Alfonso XIII of Spain

Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1902 until Spain became a Republic in 1931. A hubristic and deluded leader, he presided over his country’s collapse into political polarisation and Civil War. The Spain of then, with unresponsive political elites and burgeoning hard left and hard right political movements and subcultures, is chillingly similar to many Western countries today. My guest for this conversation was Francisco  “Paco” Romero Salvado of the University of Bristol.