Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg

Born a princess of Battenberg, a morganatic branch of Hesse-Darmstadt, Victoria Eugenie was styled Highness from birth by her grandmother Queen Victoria's warrant in 1886—a distinction most Battenbergs didn't hold. Her uncle Edward VII elevated her to Royal Highness shortly before she married King Alfonso XIII on 31 May 1906, making her Queen of Spain at eighteen. She held the role for nearly a quarter-century, through war and unrest, until 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed and the monarchy dissolved. She spent the next thirty-eight years in exile, outliving the th…