Lucky 13 For Spanish Monarch!

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 666, 18 May 1929, Page 18

Lucky 13 For Spanish Monarch!

Alfonso XIII. Escaping 13 Attempts On His Life Finds Charm Still Working In Case of 13 Plotters Who Were Overthrown in Scheme to Upset His Throne . . .

IS the number 13 unlucky? A lot of people still think so, and when the late | Dowager Queen Maria I Cristina announced on i the evening of May 17,

I&S6, that she had given her son the ominous title of Alfonso XIII the people gathered in front of the castle piously crossed themselves and whispered to one another that no good could come of tempting the fates like that.

But how the King of Spain has kicked that fearsome old legend into a cocked hat during these fortythree years! “My dear sir, the number 13 has been a good-luck talisman, all my life,’* Alfonso smilingly burst out a few years ago when an Ambassador for whom he had a deep liking asked him if he had never had any anxieties concerning it. “There have been exactly thirteen dangerous attempts to kill me, and I have never been touched once. The number 3,3 seems to have played a happy role in every phase of my life from my childhood up. What a ridiculous belief has been built up around it! Look at the great Pope Leo XIII! Remember the clever King Louis XIII of France!” This lucky 13 charm works for Alfonso in all sorts of ways. A short time ago Senor Sanchez Guerra a distinguished but exiled Spanish politician, set out in a small sailing ship from a French port for Valencia with the intention of proclaiming a republic in Spain. A widespread plot had been organised; the principal garrisons were waiting for the signal to revolt, and the King calmly sat on his throne, figuratively speaking without realizing that there was a bomb under it. But old Senor Don Guerra, ■who should have known better, had had the foolhardiness to embark with a crew of thirteen —all trusty revolutionaries. but thirteen heads nevertheless. - He allowed himself just sufficient time to arrive at Valencia at the zero hour set for the uprising without counting on the fates kicking up a storm that delayed him for two days. When he stepped off the boat at 1 p.m. (13 o’clock) the Cuidad Real garrison had gone off .half-cocked, so to speak, and the other disloyal garrisons throughout the country had been locked up in barracks. To top if off, he was thrown into cell No. 13 in the military prison at Valencia. “Ah. the old charm is still working, Primo,” the monarch laughingly remarked to the dictator, so the story goes in Spain. “Thank 13 that the both of us are not in flight to the French frontier, with a horde of enraged republicans at our heels. What a sight that -would be! How I should dearly love to see you run!’* Whether the number 13 is really working actively for King Alfonso or not, every one must admit that he has been lucky since the day he was

born and carried into the anterooms of the royal palace on a great silver salver for the grandees of Spain to see. The first of the thirteen attempts to kill Alfonso took place when he was only a babe in arms. A nurse who had a grievance against the royal family put poison in a milk bottle, but by a lucky hazard he did not drink any of it. During his youth he had several narrow escapes, particularly one from stabbing, but one of his most miraculous escapes was in 1905 when an anarchist threw a bomb at him and President Loubet, of France, as they were leaving the Comedie Francaise in Paris, after a special performance in his honour. The two rulers had a miraculous escape, but the horses in their carriage w'ere blown to pieces and the coachmen were catapulted a great distance. “What a ruffian he must be to kill poor beasts like that.” Alfonso calmly remarked after he had lifted President Loubet to his feet.

The most spectacular attack on his j life occured on May 31, 1906 —his \ wedding day. After the ceremony he and his bride, Princess Ena of Battenberg, a grand-daugliter of Queen Victoria of England, were driving through the streets of Madrid when an anarchist threw a bomb from a house belonging to the King’s mother. The royal couple escaped without a scratch, but the horses of their carriage and twelve bystanders were killed. Their carriage was wrecked. In 1913 a bullet missed King Alfonso’s head by a few inches, and in 1925 there were four attempts to kill him. Two of these attempted assassinations were staged to take place while Alfonso was en route from Barcelona to Madrid. At that time the ultraradical element in Barcelona was very hostile to the monarchy. Another time a bomb was thrown into a house in Madrid where he was attending a dance. And still another time an anarchist tried to shoot him in the San Sebastian Casino.

When King Alfonso was hunting, in 1926, four would-be assassins, agents of the radical republican group, hid themselves in the bathroom of the King’s lodge. The bathroom opened directly into the King’s bedroom and the door was usually bolted on the bedroom side. Just before the King entered his sleeping room to retire, his valet, a very old man shot the bolt of the door to the bathroom. When the men in the bathroom' heard Alfonso enter the room they pushed quietly against the door. Finding it locked, they threw their weight against it and then fired through the door. Guards rushed the bathroom and captured all four. Each was armed with two automatic pistols. In another attempt to assassinate Alfonso his chaffeur was killed. It was known to the plotters that the

Alfonso's coach has been bombed and * plotters have shot his servants , but the King has not been injured in Jo attempts against his life.

King was fond of driving liis own car and that he usually drove at a high speed. They planned to pick him off at the wheel. On the day set for the assassination Alfonso, by chance, rode on the rear seat. That saved his life, for at the speed the car was travelling the assassins could not see that their target was not the King.

During Alfonso’s visit to Paris in the summer of 1925 a well-developed plot to assassinate the Spanish ruler was frustrated by the Paris police. Of the five plotters discovered, two w'ere captured and both confessed that they had come to Paris expressly to kill Alfonso. They said they had been preparing their plot for six weeks. They intended to shoot the King during one of his promenades around the French capital, and when arrested had in their possession three carbines and 240 cartridges, besides ample funds. One of them had gone so far as to purchase an automobile from which they intended to murder Alfonso.

£13,000,000. In addition, the King is the principal stockholder in the biggest motorcar company in Spain, which may explain why the Spanish Army buys all its cars and trucks from this company. During the war this company built airplane motors at Paris for the French Government and after the armistice the latter demanded £11,000,000 from the company on account of excess profits. The King made a diplomatic protest, and the French Government returned the money, probably believing that his friendship meant more than the money. Here was another bit of luck, if one wants to call it that. In politics too,Alfonso has come off a lot better than Kings who have' had to share their power with dictators. “I wish I had a dictator, too,” he remarked to his intimates six years ago when he saw the Cabinets become weaker and weaker, “but I don’t want to become a nonentity like poor Victor Emmanuel of Italy.” “Why don’t you make your own dictator?” one of his aides asked him. “That is an idea,” he replied with a smile. The full story of how Alfonso created a dictator without losing any of his own authority is still a deep political secret. It seems that General Milans del Bosch,chief of his military household, hinted to General Primo de Rivera that the King would welcome a dictatorship provided that the general remained within certain limits. The coup d’etat was carried out without a shot being fired, and it happened that Alfonso was far enough away from Madrid at the time so that the frightened Cabinet could not. call on him to sign any decrees instituting martial law. That was another piece of good fortune, fo" it prevented bloodshed.

In spite of the thirteen really dangerous efforts against his life and innumerable obscure plots, he has never been injured. In finance, too the good fairies have smiled on Alfonso, and he has become the richest King in the world. His personal fortune is estimated at £13,000,000. When a new mining, manufacturing or public-utility company is organised in Spain it is the tradition to present' the sovereign with a large block of free stock particularly if it is a company that needs the good will of the Government or is indebted to the ruling powers for its charter. In this way he lias become a big stock-holder in virtually every money-making enterprise in Spain. His stock holdings are immense and many financiers estimate his fortune at far more than