The bomb was hidden inside a bouquet of flowers, and it was thrown from a balcony directly at the royal carriage. The explosive struck the hood of the vehicle and rebounded, and in the confusion that followed, twenty-eight people lay dead and another twenty were wounded. The bride and groom, Alfonso XIII of Spain and his new queen, Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg, emerged unharmed, but the marriage that had begun with such radiant promise only hours earlier had already been marked by blood. The young queen would spend the rest of her life trying to escape the shadow of that day.

Victoria Eugenia was born on October 24, 1887, in Scotland, the daughter of Prince Henry of Battenberg and Princess Beatrice, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria of England. She was therefore the granddaughter of the woman who gave her name to an era, and she grew up in the strict and watchful atmosphere of her grandmother’s court. The family called her Ena, a diminutive that would stick with her for the rest of her life. Her childhood was governed by a succession of governesses, all imposed by her grandmother, and discipline was severe.

In 1896, when she was just eight years old, she lost her father, who died of fever. A few years later, her grandmother Queen Victoria also passed away. Both deaths struck Ena hard. Her mother lost the comfortable position she had enjoyed at court and was forced to move with her children to Kensington Palace in London.

The young princess had to grow up quickly, and she developed into a beautiful, serious, and shy young woman. In 1905, at the age of eighteen, Ena was presented to society by her uncle, King Edward VII of England. That year she attended a dinner at an elegant hotel, a party held in honor of the young King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who was visiting the country. Alfonso was traveling across Europe in search of a suitable bride, someone who might become his wife and the queen of Spain.

The nineteen-year-old monarch was reportedly fascinated by Ena. Her beauty caught his attention immediately, and on the spot he decided that this young woman would be his wife. He was sure of his choice, even though Ena was far from the ideal candidate. She held no title of royal highness, she was Protestant, and, like many of her relatives, she was a carrier of hemophilia.

Alfonso’s mother, María Cristina of Habsburg, tried to talk her son out of it. She wanted him to marry an Austrian princess. But Alfonso would not be swayed. He sent a telegram to his mother that read: “I have become engaged to Ena.

Hugs, Alfonso. ” Ena, for her part, had to convert to Catholicism, and her uncle Edward VII granted her the title of royal highness. Alfonso then had a meeting with the English king, who warned him that Ena, as a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, might be a carrier of hemophilia. Alfonso, deeply in love, ignored the warning and remained firm in his decision.

The wedding was celebrated on May 31, 1906, in the church of San Jerónimo in Madrid. The city dressed up for the occasion, joy was in the air, and the couple appeared radiant and deeply in love. The ceremony itself passed without incident, but the happiness did not last. As the newlyweds made their way to the royal palace, the anarchist Mateo Morral hurled the bomb hidden in his bouquet of flowers from a balcony.

The explosion killed twenty-eight people and wounded twenty more. The royal couple survived, but the horror of the attack stayed with them. The new queen did not adapt easily to her new home. She missed London and its people.

She did not like Spanish food, and she found bullfighting a terrible spectacle. The Spaniards, for their part, did not take to their new queen, considering her too cold and distant. Ena liked to smoke, something her husband strictly forbade, to avoid gossip, since it was not considered proper for a woman. She was also criticized for practicing sports, which she loved dearly; the noblewomen of the court did not look kindly upon a queen playing tennis.

On May 10, 1907, the couple’s first child was born, a son they named Alfonso. His arrival was a great joy, but the joy soon turned to sorrow. Although the infant seemed healthy at first, they quickly realized he was hemophiliac. After the bad news, the king distanced himself from his wife.

He fell out of love with her, blaming her for passing on the disease to the infant prince. On June 23, 1908, a second son, Jaime, was born. He too brought his own worries: he was deaf and mute. Alfonso drifted further and further from his wife, blaming her for all the problems that arose with his children.

He began to have extramarital affairs, which left the queen increasingly sad and alone. On June 22, 1909, the infanta Beatriz was born, a healthy girl. In 1910, the queen gave birth to a son who was stillborn. On December 12, 1911, another infanta arrived, named María Cristina, also healthy.

On June 20, 1913, the infante Juan was born, and this birth brought his father great joy, as Juan was a healthy and robust boy. Finally, on October 24, 1914, the last child of the marriage arrived, Gonzalo, who was also hemophiliac. That same year, the First World War broke out, and the queen received terrible news: her brother Maurice had died at the front. Victoria Eugenia was inconsolable.

She received great support from her mother-in-law, although the relationship between the two women had never been good. There was even a rumor that Alfonso had maintained intimate relations with Beatriz of Saxe-Coburg, better known as Primavera. This woman had grown up alongside Victoria Eugenia since childhood, and the two had become inseparable friends, as well as first cousins. According to the story, Alfonso harbored a certain obsession with Beatriz, oscillating between love and hate.

He had never gotten over being rejected by her years earlier, and he devoted all his efforts to ruining her life and that of her husband. The queen watched as her husband gave himself over to fleeting affairs, from which illegitimate children were born, children who were healthy. Victoria Eugenia decided then to focus on charity work, to avoid further confrontations with her husband and to ignore his romantic adventures. In 1916, the queen nearly died of appendicitis, while Alfonso openly paraded around with the actress Carmen Ruiz de Moragas, one of his longest-lasting mistresses, who would give him several illegitimate children.

After the First World War ended, Spain began to suffer a series of attacks and anarchist revolts. Victoria Eugenia endured all of it. Her brother Leopoldo died of hemophilia following an operation. Alfonso XIII forbade his wife from traveling to England when she intended to accompany her brother during the surgery.

After Leopoldo’s death, Victoria Eugenia decided to spend all her holidays with her children in England, far from Alfonso. In 1931, municipal elections were held in Spain, and the Republicans triumphed. The popularity of the monarchy had been declining notably in the preceding years. On April 14, 1931, the king went into exile, leaving his wife and children in Spain.

The next day, the queen and the infantes left for Paris. In exile, the couple met at a hotel, where they decided to end their life together as a couple. Alfonso set a pension for his wife, and she left alone for England. The following years were fatal for her.

Her sons Gonzalo and Alfonso both died in 1941. Victoria Eugenia traveled to Rome to meet her husband one last time. Alfonso had been living there with his children, but he was very ill and died soon after. The queen then moved with her children to Switzerland, where she settled in a small palace beside a lake.

It was a quiet place, where she received visits from family and friends. Soon, however, financial problems arrived. They could not maintain the palace with the pension they received from General Franco. She had to sell some of her most precious jewels in order to live comfortably and quietly.

On February 7, 1968, she set foot on Spanish soil once more, to serve as godmother to her great-grandson Felipe. But the health of the former queen began to worsen. On April 15, 1969, at the age of eighty-one, Victoria Eugenia died after falling into a coma. She was buried in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In 1985, her remains were brought to Spain and buried in the monastery of El Escorial. Victoria Eugenia was a deeply unhappy woman. Her love story with Alfonso XIII was cut short early on, and she lived through episodes of sadness and loneliness that marked her character for life. Upon her fell all the blame for her children’s illnesses and her husband’s affairs, shameful episodes she tried to endure as best she could.

With her husband she suffered a great disappointment; she never lived the full life she had imagined with him. Their marriage was an absolute disaster, even though at the beginning both were madly in love. Victoria Eugenia was an unhappy queen in Spain.

The only things that managed to lift her spirits in old age were the love of her grandchildren and the tranquility of living far from the man who had robbed her of her joy.