriage with Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena, niece of His Majesty Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, and daughter of Her Royal Highness the Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore (Princess Henry of Battenberg)...''Article I.'' It is concluded and agreed that the marriage between His said Majesty King Alfonso XIII and Her said Royal Highness the Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena shall be solemnized in person at Madrid as soon as the same may conveniently be done. ''II.'' His said Majesty King Alfonso XIII engages to secure to Her said Royal Highness the Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena from the date of her marriage with His Majesty, and for the whole period of the marriage, an annual grant of 450,000 ''pesetas''. His said Majesty King Alfonso XIII also engages, if, by the will of Divine Providence, the said Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena should become his widow, to secure to her, from the date of his death, an annual grant of 250,000 ''pesetas'', unless and until she contracts a second marriage, both these grants having already been voted by the ''Cortes''. The private settlements to be made on either side in regard to the said marriage will be agreed upon and expressed in a separate Contract, which shall, however, be deemed to form an integral part of the present Treaty...''III.'' The High Contracting Parties take note of the fact that Her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena, according to the due tenor of the law of England, forfeits for ever all hereditary rights of succession to the Crown and Government of Great Britain...[1]
The treaty's reference to the forfeiture of Ena's British succession rights reflected neither the British government's
censure of the alliance, nor to any made by her. Rather, it was an explicit recognition of the fact that by marrying a Roman Catholic, Ena lost any right to inherit the British crown as a consequence of Britain's
Act of Settlement. This exclusion was personal and limited: those among her descendants who do not become Roman Catholic remain in the
line of succession to the British throne.
The treaty did not constitute compliance with the
Royal Marriages Act of
1772, which requires that descendants of King
George II obtain the British sovereign's prior permission to marry by
Order-in-Council. While an exception to this requirement exists for descendants of royal daughters that marry "into foreign families", Ena's father had been
naturalised a British subject prior to his wedding. Nevertheless, concern about reaction to the marriage among
Protestants prompted the British government to avoid having the King consent to the marriage in his
Privy Council. This omission would have rendered the marriage
void in Britain, but the Government took the position that Ena was not bound by the Royal Marriages Act, apparently relying upon the law's use of the flexible construction "foreign families", since Prince Henry's father had been German and his mother Polish.
Queen of Spain
Victoria Eugenie married King Alfonso at the Royal Monastery of San Geronimo in Madrid on
31 May 1906. Present at the ceremony were her widowed mother as well as her cousins, the Prince and Princess of Wales (later
King George V and
Queen Mary),
After the wedding ceremony, the royal procession was heading back to the Royal Palace when an
assassination attempt was made on the King and his new consort (now called "Queen Victoria Eugenia" or, less formally, "Queen Ena").
Anarchist Mateu Morral threw a bomb from a balcony at the royal carriage. Ena's life was saved because, at the exact moment the bomb exploded, she turned her head in order to see St. Mary's Church, which Alfonso was showing her. She escaped injury, although her dress was spotted with the blood of a guard who was riding beside the carriage.
After the inauspicious start to her tenure as Queen of Spain, Ena became isolated from the Spanish people and was unpopular in her new land. Her married life improved when she gave birth to a son and heir to the kingdom, Don
Alfonso. However, while the baby prince was being
circumcised, the doctors noted that he did not stop bleeding — the first sign that the infant heir had haemophilia. Ena was the obvious source of the condition, which was inherited by her eldest and youngest sons. Contrary to the response of
Nicholas II of Russia, whose
son and heir by another
granddaughter of Queen Victoria was similarly afflicted, Alfonso is alleged never to have forgiven Ena nor to have come to terms with what had happened. In all, King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia had seven children, five sons and two daughters. Neither of their daughters is known to have been a carrier of haemophilia.
After the birth of her children, Ena's relationship with Alfonso deteriorated. Alfonso was suspected of having numerous
affairs, including a dalliance with Ena's British-born cousin, the
Infanta Beatrice d'Orléans-Borbón.
Ena devoted herself to work for hospitals and services for the poor, as well as to education. She was also involved in the reorganization of the Spanish
Red Cross.
Exile
The Spanish royal family went into exile on
14 April 1931 after municipal elections brought Republicans to power in most of the major cities, leading to the proclamation of the
second Spanish Republic. Alfonso XIII had hoped that his voluntary exile might avert a civil war between the Republicans and the Nationalists. The royal family went to live in
France and later
Italy. Ena and Alfonso later separated, and she lived partly in England and partly in
Switzerland. In
1939, after
World War II started, Ena was asked to leave the
United Kingdom, as she was no longer a member of the
British Royal Family. She purchased a
chateau, the
Vielle Fontaine, outside of
Lausanne.
In
1938, the whole family gathered in
Rome for the baptism of Don Juan's eldest son,
Juan Carlos of Spain. On
15 January 1941, Alfonso XIII, feeling his death was near, transferred his rights to the Spanish crown to his son Don
Juan de Borbon, Count of Barcelona. On
12 February, Alfonso suffered the first heart attack. Alfonso died on
28 February 1941.
Ena returned briefly to Spain in February
1968, to stand as godmother at the baptism of her great-grandson,
Infante Don Felipe, the son of Infante Don Juan Carlos de Borbón y Borbón Dos-Sicilias (later King
Juan Carlos I of Spain) and
Princess Sofia of Greece and Denmark (later Queen Sofia).
Later life
Ena died in Lausanne on
15 April 1969, aged 81, exactly 38 years after she had left Spain for exile. She was interred in the church of ''Sacré Coeur'' in
Lausanne. On
25 April 1985, her remains were returned to Spain and reinterred in the Royal Vault in the
Escorial, outside Madrid, next to the remains of her husband, Alfonso XIII, and her sons, Infante Don Alfonso, Infante Don Jaime, and Infante Don Gonzalo.
Ena's grandson
Juan Carlos is the present King of Spain. She was also the godmother of
Albert II, Prince of Monaco, the current Sovereign Prince.
Titles, styles, honours and arms
Titles
★ '
1887-
1906': ''Her Highness'' Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg
★ '
1906': ''Her Royal Highness'' Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg
★ '
1906-
1941': ''Her Majesty'' The Queen of Spain
★ '
1941-
1969': ''Her Majesty'' Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Notes |
|---|
| HRH Infante Don Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg, Prince of Asturias, later Count of Covadonga | 10 May 1907 | 6 September 1938) | renounced all rights to the Spanish throne for himself and his descendants (because of his intended unequal marriage), 11 June 1933; m. 1st 1933 (div. 1937) Edelmira Ignacia Adriana Sampedro y Robato (5 March 1906-23 May 1994); m. 2nd 1937 (div. 1938) Marta Ester Rocafort y Altazarra (18 September 1913-4 February 1993). He died in a car crash in 1938 |
| HRH Infante Don Jaime de Borbón y Battenberg, Duke of Segovia, later Duke of Anjou, Madrid, and Segovia | 23 June 1908 | 20 March 1975 | renounced all rights to the Spanish throne (because of his physical infirmities), 21 June 1933; m. 1st Rome 1935 (div. 1947 and 1949) Emanuela de Dampierre (8 November 1913-); m. 2nd 1949 Charlotte Tiedemann (2 January 1919-3 July 1979). At the age of four he suffered from double mastoiditis and the resulting operation left him deaf; his speech never developed properly |
| HRH Infanta Doña Beatriz de Borbón y Battenberg | 22 June 1909 | 22 November 2002 | m. 1935 Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince di Civitella-Cesi (7 December 1911-12 May 1986) |
| HRH Infante Fernando de Borbón y Battenberg | 1910 | 1910 | stillborn |
| HRH Infanta Doña María Cristina de Borbón y Battenberg | 12 December 1911 | 23 December 1996 | m. 1940 Count Enrico Marone (15 March 1895-23 October 1968), and had issue |
| HRH Infante Don Juan, Count of Barcelona | 20 June 1913 | 1 April 1993 | recognized as heir apparent to the Spanish throne and held the title Prince of Asturias from 21 June 1933, but preferred to use the title Count of Barcelona; renounced his claim to the throne in favor of his son, Juan Carlos on 14 May 1977; m. 1935 HRH Princess Maria de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (23 December 1910-2 January 2000), and had issue |
| HRH Infante Don Gonzalo de Borbón y Battenberg | 24 October 1914 | 13 August 1934 | also a haemophiliac. He died in a car accident in Austria |
References and notes
★ "Queen Victoria Eugénie, Granddaughter of Queen Victoria (Obituary)", ''The Times'',
16 April 1969, p. 12, column E.
★ "Franco at Bourbon Prince's Baptism", ''The Times'',
9 February 1968, p. 4, column 4.
★
Queen Victoria's Descendants, , Marlene A., Eilers, Atlantic International, 1987, ISBN 0-938311-04-2
1. Hoelseth's Royal Corner
Links
★
- A photographic collection of images of Queen Victoria Eugenia
|-
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