Discover

'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 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:

★ 'Don Alfonso, Prince of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain' (1901–1964).

★ 'Fernando' (1903-1905), died in San Sebastián one year after her death.

★ 'Doña Isabella Alfonsa, Princess of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infanta of Spain' (1904-1985). Married Count Jan Zamoyski (1900-1961) and had issue.
Her husband remarried and one of his daughters became the mother of the present King Juan Carlos I.