Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (Balmoral Castle, Scotland 1887 - Lausanne, Switzerland 1969) was Queen consort of Spain for her marriage to King Alfonso XIII. She was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and grandmother of the present King of Spain, John Charles I.
She was the daughter of Henry of Battenberg and his wife Princess Beatrice. Victoria was named after her two grandmothers and her godmother, Empress Eugenie, widow of Napoleon III. Familiarly called her by the name of Ena, meaning Eve in Scotland.
Princess Ena grew up in the court of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. She spent her childhood in Windsor Castle, Balmoral and Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Her father died in 1896 after contracting a fever in Africa. After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, took up residence in Battenberg Castle Kensington, London.
In 1905 the princess attended a party thrown by his uncle, Edward VII, given in honor of Alfonso XIII of Spain. The Spanish monarch began courting the young princess despite the existing opposition to a possible marriage.
Queen Maria Cristina, mother of Alfonso XIII, was not in favor of this union, given the obscure origins of Battenberg line. Eugenie Victoria also bore only treating Serene Highness, Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (Balmoral Castle, Scotland 1887 - Lausanne, Switzerland 1969) was Queen consort of Spain for her marriage to King Alfonso XIII. She was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and grandmother of the present King of Spain, John Charles I.
She was the daughter of Henry of Battenberg and his wife Princess Beatrice. Victoria was named after her two grandmothers and her godmother, Empress Eugenie, widow of Napoleon III. Familiarly called her by the name of Ena, meaning Eve in Scotland.
Princess Ena grew up in the court of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. She spent her childhood in Windsor Castle, Balmoral and Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Her father died in 1896 after contracting a fever in Africa. After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, took up residence in Battenberg Castle Kensington, London.
In 1905 the princess attended a party thrown by his uncle, Edward VII, given in honor of Alfonso XIII of Spain. The Spanish monarch began courting the young princess despite the existing opposition to a possible marriage.
Queen Maria Cristina, mother of Alfonso XIII, was not in favor of this union, given the obscure origins of Battenberg line. Eugenie Victoria also bore only treating Serene Highness, that the Queen considered inferior. Moreover, the history of hemophilia from the branch of the family of her grandmother (Queen Victoria) also liked the queen.
Nevertheless, the Spanish Royal House announced on March 9, 1906 the engagement of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Princess Victoria Eugenie. The news worried many Spanish because the bride was Anglican and did not have enough category.
The princess avoided the first hurdle to convert to Catholicism. Conversion ceremony celebrated Bishop of Nottingham in the chapel of the Palacio de Miramar. His uncle, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, the second obstacle was removed to give her the treatment of Royal Highness. The marriage took place at the Church of St. Jerome that year and Queen first wore the crown of lilies.
After the ceremony, the wedding party that went to the Royal Palace suffered an attack by Mateo Morral, who threw a bomb from a balcony to the royal carriage, which bounced off the roof down to it, killing many people and all shot of chivalry. After this, the new Queen of Spain came before the wedding guests at the Royal Palace with bloodied clothing for the dead who were in the explosion.
Her years at the Spanish court were complicated. In her reserved nature, joined him the difficult relationship with the Queen Mother Maria Cristina of Habsburg-Lorraine, who always maintained her authority and influence over the King. When World War I broke out, the differences between the two are exalted as the Queen Mother showed her clear sentiment in favor of the Germans, while the Queen Consort showed his support for her cousin, King George V of the United Kingdom.
As for her personal relationships with her husband, Alfonso XIII always reproached the transmission of hemophilia on their children and heirs. Furthermore, the relationship was cooling and Spanish King's infidelities were becoming commonplace in Palace. Victoria Eugenie began a personal isolation that further alienated the people, focused on her passion for jewelry and luxury.
The couple had a total of 7 children:
- Prince Alfonso, Prince of Asturias. Born hemophiliac and renounced his rights to the throne in 1933 to marry a Cuban lady, plebeian, Edelmira Sampedro and Robato in Switzerland. Using since the title of Count of Covadonga.
- Prince James. Deaf and mute after a double mastoiditis at age 4, he became Duke of Segovia and Duke of Anjou.
- Princess Beatrice, Princess of Civitella Cesi.
- Prince Ferdinand, stillborn in 1910.
- Princess Maria Cristina, Countess of Marone Cinzano-.
- Prince John, Count of Barcelona.
- Prince Gonzalo.
After the birth of their children marriage deteriorated because Alfonso XIII maintaining numerous relationships extraEnmatrimoniales.
The Spanish royal family went into exile in 1931, when municipal elections in the same year won the Republican parties in most major cities, following the King Alfonso XIII abdicated and deliberately suspended the exercise of royal power, which resulted in the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic. The royal family moved to France and later the Kingdom of Italy. The royal couple ended up separating and Victoria Eugenie returned to Britain. In 1939, during World War II, the Queen was invited to leave the UK and ceased to belong to the British royal family. She moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, where she settled definitively in a mansion called Vielle Fontaine where her grandchildren came to visit.
In 1938 the whole family gathered in Rome for the christening of the son of Prince Juan de Borbon, John Charles, King of Spain today. In 1941 Alfonso XIII, sensing that his death was near,inheritance rights transferred from the Spanish Crown to his son John.
Victoria Eugenie returned briefly to Spain to serve as godmother at the christening of her grandson, Prince Felipe (Prince of Asturias, current heir to the Spanish crown), son of the then Prince of Spain John Carlos de Borbon and Princess of Spain, Sophia of Greece and Denmark.
The Queen died at her home in Lausanne in 1969. She was buried in the chapel of the Sacred Heart of Lausanne. In 1985 the Royal House moved his remains to the royal crypt of the Escorial Monastery. After spending the time set in the actual rotting room in 2011 was located in the Pantheon of Kings sharing her room with her husband Alfonso XIII
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