Etiquette and the Restive King

“He loves horses, and every moment that he can contrive to escape from the confining duties of his position as King he spends on the race track, or in the company of jockeys, bookmakers and the general run of race-goers. Then, he is like a boy, free from the straint of home or school, a man among men, a good fellow…” Alphonso “would hie him with his family to some South American republic, to raise horses and forget Madrid. He would flee from his Queen mother, a strict follower of the Royal Code of the House of Hapsburg and a stickler for the letter of the rule and every word of tradition in regard to court functions.” 

Uneasy rests the head that wears the crown of Spain. Alfonso, harassed by politics and bored by the formalities and limitations of Court etiquette, longs to doff the glittering symbol of authority and become a private gentleman. He could be a horse breeder and trainer. He loves horses, and every moment that he can contrive to escape from the confining duties of his position as King he spends on the race track, or in the company of jockeys, bookmakers and the general run of race-goers. Then, he is like a boy, free from the straint of home or school, a man among men, a good fellow. 

He knows whereof he speaks when horses form the subject of his discourse, whereas, alas, even the wisest wearer of the purple cannot always be sure that he knows what he is talking about when he gives oracular utterance to his decisions upon affairs of state. So he would hie him with his family to some South American republic, to raise horses and forget Madrid. He would flee from his Queen mother, a strict follower of the Royal Code of the House of Hapsburg and a stickler for the letter of the rule and every word of tradition in regard to court functions. 

But the addition of a real Spanish King to a South American republic is something not to be contemplated lightly. No place in South America that we know of could be trusted to maintain its republican equilibrium a day after he had taken up his abode there. A Monarchist party would be formed on the night of his arrival, and a revolution would be afoot the following morning. The United States, in the interest of peace, would have to ship poor, weary Alfonso back to Spain and its surfeit of pomp and ceremony. – Chico Record, 1920

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia