Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-04-19
Don Carlos.

In VIEW of present events and possible
eventualities, it may be interesting to
know who and what this Don Carlos is,
whence he derives the claim he so ener-
ge{ically presses to the Spanish throne,
and what manner of man he is who can
inspire devotion so steadfast and can keep
SPAN In state of chronic unrest and de-
sultory civil war. Don Carlos is the great
grandson of Carlos w, who reigned from
IIoS to lS0S, and was descended from
fnllip ", the first French Bourbon king
OF spain. Carlos left two sons, Ferdinand
and Carlos. Ferdinand, seventh of his
name, assembled the throne in 1908, to be
ousted from it within year, when Joseph
Bonaparte succeeded. Joseph was de-
posed in 1914, after the abdication at Fon-
tainebleau; and Ferdinand returned un-
der the protection of the Allies. This
weak-bodied and feeble-minded king was
the Blue Beard or rather the Henry VIII.
OF Spanish royalty. Within period Of
twenty-eight years he led five successive
queens to the altar-a Portuguese princess,
two Neapoiitan princesses, and two Saxon
pr1ncesses. He continued childless until
he welded the handsome Christina, sister
OF Ferdinand H., or "Bomba," King of
Naples, by whom, IN 1880, he had one
daughter, Isabella. Christina was as re-
markable for her spirit, courage, and
ambition as for her swafthy Italian
beauty. She ruled the imbecile king
with a rod of iron. As the Salic
law excluding females from the throne
prevailed in Spain, Ferdinand's brother,
Don Carlos, was the legitimate heir but
Christina was determined that little Isa-
bella, her daughter, sheuld succeed.
whereby she herself would secure long
lease OF power as regent. She according
" catoled. threatened, and teazed poor
ferdinand into causing the abrogation of
the Salic law. This was the more easily
accomplished as Ferdinand had long had
a bitter quarrel with Don Carlos. The
Salic law was abolished, Isabella pro.
claimed as the heir Of the monarchy, and
upon the demise of the king, In 1898.
Christina was duly installed In the Pala-
clio Reale as regent until the infant queen
came of age. She resigned the regency
In 1910; but was long afterward the real
possessor of the regal power, and contin-
ued to advise Isabella till her fall from the
throne in 1868. Don Carlos, thus uncer-
enormously cheated of his rights, was by
no means content to submit tamely TO the
loss of crown. For eight years he en-
gagged In ferocious civil war with the re.
gent; but the active sympathies of France
and England were against him, and he at
last gave over in despair. He retired to
France, in 1899, and took up his residence
at Paris, where he lived until his death.
In lS45 he resigned his pretensions to the
Spanish crown In favor Of his son, the en-
ergetic young Count of Mortemolin, by
whose sudden death, in 1861, the claim to
the throne passed into the hands of his
brother, Don Juan. But Don Juan did
not possess the enterprising spirit Of his
father and elder brother; his tastes were
indolent and luxurious. Happily for the
Carlists he had son who united military
predictions with an attractive person
and adventurous zeal. Don Juan, the
day after the involuntary abdication of
Isabella, in 1868, made over his rights as
the Carlist representative to his son, and
a third Don Carlos appeared upon the
scene as contestant for the prize. Thus
the present Don Carlos Is grandson of
the first pretender of that name, and SYM
bolizes the traditional cause of the old
Salic monarchy. When endowed with
the leadership he was only eighteen years
old; but he at once entered vigorously
into the schemes Of his partisans and for
the past five years has almost constantly
lowered about the frontier, occasionally
passing it, to return, pursued by the
troops Of the Savoyard sovereign.-N Y.