Mercedes, Princess of Asturias

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Spanish Royalty
House of Bourbon
1833-present

Isabella II
Children
   Isabella, Princess of Asturias
   Alfonso XII
   Maria de la Paz, Princess of Bavaria
   Infanta Eulalia
Alfonso XII
Children
   Maria de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias
   Teresa, Princess of Bavaria
   Alfonso XIII
Grandchildren
   Alfonso, Duke of Calabria
Great Grandchildren
   Carlos, Duke of Calabria
Alfonso XIII
Children
   Alfonso, Prince of Asturias
   Jaime, Duke of Segovia
   Infanta Beatriz
   Infanta Maria Cristina
   Juan, Count of Barcelona
   Infante Gonzalo
Grandchildren
   Infanta Pilar
   Juan Carlos I
   Infanta Margarita
   Infante Alfonso
Juan Carlos I
Children
   Elena, Duchess of Lugo
   Cristina, Duchess of Palma
   Felipe, Prince of Asturias
Grandchildren
   Infanta Leonor
   Infanta Sofía
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Infanta Maria de las Mercedes of Spain (18801904), Princess of the Asturias, for all 24 years of her life the Heiress Presumptive of the Spanish royal crown, and for a period in 18851886, 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 and his second wife Queen Maria Christina of Austria.

Had her younger sibling, unborn at the death of Alfonso XII, been a daughter, Maria Mercedes would have become Queen Regnant of Spain. 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 of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, 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. She had three children:

Her husband remarried and one of his daughters became the mother of the present King Juan Carlos I.

Mercedes, Princess of Asturias
Born: 1880 Died: 1904
Preceded by
Isabel
Princess of Asturias
1880-1904
Succeeded by
Alfonso