Nicolas Robles
Badajoz, Spain

Isabel II de Borbón, Queen of Spain from 1833 to 1868, was born in 1830 in Madrid. She was a daughter of Ferdinand VII and succeeded him to the throne in 1833 shortly after her birth. Each European power presented a candidate for consort of the Spanish queen, and the only one who did not disturb the interests of any was Francisco de Asis, the son of the “infante” or second son, Francisco de Paula. On October 10, 1846, on her sixteenth birthday, Isabel II married her cousin Francisco de Asis against her will.

It was said Louis Philippe, King of France, promoted this wedding assuming there would be no descendants since the king was deeply homosexual. It was also believed that the king urinated sitting. In fact, Francisco of Asis suffered from hypospadias, a malformation of urethra: he did not have the outlet in the glans but in the trunk of the penis, and this prevented him from urinating while standing.¹

Despite this, the Queen had twelve children, of whom only five survived childhood. Luis, the first, was a stillbirth. Fernando was born on July 11, 1850, and died the same day. Maria Isabel Francisca was born in 1851. Maria Cristina was born on January 5, 1854, but died two days later. Another child was miscarried in 1855. Francisco de Asis was born in 1856 and died the same day. The following pregnancies were successful: Alfonso XII, King of Spain (1857), Maria de la Concepcion (1859), Maria del Pilar (1861), Maria de la Paz (1862), and Maria Eulalia (1864). The last, Francisco de Asis Leopoldo, was born in 1866 but died prematurely.

It is well known that the Queen had several lovers and, most likely, the father of King Alfonso XII was the captain of engineers, Enrique Puigmoltó y Mayans. Likewise, Miguel Tenorio de Castilla, a politician and the Queen’s longtime secretary, seems to have been the father of Maria del Pilar, Maria de la Paz, and Maria Eulalia. The last queen’s child could be the son of Carlos Marfori, who replaced Miguel Tenorio as the Queen’s personal secretary (and lover).

It has been suggested that the father of all unsuccessful pregnancies could be King Francisco de Asis, who tried to do his duty as a royal consort. Consanguineous unions are dependent on the size of the population, its degree of isolation, and socioeconomic and cultural practices.² Most studies have revealed that consanguineous couples are more likely to have sporadic and recurrent congenital defects than non-consanguineous couples.³ Furthermore, the rate of recurrent miscarriage is significantly higher among the first-degree relatives of couples with recurrent miscarriage than those of couples who are naturally fertile.⁴

Nevertheless, the Queen’s sister, Maria Luisa, also married to a member of the Bourbon family, had ten children, and only one of them was stillborn. Therefore, it may be worth considering the “dangerous father” concept as it relates to pregnancy complications.⁵ It could be related to phenotype, immunological, genetic or even infectious factors.⁶ Any one of these could explain the repeated miscarriages of Isabel II.

Queen Isabel II was dispossessed of the throne in 1868, and her son, Alfonso XII, regained the throne in 1874.

References

1. Cervera, C. «¿Quién era el auténtico padre de Alfonso XII?” ABC, May 5, 2015. Accessed March 25, 2025.
2. Valls A. “Anthropologia de la consanguinidad.” Editorial de la Universidad Complutence, Madrid, 1982.
3. Saad FA. “Recurrent early pregnancy loss and consanguinity.” Reproductive BioMedicine Online 2012; 5: 167-170.
4. Ho HN, Gill T, Hsieh CY. “The prevalence of recurrent spontaneous abortions, cancer, and congenital anomalies in the families of couples with recurrent spontaneous abortions and gestational trophoblastic tumors.” Am J Obst Gynecol 1991;165:461-6.
5. Astin M, Scott JR, Worley RJ. “Preeclampsia/eclampsia: a fatal father factor.” Lancet 1981;5(2):533.
6. Dekker G, Robillard PY, Roberts C. “The etiology of preeclampsia: the role of the father.” J Reprod Immunol. 2011;89:126-32.