Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1878 — Romance of the Spanish Marriage. [ARTICLE]

Romance of the Spanish Marriage.

- The marriage of Alphonso, King of Spain, and the Princess Mercedes, third daughter of the Duke de Montpensier, was simply a great social event, having little political significance. Alphonso is the son of the ex-Queen Isabella, and Mercedes is the grand-daughter of Louis Phillippe. There was a time when a Bourbon marriage would have caused a commotion in Europe, because marriages were then consummated for reasons of state, were the ceremonies that gave notice of new compacts on the part of a powerful family, and new combinations in European politics. Henry of Navarre was the first French King of the House of Bourbon, and he came to the throne as Henry IV., in 1589. He had two sons, Louis XIII. and Gaston, Duke of Orleans, and two daughters, Elizabeth, who was married to Philip IV. of Spain, and Henrietta, who became the Queen of "Charles I. of England. Louis XIII. left two sons, Louis XIV. aud Philip, Duke of Orleans. The latter was the ancestor of King Louis Phillippe. The legitimist representative of the Bourbon family in France is Count de Chambord. The Orleans branch has several prominent representatives, including the Montpensiers. The eldest son of Louis XIV. was the father of Philip, Duke of Anjou, placed on the Spanish throne in 1700 as Philip V. Philip was the founder of the Spanish branch of the Bourbon family, and the ancestor of Queen Isabella. Thirty years ago Isabella and Donna Louisa, daughters of King Ferdinand VII. of Spain, were to be married, and all Europe was agitated. Louis Phillippe was the adviser and dictator in this question of marriage, and, as Europe protested against the marriage of Isabella to a Bourbon of France, the French King originated a scheme that he thought would finally bring a French Bourbon to the Spanish throne. Isabella was married to the dull and incapable Don Francisco de Assis, and it was believed she would have no children. Her sister Louisa, beautiful and wealthy, was married to the Duke de Montpensier, in the belief that her children would succeed childless Isabella. The old King was foiled, as Isabella had children, and her son is now the Spanish King. But his grandchild, Mercedes, toe daughter of Louisa, becomes the Queen of Spain, and the French and Spanish branches of the Bourbon family are united, though not as Louis Phillippe planned.