RULERS OF SPAIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20868, 9 May 1931, Page 1 (Supplement)

RULERS OF SPAIN.

A CHEQUERED HISTORY.

Bt M.K.L.

The political incapacity of the Spaniard has so far been a byword. It remains to be seen whether a republic will not load to a more dangerous incompetenco. Ihe Royal Family has itself repeatedly shown the defects of natural character —laziness, an entiro lack of ability and will power to cirry out good intentions and a blindness to the seriousness of any national emergency.

Of Philip IV., who feebly ruled from 1621 to 1665, the best that can be said is that ho sometimes possessed good intentions. An ambitious Minister, frightened that tho King might actually rule, had only to put before Philip somo Stato documents for perusal to see him, fearful of the work involved, wave them aside. But he was dignified, for he laughed only twice in public and one of those occasions was when a humorist let looso some mice in the women's gallery of a theatre. This august monarch was succeeded by Charles 11., a pitiful example of a man born with a mind in a state of senile decay, lie died on tho throne becauso the Spaniards had not the necessary initiative to depose him. At tho beginning of tho eighteenth century tho war of tho Spanish succession raged becauso Louis XIV. of France, who had married a daughter of Philip IV., placed upon tho Spanish throne his grandson, a French Bourbon Prince. Louis then made the proud boast that henceforth thero would be no Pyrenees. This grandson became King as Philip V., and kept his throne in spite of the opposition of England and Austria and in spite of his own incompetence. Thus began in 1701 the dynasty of the Spanish Bourbons, whoso history was to be tho most disgraceful of any royal family. During the eighteenth century thero were four Kings of Spain—Philip V., Ferdinand VI., Charles 111. and Charles IV. Spain needed good government, but as ono historian has said of these inonarchs, "the best that can bo claimed for them is that they allowed some good to be done." A Blessing in Disguise. Of Philip V. it is difficult to say eventhis. That prince had tho opportunity to reform Spanish administration. 110 neglected it to spend three millions on tho construction of another Versailles at La Granja. He had at his disposal an able Minister. Instead ho placed himself under the domination of a masterful wife who wasted Spanish money in puerilo Italian wars. And to cap all Philip was simple-minded and sometimes actually insane. Of his successors it may be said that, incompetent as they were, they did import somo French ideas of a strong central government and did do something to destroy the tendency to provincialism so common in Spanish politics and even at tho present time manifesting itself in Catalonia.

In 1808 Napoleon forced the Spanish King Charles IV". to abdicate. Charles IV. was a sorry spectacle. Honest he was, it is true, but incredibly stupid and blind to tliOj intrigue which his wife, who was also his cousin, carried on with tho chief Minister of the State, Godoy. Napoleon bundled him off bis throne, invaded Spain, and set on the throne Joseph Bonaparte. Tho Spaniards would have none of him and waged a guerilla warfare which drained Franco deep of blood and money. In 1814 the Bourbons were back, for it was the Spanish ulcer that ruined Napoleon. Worthless as their Royal Family was, the Spaniards were not prepared to submit to French domination. Ferdinand VII. ascended tho throno in 1814 and, merely to show how enlightened ho was, he restored the Inquisition. That venerable institution, however, did not long continue. His reign is a pitiful record of turmoil, cruelty and corruption. He died in 1833, having wrecked his constitution by debauchery. His reign saw the loss of his country's South American dominions. In actual fact they had been for somo time a drain on tho mother country's resources and their loss was a blessing in disguise. Civil War. Ferdinand's fourth wife was his niece, by whom he had two daughters, one of whom, Isabella 11., is the grandmother of Alfonso IXIII. Tho succession of Isabella to the throne provoked an internal war, tho Royalists supporting her and the Carlists supporting Ferdinand's brother. Tho civil war was a terrible affair, characterised by tho fiercest savagery. Eventually Isabella triumphed, only to bo driven from her throno in 1868. " She had inherited her father's jovial perfidy with her mother's sensuality, had many superstitions but 110 principles, and alternated between tho influenco of her ecclesiastical advisers and that of her numerous transitory lovers." This much can bo said in her favour. She was tho subject of a vilo trick whereby she was married to her cousin, a vicious man of feeble constitution. Her sister married a French prince, the idea of tho whole precious scheme being that Isabella would almost certainly bear her husband 110 children, thus paving the way ultimately for French influence in Spain. When theso cunningly-planned marriages became public property the British Government was infuriated, but could do nothing. In any caso Isabella did have children and one of them was Alfonso XII.

Seeking a King

After Isabella's expulsion the country endured tlneo regimes—first, the domination of a picturesque Catalan, General Prim; secondly, for three years after 1870, the precarious rule of an Italian prince, Don Amodeo of Savoy; and lastly, government (if the word can be so misused) by a republic. Prim's time was spent in tiio thankless task of finding a King. After several gentlemen had refused the offer of tlio throne Amodeo eventually accepted it. The day the new King landed in Spain Prim died of an assassin's bullet.

Afterwards the unfortunate prince met with opposition from every side and gave up his position in disgust. The republic dragged on till 1874, characterised by " tun dreary round of anarchy, civil war, clerical intrigues, republican excesses, military conspiracies and reaction." Tho mass of the people took little interest in political happenings. Those living in the towns were, and still are, politically active, but they number only one-tenth of the wholo population. Consequently it may be said—and this is true to a great extent at tho present day—that the majority of tho people have little to do with changes in the government. Generally speaking they do not take the trouble to vote. The votes cast at the election of last month were doubtless mainly by townsmen. The danger is obvious—it happened in Russia—that a communistic clique may gain control before tho people realise tho position. However this may be, in 1874 there was a restoration of tho monarchy. Isabella's son, Alfonso XIL, became King and married a daughter of tho Imperii I Austrian family of tho Ilapsbut'gs. Strange fact of history that the issue of that union, Alfonso XIII., should seek his wife not as all his ancestors had done, among tho Bourbons and the Hapsluirgs, but in our own Royal Family. His mother was devoted to her son and was a woman who did much to inspire respect for Ul3 Royal Family. Alfonso seems to have been a better man than his predecessors, imbued with a greater love for his country. It has not been enough to keep him on his throno..