the same sex, the older to the younger person. By the original
constitution Alfonso XII. was declared to be the legitimate sovereign,
and provision was made that if the line of legitimate descendants of
Alfonso should be extinguished, his sisters should succeed in the
established order; then his aunt (the sister of his mother Isabella
II.) and her legitimate descendants; and, finally, the descendants of
his uncles, the brothers of Ferdinand VII.[849] It will be recalled
that the Pragmatic Sanction of 1830 abolished in Spain the Salic
principle and restored the ancient right of females to inherit. Spain
is, indeed, one of the few European states in which this right exists.
At the same time, as has been pointed out, when the degree of kinship
is identical, preference is accorded the male. Thus it came about that
the present sovereign, Alfonso XIII., the posthumous son of Alfonso
XII., took precedence over his two sisters, both of whom were older
than he, and the elder of whom, Maria de las Mercedes, actually was
queen from the death of her father, November 25, 1885, until the birth
of her brother, May 17, 1886.[850]

[Footnote 849: Arts. 59-61. Dodd, Modern
Constitutions, II., 211.]

[Footnote 850: She was, however, but a child five
years of age.]

*678. Regencies.*--Any member of the royal family who may be incapable
of governing, or who by his conduct may have forfeited his claim to the
good-will of the nation, may be excluded from the succession by (p. 614)
law. Disputes concerning rights or facts involved in the succession
are to be adjusted by law, and in event that all of the family lines
mentioned in the constitution should be extinguished it would become
the duty of the Cortes to make such disposal of the crown as might be
adjudged "most suitable to the nation."[851] Both the sovereign and
the heir presumptive are forbidden to marry any person who by law is
excluded from the succession. They are, indeed, forbidden to contract
a marriage at all until after the Cortes shall have examined and
approved the stipulations involved. The age of majority of the
sovereign is fixed at sixteen years. When the king is a minor, his
father or his mother, or, in default of a living parent, the relative
who stands next in the order of succession, is constituted regent,
provided always that such person be a Spaniard at least twenty years
of age and n