“The business of the aforementioned king”. Alfonso XIII and the economic and moral corruption of the monarchy according to Blasco Ibáñez

The following article examines the political and social impact that the pamphlet Por España y contra el Rey (Alfonso XIII, desenmascarado), written in 1924 by the successful novelist and republican Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, had in Spain under the Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera (1923–1930). It analyses the real objective that led Blasco Ibáñez to publish his work, the consequent aggressive (even legal) reaction of the Spanish monarch Alfonso XIII against the novelist, and, of course, the repercussions the pamphlet had on the international policy of Primo de Rivera’s regime. The interpretive thread uniting all these factors is Blasco Ibáñez’s denunciation of the alleged corrupt practices carried out by King Alfonso XIII throughout his reign. Moreover, this article also examines the responses that, through the press and pamphlets of various kinds, a segment of monarchist intellectuals produced to defend the honour of Alfonso XIII: the common denominator of their writings was to accuse Blasco Ibáñez of being corrupt. As a result, the article seeks to examine what was understood by “corruption” in Spain during the 1920s.