Queen Ena of Spain

[Tatiana Maria]

But he also (as you said) elevated her to HRH to eliminate any possible doubts that she was royal enough to satisfy Spain's marriage equality law, and signed a treaty between the UK and Spain concerning the marriage, in which his niece wasn't even named as "of Battenberg".

The treaty was also more honest about her loss of rights to the British throne being automatic under British law rather than voluntary.

Treaty between the United Kingdom and Spain for the marriage of His Majesty the King of Spain with Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena.

Signed at London, May 7, 1906.

[Ratifications exchanged at London, May 23, 1906.]

BE it known unto all men by these Presents that whereas His Catholic Majesty Alfonso XIII, King of Spain, has judged it proper to announce his intention of contracting a marriage with Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena, niece of His Majesty Edward VII, King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, and daughter of Her Royal Highness the Princess Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodore (Princess Henry of Battenberg), in order, therefore, to treat upon, conclude, and confirm the Articles of the Treaty of the said marriage, His Britannic Majesty on the one part, and His Catholic Majesty on the other part, have named as their Plenipotentiaries, that is to say:

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India, the Right Honourable Sir Edward Grey, a Baronet of the United Kingdom, a Member of Parliament, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs;

And His Majesty the King of Spain, His Excellency Señor Don Luis Polo de Bernabé, His Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at the Court of His Britannic Majesty;

Who, after having communicated to each other their full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon and concluded the following Articles:-

ARTICLE I.

It is concluded and agreed that the marriage between His said Majesty King Alfonso XIII and Her said Royal Highness the Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena shall be solemnized in person at Madrid as soon as the same may conveniently be done.

ARTICLE II.

His said Majesty King Alfonso XIII engages to secure to Her said Royal Highness the Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena from the date of her marriage with His Majesty, and for the whole period of the marriage, an annual grant of 450,000 pesetas. His said Majesty King Alfonso XIII also engages, if, by the will of Divine Providence, the said Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena should become his widow, to secure to her, from the date of his death, an annual grant of 250,000 pesetas, unless and until she contracts a second marriage, both these grants having already been voted by the Cortes. The private settlements to be made on either side in regard to the said marriage will be agreed upon and expressed in a separate Contract, which shall, however, be deemed to form an integral part of the present Treaty, and the High Contracting Parties hereby mutually engage themselves to be bound by its terms.

ARTICLE III.

The High Contracting Parties take note of the fact that Her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria Eugénie Julia Ena, according to the due tenour of the law of England, forfeits for ever all hereditary rights of succession to the Crown and Government of Great Britain and Ireland and the Dominions thereunto belonging or any part of the same.

ARTICLE IV.

The present Treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at London as soon as possible.

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seal of their arms.

Done in duplicate at London, the 7th of May, in the year of Our Lord 1906.

(L.S.) EDWARD GREY.
(L.S.) LUIS POLO DE BERNABÉ.
​

PTFS Demo Archive

 

[Prinsara]

I don’t think Edward had any objection at all to her marrying Alfonso (the original idea was that he would marry one of her cousins), and he was quite pleased with the diplomatic strength it would bring… but there was enough anti-Catholic sentiment in the UK and at the prospect of a Protestant princess converting that he tried to distance himself slightly, even if not on paper.

If he didn’t realize there was controversy involved he would not have apparently made the remark to her, even though I’m not sure if it or even the source can be verified.

 

[Tatiana Maria]

Well, Edward VII was certainly willing to stretch the truth and the law to appease critics of the marriage while saving face for himself.

From 1772 to 2015, the UK’s Royal Marriages Act meant that certain descendants of British kings needed the British sovereign’s official consent to marry. Without his permission, their marriages would not be legally recognized in the United Kingdom.

In the 1890s, the British palace lawyers concluded that this law applied to Victoria Eugenie’s cousins Princess Louise of Schleswig-Holstein and Prince Adolphus of Teck, and so they obtained the monarch’s permission to marry.

As with Louise and Adolphus, Victoria Eugénie too was a member of the British royal family whose mother was a British princess and whose father was a German prince who moved to Britain and became a naturalized British subject to marry a British princess.

With Victoria Eugénie’s marriage, Edward VII could have given his formal consent and explained to the anti-Catholic critics that this was about ensuring the marriage would be legal in Britain, not an endorsement of the groom’s church. Or he could have withheld his consent and accepted that Victoria Eugénie and Alfonso XIII’s children would be illegitimate for British law (and why not; what difference would it make to their Spanish children?).

Instead, Edward VII had the British palace lawyers draw up a new doctrine: The gap of a few days between Victoria Eugenie’s father’s marriage to a British princess and his naturalization as a British subject supposedly meant that she was exempt from the Royal Marriages Act and did not need his permission (even though, according to this doctrine, Adolphus should not have needed permission, either).

So Edward VII and Victoria Eugénie managed to have their cake and eat it too, when it came to this marriage.

HO 45/25238

 

[Prinsara]

The term you are looking for is “loophole abuse”.

And Edward was very canny about PR even in the relative infancy of such a thing, and usually happy to try and appeal to emotions rather than doctrine or precedent. And quite used to doing things on the sly.

So I can see why he tried to make his niece’s marriage less controversial even while nearly-wholeheartedly approving of and validating it. (I don’t think declaring a king’s marriage invalid in any country would be wise, practical differences or not. It would have been absolutely scandalous for Victoria Eugenie to be declared unmarried in her native country in 1906.)