3-097-671 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Maria de las Mercedes of Orléans, 1878. María de las Mercedes de Orléans y Borbón (1860-1878) was the daughter of Antonio de Orléans and Luisa Fernanda de Borbón, Duke and Duchess of Montpensier. She married her cousin, King Alfonso XII, in 1878 and became Queen Consort of Spain. She wears the sash of the Order of Maria Luisa. In March 1878, shortly after the royal honeymoon, she suffered a miscarriage following a long horse ride and subsequently fell ill. In June she began suffering from haemorrhages, and died on June 26, 1878, at the age of 18; her marriage had lasted only five months and three days. The official medical report cited "nervous gastric fever," though modern historians and contemporary reports believe she died of typhoid fever or typhus.