Royal Vendetta: The Crown of Spain 1829-1965

by Theo Aronson

This is a story of wars, revolutions, exiles and restorations; a parade of kings, queens, regents and pretenders. Its central theme is the fight for the throne of Spain between the Bourbon and Carlist pretenders, a fight which started in 1833.

Both branches of the family abound in colourful characters: the shrewd Maria Cristina, the masculine Infanta Carlota, the sensuous Isabel II, the effete King Francisco, the suave Duke de Montpensier, the showy Carlos VII, the licentious Alfonso XII.

The drama is acted out in many countries in the court living in formal splendour in the Palacio Real in Madrid, Don Juan dying incognito in a house in Brighton, Isabel living out her voluptuous days in Paris, Carlos VII scheming in his palazzo on the Grand Canal, the future Alfonso XII at Sandhurst, the Infanta Eulalia in Chicago, the son of Alfonso XIII dying in a car accident in the U.S.A.

When this book was first published in 1966, the spirit of Carlism was still very much alive; the Carlists had thrown their weight behind Franco in the Spanish Civil War, and the recent marriage of the Carlist pretender to Princess Irene of Holland had spotlighted the old feud.

Genres: History, Royalty, Biography, Spanish History, Nonfiction

312 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Theo Aronson is an historical biographer specialising in the Royal Houses of Europe. Among his many widely read books are "The Golden Bees: The Story of the Bonapartes," "Grandmama of Europe" and "Royal Family: Years of Transition."

His books have been published in Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland and Belgium.

Theo Aronson lives in an eighteenth-century stone house in Frome, Somerset.

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes importing a royal family from France means they (attempt to) bring the Salic law with them, and then we all have to deal with the consequences! And a terrible time is had by all.

The development of the Carlist movement and its impact on both Spain and Europe are considered through the personalities of the pretenders and the women they marry, all of whom were connected to other royal families. I hadn't realized before how interconnected everyone had gotten. Most books focused on reigning houses view pretenders as a sideshow, if they even acknowledge them at all.

Not that the Bourbon side of the family is any less wacky or intermarried. One of the most interesting things about studying history is noting the cycles of human behavior, which here even included many of the same names from one generation to the next. Watching the government swing back and forth and the royal family thrown out and returned to the throne is intertwined with gossip about family arguments about Infanta Eulalia publishing her books and Alfonso XIII's absolutely wretched driving skills.

So, obviously, this was written and published in the 60s, when no one knew if Franco would actually uphold his decision to be succeeded by a king, and if that king would continue Franco's legacy. And the Carlists had to deal with a crisis when their line of succession devolved onto the current Bourbon king. With the benefit of 58 years of hindsight, some of Aronson's more dramatic statements in the later chapters of the book did make me giggle a bit.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Royal Vendetta by Theo Aronson tells the story of the Spanish monarchy between 1829 and 1965. It is a bit confusing due to the same names given to different people, and various claimants and pretenders to the throne, but the overall story is really very interesting. Mr. Aronson does a nice job of covering the politics and problems of those years, as well as the strengths and (more common) failures of the royals during this period. Even though I knew nothing about this period of Spain's history, I was able to follow much of the story.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a bizarre tale. The Spanish royal family argued for nearly 100 years over who was the rightful monarch, all because half the family thought the decision to allow girls to inherit the throne (a decision made by the king and parliament) was not legitimate. Having said that, the girl who inherited was, well, no Elizabeth II….

[Nicolas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, the Carlist Wars make sense

I had been reading about this time period for some time, but could never figure it out. This books plays it simple, with no lack of detail and with an air of entertainment. Theo Aronson makes a possibly boring topic intriguing.

[Diana Cheal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Struggled with this because there wasn’t a family tree to keep track of the different Carlos, Isabel, Maria Cristina and Alfonso characters.
Strange family too!

[Gordon Kwok · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very quick and entertaining read about the battle between the Carlists and the descendants of Isabel II. One actually wonders how the Spanish crown did not topple over due to ineptitude after reading about these guys. Overall, Mr. Aronson does a great job bringing an esoteric topic to life.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a writer, histories about kings and battles have one major disadvantage: they're just about useless. They can give a historical scaffolding, a sense of time so you don't mix up your history into an anachronism mish-mash, but they are notoriously dull because they lack living detail.

Fortunately, this is not a book about Spain. It is not even a book about the Spanish Crown. It's about the members of the royal family. On both sides. Since this starts with how the future Queen Isabel was born, the Pragmatic Sanction revoking the Salic law, and the king's brother refusing to accept it, starting the Carlist claim that lasted through out the period.

I like the stories best. Even if some would be difficult to pilfer, and all of them would be implausible in a novel.

The king's brother persuades the king that the Pragmatic Sanction will cause bloodshed, and so he revokes it on his deathbed. Except that when the man comes to prepare the corpse, he finds that the king is not dead yet. (The king took many, many, many steps to ensure it stuck in the remaining year of his life.)

A woman warns the king that his prospective bride has already borne a child. This king, however, has buried three wives without having living children. A bride who can bear children!

An abdicated queen insists on receiving ex-Empress Eugenie with full ceremony -- going to the door to greet her despite the cold and her pneumonia. She explains that ex-royalty are very sensitive to slights.

The queen dowager is dying. Her daughter-in-law, the queen, goes to wake her daughters. Their first question is whether the revolution started.

A queen in mourning, weeping over her dead husband. A servant is reluctant to intrude, but must announce the ambassador whose credential she must receive as regent. When he does so, she instantly transformed to a regal and powerful woman.

A child-king insists on his tutor going ahead of him into a room, because here he is merely a pupil.

A Spanish princess marries into Louis-Phillippe's family. She doesn't like it. How badly? Well, when she is escaping his overthrow, after their carriage was nearly invaded by a mob, when she is walking through a muddy town, late in the evening, her reaction was that at least it wasn't sitting about sewing.

The Carlists, facing the dreadful issue that with the extinction of male-line descendents of the king's brother, the rightful male-line successor is -- the current king. So they quickly fudge up an illegitimate descent for him so they can support someone else.

And many more.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The royal house (or "houses") of Spain has long been one of the most pathetic on the Continent, even for the Bourbons — despotic by nature and habit, riddled with inbreeding, divided by factional in-fighting, and seldom enjoying the support of more than a small fraction of the public. Ferdinand VII was appalling inept (and cruel and religiously intolerant) and in 1829, when he found himself still without a surviving heir, his attempt to fix things led to two major wars and a number of smaller ones. The next in line for the throne of Spain was Ferdinand’s younger brother, Don Carlos, who was, if anything, even more narrow-minded, bigoted, and fanatical than the king. He was also dwarfish and excessively ugly, in a family renowned for its ugliness. The Liberals, who strongly opposed Ferdinand’s policies, were nevertheless appalled at the thought of Carlos taking over the country. Finally, having buried two previous wives, the king married his niece, half his age, who produced for him two daughters -- not an ideal solution, but at least they survived infancy. In 1833, he arranged for the Cortes to swear allegiance to the eldest daughter, Isabella, as heiress apparent, which was the last straw for Carlos, and the first in a long series of Carlist uprisings ensued. The present king, Juan Carlos, is only the most recent compromise, and that only because of the dictatorial wishes of Franco. (Though he has turned out better than most.) Aronson is expert at this sort of book, weaving anecdotes and word-pictures in among the semi-academic social and political narrative; an amusing example is the discovery by the startled palace staff, after they had already announced the king’s death, that the old man actually was still alive — a great disappointment to his brother, one imagines. The author details the ups and downs of the feud on both parties and the deleterious effects on both the Spanish Bourbons and on the people of Spain, and he includes a number of illustrations and a very good bibliography.

[Laurie Haines]

So interesting!

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book written in classic Aronson style, interweaving anecdotes, plain history, and images done with the expected amount of fantastic research. The Spanish royal house is generally less explored as a group with only a few well known figures depicted separately. Aronson is the only author I have seen to take them all together (with the exception of Van Der Kiste). Only issue was how some of the "modern" parts were outdated. I had hoped that maybe for the Kindle edition he would have filled in the last 70 years or so.

[Ryan Yoder · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written rundown of Spain's Monarchy of recent history. The time frame highlights the age of the book and a few of the "currently" statements no longer apply. A good read for anyone searching for a platform to explore other specific areas of Spanish history.

[Lavinia Reyes zarate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the gossiping atmosphere of this book!