Mercedes of Orleans

Mercedes of Orleans is born the June 24th 1860, with the Royal palace of Madrid, and dies in this same city the June 26th 1878. By its birth, it is a Infante resulting from the Spanish branch of the Maison of Orleans but, by its marriage with the king Alphonse XII, it is also a queen of Spain.

Family

Marie of the Graces (Mercedes) Isabelle Francoise d' Assise Antonia Louise Fernande Philippe Amélie Christine Francoise of Paule Raymonde Rita Cayetana Jeanne Josépha Joaquime Anne Raphaëlle Philomène Therese of Très Holy Trinity Gaspara Melchiora Balthazara of All the Saints of Orleans is the fifth child of the French prince Antoine of Orleans (1824-1890), Duc of Montpensier, and his wife the Spanish Infante Louise Fernande de Bourbon (1832-1897). By her father, it is the grand-daughter of the king of the French Louis-Philippe Ier (1773-1850) and of his wife Marie-Amélie de Bourbon (1782-1866), princess of Deux-Siciles. By her mother, it is also the grand-daughter of two other sovereigns: the king Ferdinand VII of Spain (1784-1833) and its wife the queen Marie-Christine of Bourbon (1806-1878), princess of Deux-Siciles.

Let us add that the godfather and the godmother of the infante Mercedes are his uncle and his aunt, the queen Isabelle II of Spain (1830-1904) and the king consort François d' Assise Bourbon (1822-1902).

January 23rd, 1878, the princess marries her first cousin, the king Alphonse XII of Spain (1857-1885). But this love match lasts only six months and Mercedes dies little of time after having had a miscarriage.

Biography

Mercedes of Orleans is born in the Spanish capital, during the reign of his/her aunt and godmother Isabelle II, but it however passes the majority of its childhood to Seville, with the Palais of San Telmo. It should be said that there exists a long-lived competition between the duke of Montpensier, father of Mercedes, and his sister-in-law Isabelle II, and that Orleans are not really welcome at the Court of Madrid.

In 1868, a revolution bursts in Madrid against the queen Isabelle and Orleans of Spain, which however financed rising, must leave their country. But ambitious and liberal the Antoine of Orleans seeks to be made proclaim sovereign. In 1870, it thus returns to Spain to be made there elect but its candidature is finally isolated after it killed in duel the duke of Seville, brother-in-law of Isabelle II. The exile of Orleans thus continues and it is only into 1874 that the infante Mercedes can definitively regain Spain with its family.

In 1872, Mercedes finds for the first time his/her Alphonse cousin, then Prince of Asturies in exile, and two young people fall in love one with the other.

In December 1874, the coup d'etat of the general Arsenio Martínez Campos allows the restoration of monarchy in Spain and the proclamation of prince Alphonse like new sovereign. The queen Isabelle II had indeed given up her dynastic rights in favor of her son and the young man is then recognized by the monarchists constitutionnalists like Alphonse XII of Spain.

It is on this occasion that Mercedes and its family return to Spain and reinstall themselves with the palate of San Telmo, in Seville.

Two years later, Alphonse XII, then 19 years old, fact knowledge which it wishes to marry his Mercedes cousin, who is then 16 years old. At the beginning, this marriage hardly finds support. Isabelle II and her husband are indeed always in cold with the duke of Montpensier and the sovereign ex would prefer to see his/her son marrying the princess Blanche Bourbon (1868-1949), itself girl of the applicant carlist Charles of Bourbon (1848-1909). For diplomatic reasons, the government inhabitant of Madrid would prefer as for him to see the young monarch linking itself with a foreign princess, like Béatrice of the United Kingdom, girl of the queen Victoria). But Alphonse XII is obstinate and receives the support of the Spanish people, him-also in love with the princess whose “hair is as black as the Andalusian nights”.

The couple is thus linked in 1878. Unfortunately, the marriage is very short because Mercedes contracts the Typhus or the Tuberculose five months hardly after the celebration. The young queen dies in the Royal palace of Madrid, two days only after having been 18 years old. Inconsolable, the young Alphonse XII accompanies his wife until in his last moments.

Mercedes of Orleans is initially buried in a vault of the Monastère of Escorial, and not in the part known as of the Pantheon of the kings, reserved to the queens traditionally having had a descent. But, in accordance with the desires of her husband, his remainders are transported, on November 8th, 2000, in the Cathédrale of Almudena of Madrid, whose sovereign one is at the origin of construction.

To note

Become widowed, the king Alphonse XII finally decides remarier to give a descent to Spain. He chooses then like marries a sister of Mercedes, the princess Marie-Christine of Orleans (1852-1879) but this one dies in its turn shortly after their engagement. Alphonse XII remarie finally with the archduchess Marie-Christine of Habsbourg-Lorraine (1858-1929).

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