María de las Mercedes de Borbon

María de las Mercedes de Borbon

María de las Mercedes de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena , full name María de las Mercedes Isabel Teresa Cristina Alfonsa Jacinta Ana Josefa Francisca Carolina Fernanda Filomena María de Todos los Santos (born September 14, 1880 in the Palacio Real in Madrid ; †  October 17,  1904 in Madrid) was a Spanish princess and by marriage princess of both Sicilies .

Life

María de las Mercedes was the eldest daughter of the Spanish King Alfonso XII. (1857–1885) and his second wife Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria (1858–1929), daughter of Archduke Karl Ferdinand and Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska Maria . Her paternal grandmother was Queen Isabella II. When her father died of tuberculosis in the El Pardo Palace on November 25, 1885 , Maria de las Mercedes was the heir to the Spanish throne. But her mother was expecting a child. The political leaders, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo and Práxedes Mateo Sagasta , decided to support the queen widow Maria Christina as regent in order to maintain political continuity. Under the protection of the flexible and sensible constitution of 1876 and with the consolidation of the peaceful transition from one ruling party to the other, the conservative Cánovas to the liberal Sagastas, the system of restoration continued.

Even the opposition - both the Carlist and the Republicans - offered a truce to the regime, which was represented by "a widow and an orphan". Her brother, Alfons Ferdinand Maria, was born on May 17, 1886. Alfonso XIII (1886–1941) is the only one in the history of Spain who was born as a king; Such cases are difficult to find in the history of the rest of Europe either. María de las Mercedes was second in line to the throne in Spain until her death. She had a special and close relationship with her younger sister, Maria Theresia (1882–1912).

On February 14, 1901, Infanta María de las Mercedes married Carlos Maria de Bourbon , Prince of Naples-Sicily (1870-1949), the second son of Alfons Maria, Count of Caserta and his wife Princess Maria Antonia of Naples-Sicily . The marriage produced three children: Alfonso (1901–1964), Fernando (1903–1905) and Isabella Alfonsa (1904–1985). Infanta María de las Mercedes died giving birth to her daughter and was buried in the Real Sitio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial ( Pantheon of the Infants , Chapel 1).

predecessor	Office	successor
Isabella of Bourbon and Bourbon	Princess of Asturias 1881–1904	Alfons of Bourbon and Battenberg