“To the royalties who gave this ball it offered little real enjoyment, for the strict Court etiquette only allowed them to dance a few rigodons according to the protocol, and to pass through some of the illuminated salons, where they greeted those privileged to approach them.”
In his anxiety to make acquaintance with his kingdom, Alfonso went this year to Barcelona, Granada, Malaga, Seville, Asturias, Galicia, etc., and he took his place as the head of the grandees of Spain when, with all due pomp and ceremony, he was made Grand Master of the Orders of Santiago, Alcantara, Calatrava, and Montesa.
It was on December 8 in this year that the Duke of Sexto went to Seville to formally ask for the hand of Doña Maria Mercedes, the seventeen-year-old daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier, in marriage for her cousin Alfonso XII.
The royal suitor had long been attracted to this charming girl, and during the years of his exile many were the happy days he spent with his cousin in his vacations from Sandhurst at Vichy. When walking out together in the watering-place, the thoughts of the young people would sometimes wander to the possible future, and the young cadet, whose purse was occasionally very attenuated, would regretfully turn away from some pretty present he would gladly have bought for his cousin, saying: “It is rather dear; but never mind, I will buy it when I am King.”
The account of the delicate mission of the Duke of Sexto, the Marquis de la Frontera, the Chamberlain, and Don Fernando Mendoza, Secretary of the Etiquette and Mayordomo of the Royal Palace, is given in the publication mentioned below.[20] The Duke and Duchess of Montpensier were in the white salon of their palace when they received the request for the hand of their daughter in marriage to the reigning King of Spain; and they were well pleased with the suggested alliance, as they trusted that the hope of Louis Philippe, that his descendant should sit upon the throne of Spain, would soon now be fulfilled.
[20] “The Wooing and Marriage of Alfonso XII.”
When Alfonso followed the favourable reception of his request by a visit to Seville, all went merrily enough in the royal circle.
A magnificent Court ball was given at the Palace of San Telmo on December 26, to celebrate the royal engagement. The first rigodon was led off by the King with his fiancée, looking fascinating, gowned in white and glistening with jewels; the Infanta Doña Luisa Fernanda danced with the Duke of Sexto, and Alfonso excited much admiration by the able way he conducted the cotillon.
However, the Princess of Mercedes had not been the only girl friend young Alfonso had had during his exile. For when he could not go to the Montpensiers at Vichy, the ex-King liked to visit the Austrian Archduke and Duchess at Biarritz, as he found their daughter Maria Cristina très bonne camarade, and well able to hold her own with him in a game of tennis or billiards. Maria Cristina seems to have been attracted by Alfonso, for when his marriage was announced with Mercedes of Montpensier, she joined the rich and noble Chapter of Prague, of which she accepted the responsible office of Lady Abbess, with an annual income of 20,000 marks.
The marriage of Mercedes and Alfonso took place on January 23 with all befitting ceremony. The Patriarch of the Indias blessed the union in the Church of Atocha. The ex-King Francisco was best man, and the Infanta Isabella represented her grandmother, Queen Maria Cristina, as the chief lady at the ceremony.