one afternoon, shortly after the audience already referred to, i was crossing the plaza de oriente in madrid, towards the royal palace. an automobile came whirling up from the casa de campo and as it passed, a hand waved through the window. it was the spontaneous action of a man aglow with youth and energy. just beyond, the car stopped, the door opened, and the king jumped out. i was so surprised i even forgot to throw away the cigar i was smoking. in the friendliest and most natural way possible, his majesty shook my hand and told me that at five o’clock they were going to play polo for the queen’s cup at the casa de campo grounds and if i cared to go along, to find one of the palace secretaries and tell him to order a carriage for me from the royal mews.
it did not take long to find don pablo churruca, who promptly procured the carriage and we drove together through the lovely gardens of the royal park, arranged by the queen maria cristina, to the polo field. these polo grounds are some three or four miles from the palace, and command an imposing panorama of guadarrama{68} mountains which, owing to their considerable height, are snow-capped until late june. the polo field was laid out by the marquis of viana, the king’s bosom friend and his master of the horse. the marquis is prouder of this polo field than almost anything else in the world, and with reason. it is a magnificent greensward, kept in perfect condition. here the king comes to play three times a week during the stay of the court in madrid.
don alfonso looks upon his regular daily exercise as much as a part of his kingly duties as signing documents or reviewing troops. he is the only polo-playing sovereign in the world, and in this, as in everything else, he is an enthusiast.
that day, he had a string of seventeen ponies in charge of eleven grooms on hand for frequent changes. at the royal mews, he has more than double this number, most of them at present coming from the argentine republic.
king alfonso is at his best in the saddle. he rides like a born horseman and nowhere,—not even in military uniform,—does he appear to better advantage than at polo. his reckless energy and boundless spirit are ever to the fore. when he starts after the ball, he goes full tilt, showing no consideration, asking none. as the riders sweep up and down and across the field, the king is ever in the thickest of the game, riding hard, driving hard and holding his own with the strongest and best. during the succeeding weeks i went many times to the polo games.{69}
at the close of the game each day, his majesty would walk across the field to ask the few invited guests present to join the players for tea which is served in a spacious tent erected near to the club chalet. the usual players whom i saw there were the duke of alba, the marquis of viana, the marquis of santo domingo, count de la cimera, count de la maza and mr. marshal, an english professional. besides these players there were usually three or four other gentlemen and half a dozen ladies.
after the game, the king would come strolling across the grounds in his riding togs, a loose coat on, but unbuttoned, a grey soft hat carelessly balanced on the back of his head. as he approached, the gentlemen would uncover as would his majesty, and in turn he would greet each one. as he shook hands with the ladies, each in turn would do a fascinating curtsey. then all would repair into the tent—and the rest was like afternoon tea in any english country house. and incidentally, english is the language most used by all the company. the king and several of the players use english almost precisely as their mother tongue.
the fearlessness of don alfonso at polo is typical of his whole life. he is a fatalist. his spirit is as much endless courage as an absolute lack of the knowledge of fear. i doubt if he has any conception of the nature or quality of that emotion.
now that the lamented king edward is gone,{70} it will perhaps be no indiscretion to make public an incident in connection with king alfonso’s going to barcelona when that city was believed to be on the eve of a revolution. “i am needed there,” said don alfonso. despite the entreaties of the entire court, he planned to go. just before the day he was to start from the capital, king edward summoned one of the spanish embassy in london. he said that he had not slept the entire night through worry about king alfonso’s going to barcelona. he begged that a message be immediately sent to madrid beseeching alfonso to abandon the trip. don alfonso acknowledged the message. but, he proceeded to barcelona. the results of the trip vindicated the young king’s wisdom. the long and short of it is, king alfonso is a man, a man to be trusted in a tight place. his theory is, “if they set out to kill me, they will get me anyway, so in the meantime, why bother my head about it?” this allegiance to duty is with him a passion, a veritable religion in the highest sense.
take the regular routine of the king’s day. he rises early—from seven to seven-thirty; some mornings when he reviews troops, he leaves the palace at six. he is occupied with his correspondence and state papers until ten when he receives the prime minister and one other minister. the premier reports every morning and the other members of the council are received every day in turn. then come the regular audiences which occupy him until one-thirty or two, when he takes lunch{71}eon. in the afternoon, he does whatever chores may come up,—the opening of a bazaar or exhibition, or any of the endless calls which are made upon the sovereign. at four, he has tea with the queen and then goes to polo or pigeon shooting or takes his regular exercise, whatever it may be for the day. upon his return, there are sometimes further audiences, and always before dressing for dinner, he peruses the day’s cuttings from the newspapers of the world. forty-six daily newspapers come regularly to the palace. each afternoon, the king’s private secretaries (there are five of them in all, appointed from the diplomatic corps) glean from these every item of news likely to be of interest to the sovereign. nothing is skipped, criticism and unkindly comment go in with all the rest. these clippings are pasted on sheets of paper which are bound together with a red and yellow cord and left on his majesty’s table.
at eight-thirty he dines. week day evenings, the king goes to whatever social functions he has to attend. king alfonso appreciates his social duties as a sovereign quite as much as his duties of state.
coming down the main stairway of a house in madrid after a dance at five o’clock in the morning once he met one of his secretaries. “you lucky beggar,” he exclaimed, “you need not get out of your bed before three in the afternoon, while i must be up to receive my ministers as usual!” one of the great reasons for the popular{72}ity of king alfonso is his attention to social affairs. he enters into these functions with the same zest that he does everything else and he is seldom accused of putting a damper on an occasion by leaving too early.
the great fact concerning don alfonso that appeals to me is his extreme humanness. he is ever and always on the spot. in his movements, he is as quick as lightning and his mind is extraordinarily alert. disciplined to the very highest pitch of efficiency, he is an all round able man, and would be so considered in any walk of life. he is never too busy to attend to the last, smallest detail concerning any matter in his kingdom.
one day he said to me, “anything that you want in spain, or about spain, don’t go anywhere else—let me know directly.”
whether he is presiding over his council of ministers or amiably and gracefully performing some ceremony incident to the duties of sovereignty or receiving in audience, or playing polo with his own chosen companions, or driving his great 70 h.p. car across country at reckless speed, or taking tea with the queen, he is always at once the same blithe spirit, the spontaneous youth and the earnest man of affairs. in uniform, he looks a born soldier. at polo, he appears like a man who lives for sport. in ordinary attire, he is the dapper young blood of any capital city, sleek, well-groomed, immaculate. his face is as elusive as a kaleidoscope, changing each second. smiles and{73} laughter play around his mouth and eyes but underneath the surface one instinctively feels the intense, thoughtful nature of an inspired leader of men.
these glimpses of the man—alfonso,—his character, temperament and personality, may enable us to picture the environment of the english princess, whose early life was spent in the tranquil atmosphere of the isle of wight and the favourite scottish home of queen victoria of england. from the moment of her entrance into spain, she has lived amid strenuous scenes, and in an atmosphere as different from her native land as anything could be. yet she has risen to it all like the born queen she is. that the lurking dangers which so often apprise her royal spouse, sorely try her spirit and sometimes wear her nerves is not to be wondered at. that she exercises the control she does is the cause of our admiration.
not since the year 1170 had an english queen been called to the throne of spain. in that year, alfonso viii, wooed and won the english eleanor, who, as queen, distinguished herself as a patroness of scholarship and learning, largely supporting by contribution, the university of palencia. it is the belief and hope of spain, that queen victoria will carry into spain english traditions along this line and during the years of her reign materially raise the educational standard of the whole people. certain it is that any work which she at{74}tempts will be heartily encouraged by her royal spouse.
queenship carries with it myriad duties,—not merely the duties of sovereign, official or political as the case may be, but first and foremost, the duties of motherhood, the duties of bearing and rearing kings and queens to be. for this high office, queen victoria was soon to demonstrate her aptitude and the best part of her romance lies in the story of the royal princes of spain which have blessed the marriage during the first four years.
