The French Duke of Montpensier, Antonio de Orleans, prisoner at La Mola

On March 15, 1871, the steamer “Menorca” left the port of Barcelona for Mahón, carrying a French aristocrat (Spanish by marriage), Antonio de Orleans, Duke of Montpensier, destined for the prison of the fortress of La Mola. for not swearing loyalty to the new king of Spain (Amadeo I of Savoy), to whose crown he aspired, as he simultaneously did with respect to the vacancy of that of France, for one of his sons.

As published today in the Diario Menorca, in its section “Mira Menorca” (signed by Javier Pardo de Campos), an Orleans, a persecutor of two royal crowns, was deported to Menorca by the Spanish provisional government of “La Gloriosa” in 1868 .

The aforementioned article continues stating that “the Duke, comfortably housed in a pavilion in the Plaza de Armas de la Mola, would be very aware of the news that came from said city about the Commune de Paris. As would be, at least, the French consulates in Ciutadella and Mahón, the French citizens enrolled in them, the many Frenchified people of Menorca, the enlightened members of the “Sociedad Maonesa” (antecedent of the Ateneu de Maó) or habitual of the tertulias of coffee ”.

At that time, the two Mayan newspapers “La Crónica de Menorca” (conservative) or “El Menorquín” (federal republican) reported on the Commune de Paris as a result of the news published by other newspapers in Mallorca and / or the Peninsula, as well as the news that was received through electrical cable telegraphy from Ciutadella and Barcelona.