Nicolas Robles
Badajoz, Spain

Ya Mercedes está muerta,
muerta está, que yo la ví,
cuatro duques la llevaban
por las calles de Madrid.

Mercedes is already dead,
she’s dead, I did saw her,
four dukes were her carrying
through the streets of Madrid.
—Popular Spanish song

María de la Mercedes de Orleans y Borbón was born in Madrid, Spain, on June 24, 1860. Her father was Antonio de Orleans, Duke of Montpensier, son of the “roi de France” Louis Philippe. Her mother was the “Infanta” Luisa Fernanda, daughter of Fernando VII, King of Spain. María de la Mercedes met Prince Alfonso, her cousin, for the first time in 1872 at the Castle of Randan (Puy-de-Dôme, Auvergne, France) with his mother, the deposed Queen Isabella II of Spain, accompanying him. The two met again in 1873 in Paris, and during the summer of 1874, they fell in love. He was seventeen years old, and she was fourteen.

Alfonso XII was proclaimed King of Spain on January 14, 1875. He sought a formal engagement to his cousin, but his mother, exiled and living in Paris, would not grant her consent. Nevertheless, the President of the Government, Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, was in favor of the match. One member of Parliament, Claudio Moyano, said: “Doña Mercedes is completely out of this discussion…because angels are not to be discussed!”

Finally, on December 8, 1877, a commission headed by the Marquis of Alcañices formally requested on behalf of the king the hand of the Infanta Maria de las Mercedes.¹

The wedding was celebrated on Wednesday, January 23, 1878, in the Basilica of Atocha in Madrid, which was carpeted in blue lilies, the emblem of the Bourbons. María de las Mercedes traveled by train from the Royal Palace of Aranjuez to the Estación del Mediodía in Madrid, then arrived in a carriage lined with white satin. On the day of the Royal Wedding, the city of Madrid premiered electric lighting.

In March, the queen showed signs of pregnancy. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Tomás del Corral, Marquis of San Gregorio and the King’s family doctor, tried to stop a threatened miscarriage but this was in vain. He performed a curettage, and the pregnancy loss displeased Alfonso, who was worried about an heir.

María de las Mercedes, after spending two weeks confined to her rooms, resumed her official activities. However, she looked haggard and continued to feel tired. Soon, she became bedridden. On June 18, La Gaceta de Madrid (the government’s official publication) published the first medical report: “During the last few months, a slight fever of an intermittent and irregular type has been observed in Her Majesty, which has disappeared by virtue of the appropriate means; but her predisposition to vomiting and lack of appetite persists, with the consequent discomfort and weakness.” On June 21, the king convened a consultation of doctors in the Royal Chamber. The rumor that the queen was very ill spread throughout Madrid. People began to fill the Plaza de Oriente in front of the Royal Palace, awaiting news. In the late afternoon of the 22nd, she suffered an intestinal hemorrhage. Her pulse became weak and her skin cold.

On the 24th, the 18th birthday of Maria de las Mercedes, the Cardinal Primate anointed her with holy oils. She hemorrhaged again, and her fever rose to 40º C (104º F). Doctor Federico Rubio y Galí was called to consult, but nothing could be done except to prescribe camphorated oil and injections of ferric chloride to fight the anemia. María de las Mercedes de Orleans y Borbón died on June 26, 1878. La Gaceta published the medical report and that “H.M. the Queen has died as a result of a nervous gastric fever, accompanied by great intestinal hemorrhages.”

It has been widely accepted that the queen died of typhus,^2,3 although it was actually typhoid fever, an infection caused by Salmonella typhi, which Karl Eberth would identify in 1880. The bacteria contaminates drinking water and food through fecal remains of sick people. Environmental health conditions have almost eliminated this infectious pathology, although infections by other types of Salmonella continue to occur, causing cases of gastroenteritis and food poisoning. But in those years, hygienic measures with water were hardly known or practiced. In the Royal Palace of Madrid, the installation of running water and hygienic toilets did not occur until several years later, by order of the Queen Regent Maria Cristina, after the death of King Alfonso XII (who died eight years after Maria de las Mercedes).

The body of the queen was buried in El Escorial, but not in the Pantheon of Infants, which would have been appropriate since she died without descendants. Rather, by express wish of the king, she was buried in a side chapel next to the main altar. After the Cathedral of Almudena in Madrid was built, her remains were moved in 2000 and now rest under the image of the Virgin of the Almudena.

References

1. García Rodríguez, JC Montpensier. Biografía de una obsesión. Ed. Almuzara. Madrid, 2015.
2. Él Medico Interactivo. “El tifus de la Reina Mercedes.” September 19, 2011. https://elmedicointeractivo.com/tifus-reina-mercedes-20110919191714040490/
3. de Arana Amurrio, JI. “El Tifus de la Reina Mercedes.” https://www.joseignaciodearana.es/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/EL-TIFUS-DE-LA-REINA-MERCEDES.pdf