CHRISTINA (MARIA CHRISTINA) (1858-1929), queen-re gent of Spain (1885-1902), widow of Alphonso XII. and mother of Alphonso XIII., was born at Gross Seelowitz, in Austria, on July 2I, 1858, being the daughter of the archduke Charles Ferdi nand and the archduchess Elizabeth of Austria. In 1879 she married Alphonso XII. of Spain, whom she had met at the court of Vienna when he was only a pretender in exile, before the resto ration of the Bourbons, and whose first wife, Mercedes, daughter of the duc de Montpensier, had died childless. Queen Christina bore her husband two daughters-Dona Mercedes, born on Sept. II, 188o, and Dona Maria Theresa, born on Nov. 12, 1882. On her husband's death on Nov. 25, 1885, she became regent, and during the long minority of the posthumous son of Alphonso XII., afterwards Alphonso XIII., she exhibited her wisdom, tol erance and unselfishness. In spite of the excessive rotation of political parties under Sagasta and Canovas, the restlessness of the army, the economic depression and the disastrous war of 1898 with the United States, in which Spain renounced her rights over Cuba, Porto Rico and the Philippines, the country, under Chris tina, won the respect of the Great Powers, and opposition from the ex-royal family gradually diminished. Her regency ended in 1902, when Alphonso XIII. came of age. She died Feb. 7, 1929.
See Rubio, Historia de la Regencia de Maria Christina (1905) and Martin Alonso, Diez y seis Anos de Regencia (1914) .