Mercedes of Orléans

Engagement and marriage

Isabella II abdicated her rights to the throne in favor of her son, Alfonso, on June 25, 1870. In 1871, Isabella sent an envoy to Seville to negotiate an agreement with the Duke of Montpensier. Under the terms, the Duke recognized Alfonso’s rights, a potential regency was outlined, and a marriage between Alfonso and Maria de las Mercedes was proposed, provided the parties agreed.

In 1872, the Duke of Montpensier, then under investigation for the assassination of General Juan Prim, moved to France. In January of that year, the Duke and his family met with Isabella II in Paris to reconcile and show support for the Bourbon restoration. This resulted in the **Cannes Agreement**, where the Duke formally supported Alfonso's candidacy for the throne.

During Christmas 1872, Isabella II and Alfonso were invited by the Montpensiers to the Chateau de Randan. It was there that Alfonso fell in love with Maria de las Mercedes, and the two became engaged. Following the Restoration in December 1874, Alfonso was proclaimed King as Alfonso XII.

The Royal Family returned to Spain definitively in October 1876. Alfonso XII met them in Madrid, where he renewed his vow of love to Mercedes. On December 7, 1877, the King formally requested her hand in marriage via the Duke of Sesto. The proposal was formally accepted at the Palace of San Telmo, where Mercedes received a gold, ruby, and diamond bracelet as a gift from the King.

The royal wedding took place on 23 January 1878, at the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de Atocha in Madrid. Isabella II, who had reluctantly accepted the match, did not attend the ceremony.

Illness and death

In March 1878, shortly after the royal honeymoon, it became evident that the Queen was unwell. She suffered a miscarriage following a long horse ride and subsequently fell ill. While she appeared to recover briefly, her health began to decline steadily in late May. On June 22, she began suffering from hemorrhages.

Maria de las Mercedes died on June 26, 1878, at the age of 18; her marriage had lasted only five months and three days. The official medical report cited "nervous gastric fever," though modern historians and contemporary reports believe she died of typhoid fever or typhus.

She was initially buried at El Escorial, as she was not the mother of a King. However, in accordance with the wish of Alfonso XII, her remains were transferred to Almudena Cathedral in Madrid on November 8, 2000. Her white marble tomb bears the Latin inscription:

«MARIA·DE·MERCEDE ALPHONSI·XII·DVLCISSIMA·CONIVX».

(translated as "Maria de las Mercedes, sweetest wife of Alfonso XII").

Legacy

The news of her demise spawned many folk songs accounting for it, most notably the famous copla, with many variations in Spain and America, particularly popular among children delivered as a song accompanying a skipping rope game. According to Benito Pérez Galdós, he had already heard about it a few days after the incident: “¿Dónde vas Alfonso XII? ¿Dónde vas triste de ti? Voy en busca de Mercedes que ayer tarde no la vi…” ("Where are you going, Alfonso XII? Where are you going, sad man?—I'm going in search of Mercedes whom I did not see yesterday afternoon..."). A film about the romance between María de las Mercedes and Alfonso XII, Where Are You Going, Alfonso XII?, was released in 1958.

Queen Mercedes co-initiated the building of the Cathedral of la Almudena in Madrid, opposite of the royal palace —the construction beginning in 1883. In May 2004 Felipe, Prince of Asturias, was wed there to Letizia Ortiz. Queen Mercedes' remains were re-interred there on 8 November 2000, in accordance with her widower's wishes.

A town in the northern Philippine province of Isabela was named Reina Mercedes in her honor in 1886 when the Spanish colonial government formally separated it from Cauayan.

When the King's minister Cánovas del Castillo suggested that he take a new wife, Alfonso acquiesced, choosing Mercedes' sister María Cristina. She also contracted tuberculosis, and died during the engagement period. In late 1879, he married Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria-Teschen; the eldest of their children, the Princess of Asturias, was named in honour of Queen Mercedes.