Maria de las Mercedes d’Orléans-Montpensier

María de las Mercedes de Orleans y Borbón was born in Madrid on June 24, 1860, to Antonio de Orleans, Duke of Montpensier, and María Luisa, a sister of Queen Isabel II of Spain. She was baptized on the day of her birth in the chapel of the Royal Palace. Her godparents were Isabel II and her husband, Francisco de Asís. The family usually lived at the Palacio de San Telmo in Seville. María de las Mercedes grew up during a period of intense political change. Her father belonged to the French royal family and was the son of King Louis Philippe I. Through his marriage to María Luisa, he was also closely connected to the Spanish monarchy. In 1868, the Duke of Montpensier supported plans to overthrow Isabel II. As a result, he and his family were forced into exile in Lisbon. After the revolution succeeded and Isabel II was banished, the family returned to Seville in 1869. In 1870, Isabel II transferred her rights to the throne to her son Alfonso. In the following years, negotiations took place concerning the duke’s political support for Alfonso. One agreement provided, among other things, that the duke would recognize Alfonso’s claims to the throne and, if the future king were still a minor, would serve as regent together with María Cristina de Borbón-Dos Sicilias. It also contemplated a possible marriage between Alfonso and María de las Mercedes, provided that both agreed to it. During the Christmas season of 1872, Isabel II and Alfonso stayed at Randan Castle after being invited there by the duke and María Luisa. Alfonso fell in love with María de las Mercedes, and the two became engaged. Their relationship, however, was accompanied by tensions within the royal family. Relations between Isabel II and the Duke of Montpensier remained difficult, particularly because of the planned union between their children. In 1874, following the Pronunciamiento of Sagunto led by General Martínez Campos, Alfonso was proclaimed King of Spain. In October 1876, María de las Mercedes and her family returned permanently to Spain. In Madrid, they met Alfonso XII, who renewed the pledge of love he had made earlier. The family then traveled to Seville, where they met Isabel II and her daughters. The receptions held over several days at the Palacio de San Telmo reflected the social importance of the planned marriage. During Alfonso’s stay in Seville in the spring of 1877, the king also visited the palace almost every day. On December 7, 1877, Alfonso XII formally asked for María de las Mercedes’s hand in marriage. He sent the Marquis of Alcañices to Seville with a personal letter. The envoy presented the letter at the Palacio de San Telmo in a formal ceremony. María de las Mercedes received a bracelet made of gold, rubies, and diamonds. The following day, the envoys returned to Madrid with her father’s consent, and on December 10 the reply was delivered to the king at the Royal Palace. Alfonso XII spent the period from December 22, 1877, to January 8, 1878, mostly in Seville with his fiancée and her family. In honor of the couple, the Duke of Montpensier held a grand ball at the Palacio de San Telmo on December 26, attended by more than two thousand members of the Andalusian elite. The marriage contracts were signed on January 22, 1878. María de las Mercedes’s dowry was set at one and a half million pesetas and included jewelry, shares, a former house belonging to Hernán Cortés in Castilleja de la Cuesta, and the Santa Águeda estate near Bolonia. The wedding took place on January 23, 1878, at Madrid’s Basilica of Atocha. María de las Mercedes thereby became Queen of Spain. Isabel II, who had reluctantly accepted the marriage, did not attend the ceremony. The young queen, however, remained at Alfonso’s side for only a short time. In March, after a long horseback ride, she suffered a miscarriage and subsequently fell ill. She initially recovered in April, but by the end of May she began to suffer increasing exhaustion. On June 22, she developed hemorrhages. Her parents arrived in Madrid from Italy the following day, but María de las Mercedes died on June 26, 1878, only two days after her eighteenth birthday. A contemporary medical report attributed her death to nervous gastric fever accompanied by severe intestinal hemorrhaging; today, typhus is considered the cause. She was initially buried in the Basilica of the Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. Because she had not been the mother of a king, she was not entitled to burial in the Pantheon of the Kings. At Alfonso XII’s request, her remains were transferred to Madrid’s Almudena Cathedral on November 8, 2000. Her early death and her love story with Alfonso XII became part of Spain’s cultural memory. They inspired a children’s song, the widely performed song “Romance de la Reina Mercedes,” two films about her relationship with Alfonso XII, and a historical novel about her life and loves.