In the summer of 1907, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom and King Alfonso XIII of Spain posed together in a rare photograph taken at Cowes, Isle of Wight. It symbolized dynastic unity and the fragile alliances shaping Europe circa 1907. Alfonso, born in Madrid on 17 May 1886, had ruled since birth after the death of his father, Alfonso XII, leaving Queen Maria Christina of Austria as regent. At sixteen, in 1902, he assumed the throne, inheriting a nation wounded by the 1898 colonial losses o