Victoria Eugenia

Victoria Eugenie left Kensington Palace (London, United Kingdom) on 24 May 1906 to marry King Alfonso XIII (1886–1941). He waited for her in Irún and accompanied her by train to El Plantío station (Madrid), where she was received by her future mother-in-law Queen María Cristina of Habsburg (1858–1929). 

Until the wedding Victoria Eugenia stayed at El Pardo Palace, where the marriage agreement was read and the pre-wedding receptions were held.

The ceremony was attended by kings and queens, princes and princesses and official representatives from all over the world. The many Spanish and foreign press correspondents present provided extensive coverage, which still survives. 

After the event the king and queen made their way to the Royal Palace of Madrid. Along the way the procession was violently interrupted in the Calle Mayor by an assassination attempt by the anarchist Mateo Morral (1879-1906), which injured and killed many people.

This dramatic start to her reign, remembered by Victoria Eugenia until the end of her days, was interpreted by many as an ill omen.

Queens of Spain had occupied the San Gil wing, in the southeast corner of the Royal Palace of Madrid since the 19th century. It began to be remodelled in 1906 to accommodate the king and queen’s apartments.

Victoria Eugenia’s private rooms—Reception Room, Corbeille, Tea Room, Music Room, Study, Bedroom, Bathroom and Dressing Room—which are recreated in this area, were adjacent to the king’s quarters.

Victoria Eugenia decided to decorate her private rooms, whose walls were lined with pastel-toned silks, with historical furniture. She combined it with personal and devotional objects, family portraits and special mementoes, such as the painting Choir Boys of Seville Cathedral by Gonzalo Bilbao (1860-1938), a reminder of happy stays in this city, to which the queen felt deeply attached.

The British custom the queen introduced of 5 o’clock tea, her dressing room, her fondness for fashion and reading, and her love of music and photography are represented in this section by various objects that accompanied her in her most private spaces and give an idea of her cultured nature and keen eye for detail.

One of Victoria Eugenia’s most important duties as queen was to ensure the succession to the throne—which she more than fulfilled, as she gave birth to seven children between 1907 and 1914.

However, her happiness as a mother was marred by the frail health of the heir, who was born with haemophilia—a disorder from which the Infante Gonzalo also suffered, though the other siblings were spared. In addition, the Infante Jaime was left deaf and mute by an ear operation.

Victoria Eugenia personally took charge of her children’s upbringing and education according to the standards with which she herself had been raised. She instilled in them a love of reading and a fondness for playing sports and exercising outdoors, especially in the gardens of the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso in Segovia and the Palace of La Magdalena in Santander.

In the Royal Palace of Madrid the children’s rooms were located on the mezzanine floor of the San Gil wing. They were connected to the royal apartments by an electric lift and decorated in a simple but highly personal style, which is still preserved today.

Throughout her reign Victoria Eugenia sat for great Spanish and foreign artists, who show various aspects of the queen through different perspectives.

Some, such as Ricard Canals (1876-1931), opted for bold and innovative approaches, dispensing with symbols and emphasising the queen’s beauty rather than her royal status. Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923), who painted her four times, chose to show her with a fan and mantilla in one picture (1907). This refreshing portrait displeased the British royal family.

Others, such as Philip Alexius László de Lombos (1869-1937), who also painted her on several occasions, exalted her regal status and elegance. The same emphasis on distinction was adopted by Bernhard Österman (1870-1938), who depicted her adorned with emerald jewellery, and by Félix Mestres (1872-1933) in his portrait inspired by the work of the photographer Franzen (1863-1923).

An iconographic approach to royal portraiture was chosen by artists such as Luis Menéndez Pidal (1861-1932) and Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor (1875-1960) in their full-length representations of her in the interior and grounds of the Royal Palace of Madrid.

Sculptors were also interested in portraying Victoria Eugenia. Notable among all her sculptural likenesses are the busts created by Mariano Benlliure (1862-1947) in marble (1916) and bronze (1922).

Victoria Eugenia displayed a strong sense of dynastic duty and commitment to the king and to Spain. 

She regularly accompanied the king at official ceremonies, such as the Opening of Parliament, dressed in the royal regalia with which she was depicted by Franzen (1863-1923) and Fernando Álvarez de Sotomayor (1875-1960).

She also made many trips around Spain with Alfonso XIII—the king and queen’s chief means of keeping in touch with the people—and attended inaugurations and State and military events. This unceasing representational activity was captured by photojournalists and artists such as Alfonso Grosso (1893-1983), who depicted her at the opening of the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition in Seville.

Despite her modern outlook, as queen she had to adapt to the rigid and hierarchical Spanish court etiquette. She accepted a court with ladies-in-waiting whose duty it was to accompany her inside and outside the palace, in strict order of seniority, and kept up various palace events such as the public chapel ceremonies and the pillow ceremony.

Victoria Eugenia established a new social role for Spanish queens consort, which can be considered her greatest contribution to history. She carved out a place for herself in the implementation of philanthropic projects related to health, welfare and education, especially for women and children.

The queen spent much of the day in her study, where she managed her personal involvement in various causes, placing professionals she trusted implicitly in charge of them. She also used her influence to set up Ladies’ Committees to raise funds and involve high society and the aristocracy in her projects.

The main projects supported by Victoria Eugenia included creating free community kitchens, combating tuberculosis and establishing hygiene committees, though out of all these causes her backing of the Spanish Red Cross was particularly notable. The press at the time reported on the queen's involvement in these matters.
 
This humanitarian work earned her various distinctions, such as the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Charity with white decoration, and the Golden Rose, the highest honour awarded by the pope to a Catholic queen.

On 14 April 1931, following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, Alfonso XIII left Spain voluntarily without formally abdicating.

The queen’s departure from Madrid by car the following day marked the start of a painful exile. Although the king and queen were reunited in Paris, they later went their separate ways, as their personal relationship had deteriorated.

In 1934 the queen moved to London and subsequently settled in Rome, where some of her children lived and where she maintained sporadic contact with Alfonso XIII.

After the king's death in 1941 Victoria Eugenia regained her lost status, becoming the central figure in the family and a representative of the Spanish Royal Household, although she always remained on the sidelines of political activity. In 1942 she acquired the Vieille Fontaine in Lausanne (Switzerland), which became her permanent home.

She returned to Spain only once, in 1968: as godmother at the christening of her great-grandson, the current King Felipe VI. Her presence and the outpouring of affection she received signified a kind of symbolic reinstatement for the queen.

Victoria Eugenia died in Lausanne on 15 April 1969. On 25 April 1985 her mortal remains were transferred to the Pantheon of Kings in the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.