The 24.06.1860, a princess was born in Madrid. Her father was Antoine d´Orleans, duke of Montpensier, son of the king Louis Philippe of France and his queen Marie Amalie of Two Sicilies; her mother was Luisa Fernanda of Borbon, infanta of Spain, sister of the Queen Isabel II.
Queen Isabel, her maternal aunt, and the husband of the Queen, Francisco of Asis, were the godparents at her christening. The little one received...more than twenty names! She was Maria de las Mercedes Isabel Francisca de Asís Antonia Luisa Fernanda Felipa Amalia Cristina Francisca de Paula Ramona Rita Cayetana Manuela Juana Josefa Joaquina Ana Rafaela Filomena Teresa Santisima Trinidad Gaspara Melchora Baltasara...et omni sancti. Obviusly, she was always known as María de las Mercedes, or simply Mercedes.
She has a happy childhood. She grew up between Madrid and Sevilla, where they parents owned the wonderful palace of San Telmo. Her father was not beloved: he was always plotting against his sister-in-law Isabel, trying to gain the throne for himself, and he killed the charming infante Enrique, a cousin of both her wife and her sister-in-law, in a duel celebrated near to Alarcon. Despite the continuous mistakes of the father, Mercedes felt so much love to her pious mother Luisa and to her siblings.
In 1868, a revolution forced to the aunt of Mercedes, Queen Isabel, to exile in France with her homosexual husband Francisco of Asis (nicknamed Paquito Natillas) and the children. The prince heir Alfonso (a son of Isabel fathered by the lover Enrique of Puigmoltó) was sent to Viena, where he continues his studies at the Theresianum, and, later, to the Militar Academy of Sandhurst in England. Alfonso and Mercedes fell in love when the two were so young. After the restoration, when Alfonso was King Alfonso XII, he married Mercedes despite the virulent opposition of Queen Isabel. Queen Isabel had nothing bad to say on her niece Mercedes, but "she´s daughter of this dammed Montpensier". The spanish parlament accepted the marriage, because Mercedes was very lovely and so much loved by the common people. She was, as a parlamentary said, "an angel" and "angels can not be put in question".
The wedding was celebrated 23.01.1878. Six months later, the young queen, after a miscarriage, died suddenly of tuberculosis. The people of Madrid shared with the king a deep, deep sorrow. During more than a hundred years, the popular songs celebrating the lovely queen flowrished.
