A year ago it was bruited that the primary character in Erich Maria Remarque's new novel was based on the Marquis Alfonso De Portago, the Spanish nobleman who died driving in the Mille Miglia automobile race of 1957.

Alfonso Cuarón was born in México City and is the son of Alfredo Cuarón, a nuclear physicist who worked for the United Nations ' International Atomic Energy Agency for many years.

Afonso de Albuquerque ( or archaically spelt as Aphonso d ' Albuquerque and also spelt as Alfonso, and Alphonso ; ; 1453December 16, 1515 ), 1st Duke of Goa, was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean.

In 1086 Yusuf ibn Tashfin was invited by the taifa Muslim princes of the Iberian Peninsula ( Al-Andalus ) to defend their territories from Alfonso VI, King of León and Castile.

In 1138, Ali ibn Yusuf was defeated by Alfonso VII of León, and in the Battle of Ourique ( 1139 ), by Afonso I of Portugal, who thereby won his crown.

Afonso I was the son of Henry of Burgundy and Theresa of León, the natural daughter of King Alfonso VI of León.

He also vanquished Alfonso VII of León, came to the rescue of his mother, whose nephew he was, and thus freed the kingdom from political dependence on the crown of his cousin of León.

Independence from Alfonso VII of León's suzerainty, however, was not a thing he just could achieve militarily.

Afonso II (; English Alphonzo ), or Affonso ( Archaic Portuguese ), Alfonso or Alphonso ( Portuguese-Galician ) or Alphonsus ( Latin version ), nicknamed " the Fat " ( Portuguese o Gordo ), King of Portugal, was born in Coimbra on 23 April 1185 and died on 25 March 1223 in the same city.

The first-born of this union, Infanta Maria of Portugal, married King Alfonso XI of Castile in 1328, at the same time that Afonso IV's heir, Peter I of Portugal, was promised to another Castilian infanta, Constance of Peñafiel.

These arrangements were imperiled by the ill will of Alfonso XI of Castile, who was, at the time, publicly mistreating his wife.

Alfonso II ( 759 – 842 ), called the Chaste, was the king of Asturias from 791 to his death, the son of Fruela I and the Basque Munia.

Alfonso was subsequently elected king on 14 September 791.

Tradition relates that in 814, the body of Saint James the Greater was discovered in Compostela and that Alfonso was the first pilgrim to that famous medieval ( and modern ) shrine.

Alfonso XII ( born Alfonso Francisco de Asís Fernando Pío Juan María de la Concepción Gregorio Pelayo ) ( Madrid, 28 November 1857 – El Pardo, 25 November 1885 ) was King of Spain, reigning from 1874 to 1885, after a coup d ' état restored the monarchy and ended the ephemeral First Spanish Republic.

Alfonso was the eldest son of Prince Francisco de Asis de Borbón-Dos Sicilias and Queen Isabel II, whose reign was marked by a constant political crisis which had several causes.

He assumed the title of Alfonso XII, for although no King of united Spain had borne the name " Alfonso XI ", the Spanish monarchy was regarded as continuous with the more ancient monarchy represented by the 11 kings of Asturias, León and Castile also named Alfonso.

So, he sent Alfonso to the Sandhurst Military Academy in England, where the training Alfonso received was severe but more cosmopolitan than Spain, given the current athmosphere

The Prince of Asturias, Alfonso, is the person chosen to develop the new roadmap proposed by Canovas, which led to the June 1870 abdication of Queen Isabel II in favour of her son Prince Alfonso.

Alfonso was born in Madrid, posthumously born son of Alfonso XII of Spain, and became King of Spain upon his birth.

On 15 January 1941, Alfonso XIII abdicated his rights to the Spanish throne in favour of his third ( of four ), but second-surviving, son Juan, father of the current King, Juan Carlos.

* Infante Juan Carlos Teresa Silvestre Alfonso of Spain ( 1913 – 1993 ), named heir to the throne and Count of Barcelona, whose son is the current King, Juan Carlos I of Spain.

He was finally compelled to give way in Castile and León to his stepson, Alfonso VII of Castile, son of Urraca and her first husband.

Elena Lourie ( 1975 ) suggested instead that it was Alfonso's attempt to neutralize the papacy's interest in a disputed succession — Aragon had been a fief of the Papacy since 1068 — and to fend off Urraca's son from her first marriage, Alfonso VII of Castile, for the Papacy would be bound to press the terms of such a pious testament.

The choice of the Navarrese lords fell on García Ramírez, Lord of Monzón, descendant of an illegitimate son of García Sánchez III and protégé of Alfonso VII to be their king.

Alfonso, by formally submitting his reign to the Papacy, obtained the consent of Pope Eugene IV that the Kingdom of Naples would go to his immature son Ferdinand.

* Alfonso II, Count of Provence, second son of Alfonso II of Aragon.

In 1137, Aragon and the County of Barcelona merged in dynastic union by the marriage of Ramon Berenguer IV and Petronilla of Aragon, their titles finally borne by only one person when their son Alfonso II of Aragon ascended to the throne in 1162.

He had accompanied as canon Diego de Acebo, Bishop of Osma on a diplomatic mission to Denmark, to arrange the marriage between the son of King Alfonso VIII of Castile and a niece of King Valdemar II of Denmark.

Ferdinand's son, Alfonso VI of Castile took the title in 1077.

* 1469 3 June – After the death of Alfonso de Castilla and the 1st Duke of Medina Sidonia, his son and heir Enrique de Guzman, 2nd Duke of Medina Sidonia changed side and in reward, saw the status of Gibraltar, as part of the domains of the Duke, confirmed by the Queen Isabella I of Castile.

* 1492 Summer – After the death of the former Duke, his son and heir, Juan Alfonso Perez de Guzman, 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia saw his lordship over Gibraltar reluctantly renewed by the Catholic Monarchs.

Although the former queen, Isabella II was still alive, she recognized that she was too divisive as a leader, and abdicated in 1870 in favor of her son, Alfonso.

Tradition has it that Alfonso of Aragon was an illegitimate son of the King of Naples and that her brother Cesare may have had him murdered after his political value waned.

He was made Duke of Gravina by King Alfonso, title definitely assigned to his son Giacomo ( died 1472 ), to which had been added the counties of Conversano, Campagna and Copertino.

When Queen Isabella and her husband were forced to leave Spain by the Revolution of 1868, Alfonso accompanied them to Paris.

1929 portrait of King Alfonso XIIIOn 31 May 1906, at the Royal Monastery of San Geronimo in Madrid, Alfonso married Scottish-born Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg ( 1887 – 1969 ), a niece of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Written as it was during Queen Ena's lifetime, this book necessarily omits the King's extramarital affairs ; but it remains a useful biography, not least because the author knew Alfonso quite well, interviewed him at considerable length, and relates him to the Spanish culture of his time.

In 1421 Queen Joan II of Naples, who had no children, adopted and named him as heir to the Kingdom of Naples, and Alfonso went to Naples.

* Elvira Alfonso, Queen of Sicily.

Melilla was part of the Kingdom of Fez when the Catholic Monarchs, Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon requested Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán, 3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia, to take the city.

* January 14 – Alfonso ( Queen Isabel IIof Spain's son ) arrives in Spain and becomes Alfonso XII ( Third Carlist War ).

* Unsuccessful attempt of Queen Urraca to seize Burgos defended by her ex-husband King Alfonso.

He arranged that his daughter Maria should wed Alfonso XI of Castile ( 1328 ), but the marriage precipitated the war it was intended to avert, and peace was only restored ( 1330 ) after Queen Isabella had again intervened.

* Eleanor of England, Queen of Castile ( 1162 – 1214 ), wife of Alfonso VIII, who brought the name into the Castilian Royal Dynasty

It was a favorite residence of Alfonso X the Wise and Henry IV, and Isabella the Catholic left him to be crowned Queen of Castile in the main square.

Then the Connaughts visited Spain, where Patricia was expected to be King Alfonso XIII's future wife ( later, Alfonso married another granddaughter of Queen Victoria, Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg ).

King John I then met the Council in Montalbán and sent Alfonso Lopez de Tejada with instructions for the regent, now Queen Mother, to proclaim Beatrice and himself the rulers of Portugal.

She married Alfonso V of Aragon and became Queen of Aragon.

The Great Depression had little effect on her ; in the early 1930s she was painting King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Queen Elizabeth of Greece.

Maria Christina of Austria ( Maria Christina Désirée Henriette Felicitas Rainiera ; 21 July 1858 – 6 February 1929 ) was Queen consort of Spain as the second wife of King Alfonso XII of Spain.

She was Queen consort of Castile and León by her marriage to Alfonso VI of León and Castile.