Alfonso XIII, "the Playboy king" who became the first promoter of pornographic cinema in Spain

King Alfonso XIII de Borbón, full name Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena, used the privileged means at his disposal to make reality what for the rest was no more than sexual fantasy. And he did so by becoming the first promoter of pornographic cinema in Spain. The great-grandfather of Felipe VI, who reigned from 1886 - the year he was born - to 1931 - the year the Second Republic was proclaimed - is known as "King Playboy", as the Doctor in Modern History affirms to Icon Eduardo Juárez, in addition to his extramarital affairs, for having been a pioneer of pornographic cinema in Spain.

Juárez acknowledges that this unusual hobby for a head of state shows that the monarch "probably suffered from sex addiction." "Alfonso found a free way to carry out his questionable tastes, taking into account the time, in porn movies. In general, the Bourbons have been famous for their sexual adventures. Their father, Alfonso XII, was just as libertine but in his In this case they made an effort to wash his image and he went down in history as a sad and sorry king, "says Juárez.

The porn tapes were shot at the request of Count Romanones, who acted as an intermediary between the Barcelona-based producer Royal Films (founded in 1915 by the brothers Ramón and Ricardo de Baños in order to supply porn movies to the royal house) and Alfonso XIII

Jesús Izquierdo, historian and professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, is of the same opinion as Eduardo Juárez and highlights that Alfonso XIII (Madrid-Rome, 1886 -1941) was a monarch with a tendency to transgress the rules. An example of this indomitability was his taste for films with explicit sexual content contrary to the moral values ​​of the current political regime. These tapes were filmed at the request of Count Romanones, who acted as an intermediary between the Barcelona-based producer Royal Films (founded in 1915 by the brothers Ramón and Ricardo de Baños in order to supply porn movies to the royal house) and Alfonso XIII. "The king had ties to the pornographic industry and never tried to hide it. In addition, he had several bastard children and many extra-marital affairs that he did not hide either. The Bourbons have never had much modesty," concedes Izquierdo.

At that time, pornography was an elitist delight. Thanks to the work of the monarch - it is believed that he even gave ideas for the arguments and scripts of the tapes and that he also participated in the casting by selecting the leading actresses - his court circle was able to consume this high-voltage footage. "He knew that his association with this type of cinema could damage his image, so he used the Count of Romanones as an intermediary," says Juárez. Alfonso XIII embodied the modern man of the time with tastes of the international elite. As Javier Moreno, professor at the Complutense University of Madrid, explains, the monarch was passionate about cars, sports, aviation and, above all, cinema. "He was very gentleman, a born conqueror who enjoyed attending elitist meetings where everything was modern and cosmopolitan," says Moreno.

Alfonso XIII was so involved in the cinema that, as Javier Moreno explains to Icon , most of the films of the time - these not of adult content, of course - that are kept in the film library are about the monarch. "Alfonso XIII was recorded during different trips, in various parades and in flag oaths," says Moreno. Today these videos are available and easy to find online.

The Catalan production company managed to shoot some seventy films, but only three of them have transpired - Ladies' Clinic , The Minister and The Confessor- they were found in a Valencian convent and restored by the film library in the same city

Alfonso XIII's fondness for the seventh art led him, in addition to frequenting movie theaters, to set up a private cinema in the royal palace. In it, it is said that he projected the pornographic films he made with Royal Films for the first time and that they were later shown at night in the rooms of the Chinese district of Barcelona. The Catalan production company went on to shoot some seventy films, but only three of them have transpired - Ladies' Clinic ,  The Minister and  The Confessor, shot between 1915 and 1925 - which were found in a Valencian convent and restored by the film library in the same city . Later, with the support of the Generalitat Valenciana, the film library ended up incorporating them into its audiovisual archive. The tapes, despite being shot in black and white and without sound, were explicit and showed sexual scenes unthinkable until now.

Another hobby attributed to Alfonso XIII was to visit the Madrid Hotel Monaco regularly, which at that time was a dating house where he went to have extramarital sex. Legend has it that the room in which these intimate encounters used to take place was number 20.

The monarch had seven children with his wife, Victoria Eugenia de Battenberg, and five other bastards as a result of his adventures with actresses, such as Carmen Ruiz Moragas ('the Bourbon'), governesses and aristocrats who were part of the Court. "Queen Victoria Eugenia regretted marrying him. She knew that Alfonso had lovers and wanted to divorce him. She also accused him of lack of hygiene (he said that his breath smelled bad) and of education," adds Eduardo Juárez, who defines this Bourbon as a harmful and terrible character surpassed by political circumstances and his vices.

"Victoria Eugenia regretted having married Alfonso. She knew that she had lovers and wanted to divorce. She also accused him of lack of hygiene and education," says Eduardo Juárez, who defines this Bourbon as a character overwhelmed by circumstances and his vices.

"During the first phase of his reign, he was very popular. But after that, there were chiaroscuros. Alfonso XIII was blamed for what went wrong and he gained many enmities by giving his consent to the military dictatorship. His way of seeing the politics was very military and nationalistic, "says professor Javier Moreno.

After the proclamation of the Second Republic in Spain, on April 14, 1931, the king hastily left the country, his wife and seven legitimate children fleeing to Cartagena by car. Shortly afterwards Victoria Eugenia and her children followed him to France, where the king was heading. The family was reunited for a time in Paris until Victoria Eugenia, tired of putting up with her husband's bad habits, said "I'm leaving, I don't want to see your ugly face anymore!". The queen then left for London, where she decided to stay. The marriage had been without marital life for more than a decade and this physical separation was the definitive estrangement. Neither Alfonso XIII nor Victoria Eugenia lived in the same city again.

On January 15, 1941, Alfonso de Borbón abdicated his fifth son, Juan (father of Juan Carlos I and grandfather of Felipe VI). "Alfonso wanted Juan to be his heir because his older children were deaf-mute one and hemophiliac the other," says Juárez. On February 28, 1941, he died in Rome, where he remained buried until 1980, when King Juan Carlos I ordered the repatriation of his grandfather's remains (deposited in the royal crypt of the Monastery of El Escorial, where they remain today).

Alfonso XIII was king of Spain for more than thirty years and, nevertheless, the most transgressive legacy he left was the birth of the pornographic industry in a country that had never seen anything like it to date. His life, work and excesses show that everything that a head of state does ends up affecting his image. Hence, the doctor in Modern History Eduardo Juárez does not hesitate to affirm that "a king has no private life." Much less, therefore, private hobbies.

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