Mateo Morral was responsible for the attack perpetrated against the King and Queen of Spain, Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenia of Battenberg, great-grandparents of Felipe VI, on May 31, 1906 after their wedding in Madrid.
A native of Sabadell, the regicide was the son of a textile industrialist from the Catalan town. The young anarchist was 26 years old and single. He had embraced anarchist ideology from a very young age and had worked as a librarian at the Modern School, founded by the libertarian pedagogue Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia, with whom his father had a close friendship.
On May 21, he had arrived in Madrid from Barcelona and had stayed at the Iberia inn, on Calle Arenal, registering under his own name. When verifying that the location did not allow him to carry out the attack, he had moved to a house for travelers located at number 88 of Calle Mayor.
On May 31, at 1:55 p.m., he throws a bouquet of flowers that hides an 'Orsini' bomb from his bedroom window and flees down the stairs. 24 citizens die and many others who were near the vehicle are injured, but the kings are unharmed.
Panicking, he manages to dodge the terrified fleeing crowd and makes his way to the Riot newsroom. It is four in the afternoon, she meets with her director, José Naskens, of well-known anarchist affinities, in the newspaper, who arranges accommodation for her that night.
Backpack manages to flee from Madrid. On June 2 he arrives in Torrejón de Ardoz. Hungry, he ends up at an inn where he is recognized.
Alerted, the Civil Guard comes to arrest him. When he is guarded by one of the guards, he takes out a Brownig and shoots. He then directs the gun at his own chest.
He dies on the spot.
Naskens is sentenced to nine years in prison by a popular jury.
The summary of the case will determine that the young Mateo had committed the greatest attack against the monarchy in Spain driven by lovesickness.
Recent research casts doubt on the regicide's suicide, suggesting that the anarchist was actually 'suicided'. Be that as it may, Mateo Morral has gone down in the history of Spain as the bloodiest assassin.
