The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-07-02
KING ALFONSO'S MARRIAGE.
Royal Love- Making Alfonso's Chosen Bride
The Archduchess Marie Christine Of Aus
trin. ------- -
From the London Daily telegram

FROM the London Daily Telegraph.
Eleven months have elapsed since the
young king Of Spain was bereft of a
lovely and amiablc 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 recluse; and it was even
feared that. the vehemence of his grief
might prompt him to renounce his ex-
allied positson in the hope of finding CON
ISOLATION in religious practices. The mar
riage 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 romantic tempera-
mont, had bestowed his affections upon his
beautiful kinswoman in the days OF his
early boyhood, and maintained an un-
t1lnchlng consistency to the object of his
juvenile passion through his long exile
from his native country and wanderings
in many lands. Great and general ma
tional rejoicing celebrated his wedding,
solemnized under such favorable aus
piees and fraught with such abundant
promise of felicity. Alfonso and Mer-
cedes, however, were not destined long to
enjoy that exquisite bliss which results
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 Mercies from her despairing bride
groom and plunged Spain into mourn
ing that, for once in away, was no mere
outward show dictated by the prescrip-
lions of court etiquette. King Alfonso's
betrothal to princess of the Hampburg-
Lorraine house has recently been public
ly announced, and it is more than prob
able that in contracting second alliance
within twelve months of the lamented
Mercedes death he has yielded to the
wishes of the Spanish people, who are
we'll satisfied with the present manner of
their government and extremely DESTROYS
that the crown should remain in the
custody Of the elder branch of the Spanish
Bourbons. The king has three sisters liv.
ing, but no brother; his cousin, Don Car
los, next to himself the eldest male repre-
sentative of his royal house, has already
warred against him, denied his Legitimacy
and title to the throne and inflicted an in
finite amount of suffering upon the Span
ish people. By the vast majority of the
Spaniards it is held to be in the highest
degree desirable that his majesty should
we'd again, and in due course of time pro-
vide his country with a crown prince.
1t could hardly be expected that SO young
and patriotic sovereign as Alfonso II.
should offer any very durable resistance
to national demand, the purpose OF
which is, after all, the firm and defnitive
establishment of his dynasty. It.appears
likely that the king of Spain will
espouse the Austrian Archduchess Marie
Christine, granddaughter of the talented
and popular Palatine Joseph, upon
the anniversary Of his twenty second
birthday, which will be celebrated on
the 2Sth 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
we'll as beautiful princess. She is the
daughter Of a second marriage, her moth
er the Archduchess Elizabeth, having lost
her first husband, the Archduke Ferdi-
nand Charles, when still a girl in age, and
having married four years later the Arch
duke Charles Ferdinand, the father of
King Alfonso's bethrothed. Alliances be-
tween the Hampsburgs 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 re-
quired to legalize their union. That it
may prove happy one for themselves
and Spain cannot but be the earnest wish
of every civilized European people.