Alfonso plays joke on Spoleto who is courting his daughter

April 16, 1930

Spaniards "tittered today at the prank" played by King Alfonso XIII, upon the Duke of Spoleto, a nephew of the Italian King. According to the Associated Press, rumor has it that the young duke will soon become engaged to Alfonso's older daughter, Infanta Beatriz.
The king led the Duke of Spoleto to a "trick bench" in the palace gardens at Alcazar, where the royal family is spending Holy Week. When the duke sat down on the bench, his weight released "a spring which controlled a concealed foundation." he was "drenched with water from a spray," while Alfonso, Infanta Beatriz and the duke's mother, the Duchess of Aosta, "all laughed merrily."
Friends believe that that the prank indicated the extend which Prince Aimone "has won the esteem and affection of the Spanish monarch." It is lends "additional credence to persistent reports" of a forthcoming engagement between Beatriz and the Duke of Spoleto.