Alfonso XIII (17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also known as El Africano or the African, was King of Spain from 1886 until the proclamation of the Second Republic in 1931. He was a monarch from birth as his father, Alfonso XII, had died the previous year. Alfonso's mother, Maria Christina of Austria, served as regent until he assumed full powers on his sixteenth birthday in 1902. He left Spain voluntarily after the municipal elections of April 1931, which were taken as a plebiscite on abolishing the monarchy.