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The Death of the Young Queen
of Spain.
(From the Melbourne Leader’s
London letter.)
The premature death of the girl-
Queen of Spain produced a feeling of
deep regret here. The sudden and
unexpected end of Queen Mercedes,
whose wedding festivities had only
been celebrated five months ago, was,
however, surrounded with circumstances
that made it peculiarly striking.
There is a mystery about it
which has not yet been cleared up,
and which may perhaps never be
removed. It was stated at first that
she was “killed by the doctors,” who
simply treated her for a miscarriage,
and only found out too late that her
real malady was typhoid fever. Now
whispers are spread—very low and
discreet whispers so far, but still
audible for those whose ears are open
—that foul play has been at work to
deprive King Alfonso of his young
consort, and with her to destroy any
immediate hopes of his founding a
new dynasty in Spain. The son of
Isabella is not so firmly established
on his throne is most people imagine.
The proud nation at whose head he
has been placed resent the more than
suspicion which hangs about his
birth, and it would require a very
trifling tempest indeed to shatter his
bark. The death of his bride may be
the means of bringing Spain once
more into revolutionary troubles.
Alfonso, it is no secret, owed his elevation
to the throne in no small
degree to the marriage which has
just been so abruptly ended.
Whether the King loved his young
cousin or not is a question I am not
called upon to answer, but I can state
as a fact within my own knowledge,
that a mistress to whom the boy had
given the most fervent youthful
affection was not cast off when the
royal wedding was celebrated, five
months ago, and still remains paramount
in favor at Madrid. The story
that the marriage was a love match
forms one of those courtly fictions
which are always raised and circulated
on similar occasions. In point
of fact King Alphonso was betrothed
to the Princess Mercedes before he
left Paris to assume the crown of
Spain. And as an incident of that
betrothal which has never appeared in
print, let me tell your readers that
when he announced to his mother
that he intended to wed his cousin,
Queen Isabella boxed his ears soundly,
and told him that it would be an
eternal stain upon his name were he
to marry the daughter of his uncle’s
murderer! (The Duke de Montpensier,
father of the Queen Mercedes,
shot his cousin, Don Henri de Bourbon,
in a duel, in March, 1870.)
When the secret betrothment took
place, Alfonso was only seventeen,
and his cousin a few months over
fourteen. At such an age neither the
inclinations of the bridegroom nor of
the bride could have much to do with
the conclusion of the matrimonial
compact. The proposed marriage
was to all outward seeming a very
wise and reasonable arrangement.
But it was essentially an affair of
state policy. Were it not for a pledge
of this kind it is doubtful whether
Alfonso would have ever mounted the
throne. His claim to succeed to the
crown as the acknowledged head of
his branch of the Bourbons was
strengthened beyond all calculation
by the recognition of his title by the
Duke and Duchess of Montpensier.
Now that Queen Mercedes is dead,
however, the bond is severed which
identified the interests of the Alfonso
branch of the family with those of
Alfonso the Twelfth. It is no secret
that previously to the celebration of
the marriage Queen Isabella was
intriguing against her son and successor.
The statements she was said
to have made regarding his legitimacy
to the Count de Chambord were
really put into black and white with
her own hand, and are, I can state as
a fact, in the possession of a former
member of her household, at the
present moment in London. Isabella
has to pay a heavy ransom to this
man for keeping the damnatory document
from seeing the light publicly.
But such a state of things cannot
endure for ever, and it is only too
likely that the most prejudicial disclosures
will soon be brought forward
to upset the present monarchy
in Spain. The premature death of
the young Queen has consequently a
greater political significance than
might appear on the mere surface of
the event. It has added another to
the innumerable elements of disturbance
which threaten the fortune of
Spain and her youthful Sovereign.
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