Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (Victoria Eugenie Julia Ena; 24 October 1887 – 15 April 1969) was Queen of Spain as the wife of King Alfonso XIII from their marriage on 31 May 1906 until 14 April 1931, when the Spanish Second Republic was proclaimed. A Hessian princess by birth, she was a member of the Battenberg family, a morganatic branch of the House of Hesse-Darmstadt. She was the youngest granddaughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Unlike other members of the Battenberg family, who were accorded the lower rank of Serene Highness, Victoria Eugenie was born with the rank of Highness due to a Royal Warrant issued in 1886 by Queen Victoria.
Early life
Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg was born on 24 October 1887 at Balmoral Castle, in Scotland. Her father was Prince Henry of Battenberg, the fourth child and third son of Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine and Julia, Princess of Battenberg, and her mother was Princess Beatrice, the fifth daughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Her mother, as the youngest child of the lonely queen, was kept "at home" with the court, which happened to be at Balmoral when she went into labour. Victoria Eugenie was the last grandchild of a British monarch to be born in Scotland until Princess Margaret was born at Glamis Castle in Angus in August 1930.
As Prince Henry was the product of a morganatic marriage, he took his style of Prince of Battenberg from his mother, who had been created Princess of Battenberg in her own right. As such, Henry's children would normally have been born with the style "Serene Highness"; however, Queen Victoria had issued a Royal Warrant on 4 December 1886 granting the higher style of "Highness" to all sons and daughters of Prince Henry and Princess Beatrice, thus she was born Her Highness Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. She was named for her grandmother Victoria and for her godmother, Eugénie de Montijo, the Spanish-born French empress who lived in exile in the United Kingdom. To her family, and the British general public, she was known by a diminutive of the last of her names, as Ena. She was born in the 50th year of Queen Victoria’s reign, so she was called "the Jubilee baby".
She was baptised in the Drawing Room at Balmoral. Her godparents were Empress Eugénie (represented by Princess Frederica of Hanover), the German Crown Princess (her maternal aunt; represented by the Duchess of Roxburghe), the Princess of Battenberg (her paternal grandmother; represented by the Marchioness of Ely), Princess Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (her maternal aunt; represented by the Countess of Erroll), Prince Louis of Battenberg (her paternal uncle; represented by the Earl of Hopetoun) and the Duke of Edinburgh (her maternal uncle; represented by Sir Henry Ponsonby).
Victoria Eugenie grew up in Queen Victoria's household, as the British monarch had reluctantly allowed Beatrice to marry on the condition that she remain her mother's full-time companion and personal secretary. Therefore, she spent her childhood at Windsor Castle, Balmoral, and Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She was a bridesmaid at the wedding of her cousins, the Duke (later King George V) and Duchess of York on 6 July 1893.
When she was six, Victoria Eugenie suffered a severe concussion when she was thrown off her pony at Osborne and hit her head on the ground. Queen Victoria's physicians noticed "dangerous symptoms", such as "evident signs of brain pressure, probably a haemorrhage". Her aunt Victoria, Princess Royal, wrote, "it is so grievous that [Victoria Eugenie] cannot take notice or open her eyes".
Victoria Eugenie was close to her grandmother Queen Victoria. She reflected that "having been born and brought up in her home, Queen Victoria was like a second mother to us. She was very kind but very strict, with old fashioned ideas of how children must be brought up." When Victoria Eugenie said, "I think it is time for us to go to bed," Queen Victoria corrected her. "Young woman, a princess should say, 'I think it is time for me to retire. Queen Victoria wrote that "I love these darling children so, almost as much as their own parent" and referred to Victoria Eugenie as "the little treasure". Her father died while on active military service after contracting fever in Africa in 1896. After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the Princess Beatrice and her family moved out of Osborne House and took up residence in Kensington Palace in London. Princess Beatrice inherited Osborne Cottage on the Isle of Wight from her mother.