Mercedes, Princess of Asturias

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Spanish Royalty House of Bourbon 1833-present Isabella II Children    Infante Ferdinand    Isabella, Princess of Asturias    Infanta Maria Christina    Alfonso XII    Maria de la Paz, Princess of Bavaria    Eulalia, Duchess of Galliera Alfonso XII Children    Maria de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias    Teresa, Princess of Bavaria    Alfonso XIII    Infanta Maria de la Concepcion    Infanta Maria del Pilar    Infanta Maria de la Paz    Infanta Marie Eulalia    Infante Francis Alfonso XIII Children    Alfonso, Prince of Asturias    Jaime, Duke of Segovia    Infanta Beatriz    Infanta Maria Cristina    Juan, Count of Barcelona    Infante Gonzalo Grandchildren    Alfonso, Duke of Cadiz    Gonzalo, Duke of Aquitaine    Infanta Pilar    Juan Carlos I    Infanta Margarita    Infante Alfonso Great Grandchildren    Luis Alfonso Juan Carlos I Children    Elena, Duchess of Lugo    Cristina, Duchess of Palma    Felipe, Prince of Asturias Grandchild    Infanta Leonor Edit

Infanta Maria de las Mercedes of Spain (1880–1904), Princess of the Asturias, for all 24 years of her life the Heiress Presumptive of the Spanish royal crown, and for a period in 1885–1886, the extant Head of the State of Spain, was born as Doña María de las Mercedes de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena, eldest daughter of King Alfonso XII of Spain (Don Alfonso de Borbón de Cádiz y Borbón de España) and his second wife Queen Maria Christina of Austria (Doña María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena y de Habsburgo-Lorena).

Had her younger sibling, unborn at the death of Alfonso XII, been a daughter, Maria Mercedes would have become Queen Regnant of Spain, Her Catholic Majesty, etc. The sibling proved to be a boy, Alfonso XIII of Spain, and on his birth in 1886, Maria Mercedes lost her latent Queenship. She returned to the position of heiress presumptive of Spain, which she held until her own death, and was succeeded in it by her own infant son Alfonso, Alfonso XIII having not yet fathered a child.

Infanta Maria Mercedes married in 1901 her kinsman Prince Carlos de Borbón of Sicily, a nephew of the King of the then defunct Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, who was elevated to the titles of Infante of Spain and Royal Prince. She died young, when her children were still infants and giving birth to her only daughter, named Isabel Alfonsa. Her son Alfonso (1901–1964) who was heir presumptive of Spain 1904–1907, married Alice of Bourbon (the daughter of the Duke of Parma) in 1936, and became in 1960 the Pretender of the crown of Two Sicilies and assumed the traditional title of Duke of Calabria.

A year after her death, her second and youngest son Fernando, who was not quite two years old, died in San Sebastián. Her husband remarried and one of his daughters turned out to be the mother of the present King Juan Carlos I.

House of Bourbon Born: 1880; Died: 1904
Preceded by Isabel	Princess of Asturias 1880-1904	Succeeded by Alfonso