Alfonso XII of Spain

Alfonso XII was born in 1857, son of Isabella II, who was driven from the throne by the Glorious Revolution of 1868. He spent his youth studying in Austria and France while Spain convulsed. His mother abdicated in his favour in 1870, but he didn't return until December 1874, when a military coup toppled the First Spanish Republic and restored the Bourbon line. He ruled as El Pacificador — the Peacemaker — for just over a decade. In November 1885, three days before his twenty-eighth birthday, he died, leaving his widow Maria Christina of Austria pregnant. Their son Alfonso XIII was born king in…