The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-10
MARRIAGE OF ALFONSO
BEING CONSIDERED
One of Two Young PrincesSes
Named May Be Queen
of Spain.
A PECULIAR SITUATION
Neither of the Fair Young Women
PleaSeS SuperstitiouS
Spaniards.

Correspondence OF the Indianapolis Journal.
SEVILLE. Dec. 24.-The time has come
for King to marry, and who, perhaps,
may be the last royal ruler over a country
whose empire once was the mightiest on
the globe-an empire which, besides its
Eastern domination, included that of the
two Western continents.
The young King of Spain faces bad omens,
the soothsayers aver. To begin with, he is
Alfonso XIII, and from a people dissatisfied
with the loss of prestige, little but discon-
tent might be expected at the actions of
the ablest of ruIers-and Alfonso. to tell
the truth bluntly, is never likely to be one
of these.
SO, perforce, a consOrt must be found for
him, and already some progress in that
direction has been made, for two have been
mentioned and the selection of either OF
them, the same soothsayers say, will be
simply the temptation of malevolent fate.
One proposal is that King Alfonso spouse
the Princess Louise of Orleans. The prin-
cess is a very pretty girl. She would, in
the conventional sense, be an excellent con-
sort for the young King, but the Spaniards
do. not want her. Spain is a supersttious
country; the Spanards are a superstitious
race, and one in whose veins runs the blood
of the house of Montpensier, is necessarily
non persona grata to them. Her grand
father, the last duke Of that line, left an
unenviable reputation and an unhallowed
memory in Spain.
MONTPENSIER UNPOPULAR.
Montpensier gave good reason for his un-
popularity. Avaricious to the last degree,
he never could keep himself out of every
conspiracy and plot of the shadiest type.
and wherever the dark side of politics hap
pened to be, he was always found lurking
in its shadow. He had married the sister
of Queen Isabella and practically all he
could boast of in the shape of honors and
estates he owed to her. Yet the hope of
his life that the barrenness of the
Queens marriage to King Francis would
finally end in making him King of Spain.
To further this personal ambition. he even
dared TO make hints concerning the legiti-
macy of some of the offspring credited TO
Undoubtedly Montpensier instigated the
revolution of 1865. That revolt. which lost
the crown to Isabella, did not result in plac-
ing II on his own head In fact, he was
so distrusted and disiked that the people of
Spain expressed their determination to offer
the crown TO any foreign prince rather than
permit the Duke OF MOntpensier to rule over
them. The way in which he killed Prince
Henry of Bourbon, in 1S70-it was more in
the nature of cold blooded murder than
hatred in which his name was held, and
after the restoration of his nephew, Don
Alfonso, to the throne, in 1919, his own re-
turn to Spain was regarded as almost a
national disaster.
The next scheme of Montpensier was to
promote the union of his daughter Princess
Christine, with the King. Again the fates
were against him. Princess Christine died
But he was not discouraged. He managed
TO betroth another daughter, the Princess
Mercedes, to the King and had the salts
faction
Mercedes only lived few months and the
legend still prevails in Spain that both she
and her sister Christine were deliberately
poisoned by persons who determined that
Montpensier should never enjoy the infiu-
ence of being the father of the Queen.
Sentimental persons declared that the
finger of fate was TO be seen in the prema-
ture taking off of both the young women
that, in fact nothing belonging to Mont
pensier could escape the blight pertaining
TO the name and the adverse DEGREES Of
providence.
THE DUKES ILL LUCK.
Ill luck has followed the duke, living and
dead. His only son, Don Antonis is to all
intents and purposes an exile, making his
home in Italy, his wife, the Infsnta Eulalie
declining TO live with him, while the dukes
daughter. the Countess of Paris, after see
ing her husband expelled from France and
die in a foreign land, now finds her eldest
son subjected to a still more unhappy fate
since not only is he banished from France
but he receives the cole shoulder at nearly
all the fOI eign courts by reason of his I'M
fortunate behavior.
Should, therefore, the young King of
Spain marry Princess Louise of Orleans
the daughter of the Countess of Paris and
the sister of the Duke of MOntpenser, a
large number of his subjects would be filled
with superStitiOuS dread that he would be
doomed to misfortune and fall prey to the
Montpensier blight
The betrothal of Alfonso's elder sister, the
Princess of the Asturias, to Prince Charles
of Bourbon, whose father had pretensiOns
TO the NapOlitan crown. caused such DoDu-
lar indignation that rioting resulted, both
In the capital and smaller cities of Spain
SpaniardS had nothing against the prince
as a man, but objected to him on the ground
that his wing of the Bourbon family had a
record for retrogression in politics. To-day
on the same principle whilst Princess
Louise is unexceptionable a woman, she
is none the less member of the house Of
Montpensier, and as such is not acceptable
as Queen of the Spaniards.
The OTHER prominent possibility far King
AlfonSoS conSort is cousin, Princess
Maria del Pillar, the daughter of his aunt
Jnfanta Maria de la Paz. the second sister
of King Alfonso XIII, who is the wife Of
Princess Louis Frederick OF Bavaria
The little princess is but twelve years DID,
and so far as arrangements are concerned
she may be betrothed to her cousin Alfonso
XIII on her thirteenth birthday, which will
occur on March Is next.
These are the two princesses selected
thus far for the Kings choice. if, perchance
he have any choice in the matter. With one
he must accept the Montpensier blight-with
the other the mad strain of the royal house
of Bavaria. Added to this are those unfor-
tunate thirteenS. What wonder that the
oracleS tremble?
ANNA VAN NESS JOHNSON.