| Consort: | yes |
| Succession: | Queen consort of Spain |
| Reign: | 23 January 187826 June 1878 |
| Birth Date: | 24 June 1860 |
| Birth Place: | Palacio Real, Madrid, Spain |
| Death Place: | Palacio Real, Madrid, Spain |
| Burial Place: | Cathedral of la Almudena |
| Full Name: | Spanish; Castilian: María de las Mercedes Isabel Francisca de Asís Antonia Luisa Fernanda de Orléans y Borbón French: Marie de La Mercédès Isabelle Françoise d'Asis Antoinette Louise Ferdinande d'Orléans |
| House: | Orléans |
| Father: | Antoine d'Orléans, Duke of Montpensier |
| Mother: | Infanta Luisa Fernanda of Spain |
María de las Mercedes of Orléans (24 June 1860 - 26 June 1878) was Queen of Spain as the first wife of King Alfonso XII. She was born in Madrid, the daughter of Antoine of Orléans, Duke of Montpensier, and Infanta Luisa Fernanda of Spain.
Shortly after their honeymoon, it became evident that Queen Mercedes suffered from typhoid fever.[1] [2] [3] [4] The marriage would last only five months and three days,[5] during which she reportedly had a miscarriage.[3] She died due to the fever on 26 June 1878, at 18 years old.[6] [7]
The news of her demise spawned many folk songs accounting for it,[8] most notably the famous copla, with many variations in Spain and America, particularly popular among children delivered as a song accompanying a skipping rope game. According to Benito Pérez Galdós, he had already heard about it few days after the incident: “¿Dónde vas Alfonso XII? ¿Dónde vas triste de ti? Voy en busca de Mercedes que ayer tarde no la vi…” ("Where are you going, Alfonso XII? Where are you going, sad man?—I'm going in search of Mercedes whom I did not see yesterday afternoon...").[9] A film about the romance between María de las Mercedes and Alfonso XII, Where Are You Going, Alfonso XII?, was released in 1958.
Queen Mercedes co-initiated the building of the Cathedral of la Almudena in Madrid, opposite of the royal palace —the construction beginning in 1883. In May 2004 Felipe, Prince of Asturias, was wed there to Letizia Ortiz. Queen Mercedes' remains were re-interred there on 8 November 2000, in accordance with her widower's wishes.
A town in the northern Philippine province of Isabela was named Reina Mercedes in her honor in 1886 when the Spanish colonial government formally separated it from Cauayan.
When the King's minister Cánovas del Castillo suggested that he take a new wife, Alfonso acquiesced, choosing Mercedes' sister María Cristina. She also contracted tuberculosis, and died during the engagement period. In late 1879, he married Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria-Teschen; the eldest of their children, the Princess of Asturias, was named in honour of Queen Mercedes.