“October 6.—My Lord Prince lunched at 12 o’clock. I gave him his lessons. He went to the Church of Our Lady of Atocha. He went to bed at 10 o’clock, and slept ten hours. He took some chocolate, made his confession at 9.30, and Father Fernandez celebrated Mass.
“October 9.—He breakfasted with appetite. He had his lessons at the marked hours, and he was somewhat restless. At 4 o’clock he took some soup, and went out for a walk with the Mayordomo, Señor Marquis de Novaliches, Professor Sanchez, and Juanito. He had supper at 8 o’clock, and played till 10 o’clock with Juanito, but left off when he knocked his left leg against a table. He slept from 10 o’clock till 9 o’clock in the morning. He got up at 9.30 without feeling any pain in his leg from the blow. He did his orisons, assisted at the Mass in his room; he went out for a walk with his Mayordomo, returned at 11 o’clock, and assisted at the Mass with Their Majesties and the Princesses; and at 11.45 he had his hair cut.”
As Perez Galdos says in his works, the long hours of religious instruction every day would have qualified the little Prince for the Council of Trent. When any Bishops came to visit Isabella, they were sent to the apartments of her little son; and thus Morphy writes in the register: “I gave the lesson to His Highness in the presence of the Bishops of Avila, Guadix, Taragona, and of other dioceses whose names I do not remember.” And Losa wrote: “He opened his eyes at 8.30; he dressed and gave thanks to God; he took his chocolate with appetite, and at 10 o’clock had his religion lesson in the presence of the Cardinal of Burgos, who was pleased with his progress, and noted that His Highness was ‘magnificent in everything.’”
Courtiers who were true of heart saw with apprehension the artificial character of the Prince’s education.
“Ah!” said a man who would gladly have been frank with the Queen, but he felt he was powerless against her crowd of flatterers, “Alfonso is a very intelligent child. He has qualities of heart and mind which would give us a King worthy of the people, were they only properly cultivated; but we shall never see this ideal realized, because he is being brought up like an idiot. Instead of educating the boy, they are stultifying him; instead of opening his eyes to science, life, and nature, they blind them so that his sensitive soul remains in darkness and ignorance.”
The same courtier implored the Prince’s educators to give the lad a chance. “Take him out of this atmosphere of priests and nuns, and devotional books by Father Claret. If you want Alfonso to be a great King, let him breathe the pure air of fine deeds. Take him away from the gloomy atmosphere of the royal palace; let him inhale the fresh breezes of liberty. His talents will develop, and he will become a different boy.”
It was indeed true the little Prince was in an unnatural atmosphere in the palace, where the tunic of the nun Patrocinio had become an object of worship, and where the King, in his stuffy apartments, gave himself over to the study of relics which were brought to him at a high price by the priestly folk, who made harvest out of his credibility.
The situation of Queen Isabella is graphically given by the historian Galdos in the reflections of a loyal courtier whilst having, with his wife, an audience of Isabella II.:
“Oh, your poor Majesty!” he said to himself. “The etiquette invented by the set-up gentlemen of the Court to shut you off from the national sentiment prevents me telling you the truth, because it would hurt you to hear it. Even those on the most intimate terms with you shut you out from the truth, and they come to you full of lies. So, kind-hearted Isabella, you receive the homage of my gilded untruths. All that I have said to you this afternoon is an offering of floral decorations, the only ones received on royal altars.... You, who are more inclined to the ordinary and the plebeian than other Kings—you let the truth come to you in external decorative, and verbal matters, but in things of public consequence you like nothing but lies, because you are educated in it, and falsity is the religious cloak, or rather the transparent veil, which you like to throw over your political and non-political errors. Oh, poor neglected, ill-fated Queen...!”
The reflections of the courtier were here interrupted by Isabella saying to his wife: “Maria Ignacia, I want to give you the ribbon of Maria Luisa.... I shall never forgive myself for not having done it before. I have been very neglectful—eh?”