Posted by manuel
on 4/11/2009, 18:57:17, in reply to "Why the necessity?"
83.45.233.213
The conspiracy theory is ridiculous, Jane, as I have posted. But I must clarify some points, regarding historical facts and regarding your post.
Even though women had succession rights, a son was always preferred to a daughter, as you point out in your last paragraph. That happened in all (very few, for instance) monarchies which allowed female succession. And furthermore, carlism was still very active and had support in some parts of the country. So, a Queen regnant would weaken the liberal monarchy. This point regarding history.
About your post, the Princess of Asturias, Maria de las Mercedes, was never proclaimed Queen and Queen Maria Cristina never acted as regent in her name. The political parties and the Cortes agreed that no King would be proclaimed until the Queen gave birth to her child. So, Queen MC was sworn in as regent during the minority of the "successor", but no name was pronounced. So, since AXII's death until AXIII's birth, Spain had no reigning monarch. Maria de las Mercedes was never "conditional Queen regnant of Spain".
--Previous Message--
: Conspiracy theories seem to abound in royal
: history (consider, as another famous
: example, the alleged substitution of some
: peasant woman's son for the infant born to
: Mary of Modena -- wife of King James VII/II
: of Scotland and England).
:
: What I find somewhat puzzling is the
: perceived need -- whatever might be said
: about preference (entirely understandable,
: in light of the historical context) -- of a
: son for Alfonso XII. Certainly the king
: himself was in no position to say anything
: about the matter of gender -- since he died
: before the birth of his third child.
:
: As it was, even with two daughters and no
: son, his widow (Queen Maria Cristina) was
: named regent for the elder (Infanta Maria de
: las Mercedes) -- rightfully acknowledged as
: the conditional queen regnant of Spain.
:
: Otherwise, if daughters were not regarded as
: having succession rights -- as in the case
: of the Salic law -- then the Alfonso faction
: in the country (being descended from Queen
: Isabel II) stood to basically lose their
: very raison d'etre. After all: that was
: precisely what the Carlists were about -- at
: least in part (I understand the issue raised
: in an earlier thread, which was that Carlism
: was really more about politics than some
: kind of right to the throne by blood).
:
: To sum: while I can understand the
: PREFERENCE for a son, I have a hard time
: understanding why the birth of a male heir
: was deemed imperative to the point that
: there would even arise a conspiracy theory
: (granted that it was nothing more than just
: a theory).
:
:
Message Thread:
« Back to thread