Princess Victoria grew up in Queen Victoria's court. It is said that Victoria only allowed her daughter Beatrice to marry, if she still continued to stay by her side. Prince Henry, however died in 1896 after contracting fever in Africa. After the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the Battenbergs moved to London and took up residence in Kensington Palace.
In 1905, Princess Victoria attended a dinner party hosted by her uncle, Edward VII in honour of King Alfonso XIII of Spain . The Spanish king took a fancy to the young English Princess,and began a courtship. There was some opposition to a potential marriage, coming from Alfonso's family, and Victoria's heritage.
Queen Maria Cristina, Alfonso's mother did not approve due to the obscure origins of the Battenberg Royal line and Victoria's lowly HSH title. Also it was pointed out that Victoria was a potential carrier of haemophilia, the infliction carried out through Queen Victoria's female descendants. Victoria's brothers, Prince Leopold of Battenberg, and Prince Maurice of Battenberg were known to be sufferors.
However, these reasons did not stand in the way of Alfonso, and Princess Victoria married King Alfonso on on May 31, 1906 at St. Jerome Church in Madrid. The wedding was attended by the royality of Europe, including the Prince and Princess of Wales (later George VI and Queen Mary).
After the wedding ceromeny, the royal procession was heading back to the Royal Palace when an assassination attempt was made on the King and the new Queen (now called Queen Ena). A bomb was thrown from a balcony at the royal carriage. Queen Ena saved her life because, in the exact moment the bomb exploded, she had turn her head in order to see St. Mary's Church, that Alfonso was showing her; she only had her dress spotted with the blood of a guard that was riding besides the carriage.
After this awful start to her reign as Queen of Spain, Ena became isolated from the Spanish people and was unpopular in her new land. Her married life improved when she gave birth to a son, Prince Alfonso, and heir to the Kingdom of Spain. However when he was being circumcised, the doctors noted that he did not stop bleeding- meaning he was haemophiliac. The couple did have other children:); Jaime Luitpold Isabelino Enrique (1908-1975, a deaf-mute as the result of a childhood operation, he renounced his rights to the throne in 1933 and became Duke of Segovia, and later Duke of Madrid, and who, as a legitimist pretender to the French throne from 1941 to 1975, was known as the Duke of Anjou); Beatrice Isabel Federica Alfonsa Eugenia (1909-2002); a stillborn son (1910); Maria Christina Teresa Alejandra (1911-1996); Juan Carlos Teresa Silvestre Alfonso (1913-93, named heir to the throne and Count of Barcelona), and Gonzalo Manuel Maria Bernardo (1914-34, a hemophiliac).
After the birth of her children, the Queen's relationship with the King deteroriated. Alfonso had numerous affairs, including one with Ena's own cousin.
The Queen was forced to leave Spain when the 2nd Spanish republic was proclaimed in 1931. King Alfonso had already fled without abdicating. The deposed family fled to Paris, where the royal couple later seperated. The Queen stayed in various places throughout Europe, returning to London before the start of World War II. After the war started, Queen Ena was asked to leave the United Kingdom, as she was no longer a member of the royal family. She returned to Lausanne. She spent some time in Rome together with Alfonso, whose health had deteriorated. In 1940, the whole family gathered in the Italian capital for the baptism of Don Juan's eldest son, Juan Carlos of Spain. On January 15, 1941, Alfonso XIII, feeling his death was near, transferreed his rights to the Spanish crown to his son Don Juan, Count of Barcelona. On Feberuary 12, Alfonso suffered the first heart attack. Alfonso died on February 28, 1941.
The Queen returned to Spain for the last time in 1968 for the baptism of Juan Carlos' son. She died on April 15, 1969, exactly 38 years after she had left Spain for exile. She was interred in the church of Sacre Ceour in Lausanna. her grandson Juan Carlos is the present King of Spain.