Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-06-18
KING ALFONSO'S MARRIAGE. J
Royal neutrality-suspicious. Chosen
Bride--The Archduchess Marie Chris
tine Of Austria.
London Daily Telegraph.


Eleven months have elapsed since the
young king of Spain was bereft of a
lovely and amiable consort, to whom he
was passionately attached, and whose
death affected him so deeply that for
some time after that melancholy event
he led the life of q recluse; and it was
even feared that the vehemence of his
grief might prompt him to renounce
his exalted position in the hope of find
ing Consolation in religious practices.
The marriage of Alfonso de Bourbon
with his cousin, Maria de las Mercedes
d'Orleans, was genuine love match.
The king, a youth of an ardent and ro-
mantle temperament, had bestowed his
affections upon his beautiful kinswo-
man in the days of his early boyhood,
and had maintained an unfinching
constancy to the object of his juvenile
passion throug hout his long exile from
his native country and wanderings in
many lands. Great and general ma
tional rejoicing celebrated this wedding,
solemnized under such favorable aus
pices and fraught with such abundant
promise of felicity. Alfonso and Mer-
cedes, however, were not destined long
to enjoy that exquisite bliss, which re-
suits from the union of lovers in the
heyday of youth. Scarcely five months
after their wedding day they were
parted forever by the remorseless hand
of death, which snatched away the fair
and gentle Mary of Mercedes from her
despairing bridegroom. and plunged
Spain into mourning that, for once in
a way, was no mere outward show die
tated by the prescriptions of court ETH
quette. King Alfonso's betrotbel to a
Princess of the Hapsburg- Lorraine
house has recently been publicly an
noupced, and it is more than probable
that in contracting a second alliance
within twelvemonth Of the lamented
Mercedes death he has yielded to the
wishes of the Spanish people, who are
well satisfied with the present manner
Of their government and extremely de-
sirOus that the crown should remain in
the custody of the elder branch of the
Spanish Bourbons. The king has three
sisters living, but no brother; his cousin,
Don Carlos, has already warred against
him, denied his legitimacy and title to
the throne and inflicted an infinite
amount of suffering upon the Spanish
people. By the vast maj ority Of Span
iards it is held to be in the highest de-
gree desirable that his Majesty should
wed again, and in due course of time
Prince. 1t could hardly be expect
ed that SO young and patriotic SOW
ereign as Alfonso II. should offer any
very durable resistance to national
demand, the purpose of which is, after
all the firm and definite establish
ment of his dynasty. It appears
likely that the King CT Spain will
espouse the Austrian Archduchess
Marie Christine, granddaughter of the
talented and popular Palat1ne Joseph,
upon the anniversary Of his 22d birth
day, which will be celebrated on the
2Stn of next November. The future
queen Of Spain is only eight months
younger than his majesty, and is said to
be highly-accomplished and amiable
as well as beautiful princess. She is the
daughter of a second marriage, her
mother, the Archduchess Elizabeth,
having lost her first husband, the
Archduke Ferdinand Charles, when
still a girl in age, and having married
four years later the Archduke Charles
Ferdinand, the father of King Alfonsos
betrothed Alliances between the Haps-
burgs and the Bourbons have been of
frequent occurrence for many centuries
past, and the bride and bridegroom
are cousins, but SO distant that no
Papal dispensation will be required to
legalize their union. That it may
prove a happy one for themselves and
Spain cannot but be the earnest wish of
every civilized Eurorean people.