Royal Vendetta (Theo Aronson Royal History) by Aronson Theo

Author:Aronson, Theo [Aronson, Theo ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lume Books
Published: 2020-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

1

There were now two kings in Spain. Carlos VII was in his capital at Estella and Alfonso XII was in his capital at Madrid. Except that they were both young, the two monarchs were very different. Alfonso, although nothing like as impressive-looking as Don Carlos, was undoubtedly the more appealing personality. Small, nimble, and athletic, there was an indefinable luster about him; his was an attractiveness more telling than dignity. His manner was assured, his movements were graceful, his clothes were always beautifully cut. His face, with its clear, olive complexion, was fashionably moustached and bewhiskered; but it was his eyes—those fine, dark eyes—that were his chief attraction. In those early years they were almost never without a sparkle. He was a bright, smiling, effervescent young man, with all his mother’s virtues and very few of her vices. He had her charm, her friendliness, and her ability to win hearts, but his generosity was tempered with discretion and his amiability backed by a strong will. He was unconventional and impatient of protocol and pomposity; one of the first moves of his reign was to strip the court of much of its fusty formality. Unlike most of his predecessors, he rose early, worked hard, took plenty of exercise and dined at what in Spain was considered the unbelievably early hour of seven thirty. He was a daring and accomplished horseman.

Those years of exile, or what has been called his “adventurer’s bringing-up,” always stood him in very good stead. His eyes had been well and truly opened to the realities of his position. Flattery impressed him not at all and, in spite of the discomfort of some of his courtiers, he always appreciated a story against himself. One experience which he particularly enjoyed relating concerned a triumphal drive through some small Spanish town. He was sitting in a carriage beside the mayor, and because of the shrill shouts of “Viva el Rey!” from some boys running alongside, he could not make himself heard. “It is too bad,” he said politely to the mayor. “They scream so loudly that I cannot talk to you as I wish.”

“Ah, your Majesty,” answered the mayor with simple honesty, “if I had known that you would wish to talk with me, I would not have paid them so much.”

Then there was another occasion, an evening after dinner, when the King insisted on reading aloud a speech made earlier in the Cortes by a brilliant republican orator and directed against Alfonso himself. When the King had finished the flamboyant but insulting tirade, his indignant listeners cried out, “But, Señor—it is outrageous!”

“But, Señores,” answered the King with an appreciative twinkle, “it is magnificent.”

The first task facing this bright-eyed boy-king was to get rid of his rival, Don Carlos. The very fact that he himself had been proclaimed King—and had been recognized by the Pope—halved the difficulties; in a proclamation to the northern provinces, Alfonso underlined this aspect of the situation. “If you are fighting in the cause of

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