Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1885 — MEN OF NOTE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MEN OF NOTE.

Don Carlos, the Spanish Pretender. By the death of Alfonso XU. the claims' of Don Carlos to the throne of Spain have been revived. Don Carlos, who insists that he is the rights ul, heir to the thr me of Spain, would be heir to the throne if the Salic law, which formerly governed the succession in Spain and prohibited the succession of a female, had not been abolished by KiDg Alfonso’s grandfather, Ferdinand VII. in order to secure the crown to his daughter, Isabella 11., Alfonso’s mother.

Don Carlos claims that Ferdinand had no right to abolish the Salic law; that it is, therefore, still in fores in Spain, and that he is King by right. The-growth of public sentiment is, however, Jjffefavor of liberal government, and the possibility of Don Carlos, who represents ultramontane bigotry and intolerance, being called into power, is very remote. A republic might be a possibility if the Republicans were united among themselves, but they are not. Their leaders are divided; there is no cohesion in the Republican party. Besides, the Catholic Church and the property interests, two powerful factors in the politics of Spain, fear a republic and are opposed to it. Don Carlos was bom March 30, 1848. His father, Don Juan, was the brother of Charles VI. of Spain. As Charles VI. died without issue his rights devolved upon his brother and subsequently to the present Don Carlos. The latter was educated in Austria, and was married in 1867 to Margaret de Bourbon, sister of the present Comte de Chambord (Henry VI.) of France, - In 1872 the adherents of Don Carlos raised his standard in the north of Spain, and in July of that year he published a proclamation addressed to (he inhabitants of Catalonia, Aragon, and Valencia, calling npon them to take up arms in his cause. Don Carlos made his entry into Spain in 1873, and the various governments from time to time in power at Madrid sta-ofe in vain to suppress the revolution. When Alfonso was called to the throne Don Carlos issued another proclamation calling npon his volunteers to continue in their efforts, exhorting them tp remember their many brilliant achievements, and that they were fighting for Che welfare of Spain. He also promised them to reform the government should he oome to power. Alfonso’s forces, however, made continued foreing the Carlists, who fought with desperation, to Tolosa. In January, 1876, this, their last stronghold, fell. Their leaders sought refuge in France. ’July 18, 1881, Carlos was expelled from France on the ground of his having ostentatiously allied himself with the partisans of the Comte de Chambord. Don Carlos has five children -the Infanta Blanca, bom in 1868; Infante Jaime, bom in 1,870; Infanta Elvira, bom in 1871; Infanta Betrix, bom in 1874, and Infanta Alix, bom in 1876. Don Carlos is a true scion of Bourbon, lilies and all. Since Henry V. of France refused the crown because the deputies would not permit him to change the tricolor for the fteur delis, there has been no such royal antiquarian upon the European political stage as Don .Carlos. Both preserve the traditions of the fifteenth century with a tenacity bom land bred in centuries of communal institutions, and as difficult to separate as life itself. The Don will not sanction the marriage of his son and the infanta sired by Alfonso, because he considers the mesalliance would rain his chances to the throne.