The ring that killed five owners

No one would imagine a ring being given as a gift to take the life of five people: two queens, two princesses, and a king. How does it happen? Once you put it on your finger, your death can be assured.

On November 25, 1885, King Alfonso XII of Spain died unexpectedly. In connection with his death, the following note appeared in Spanish newspapers, reprinted by many European newspapers and magazines:

Shortly after Alfonso XII’s first marriage in 1878 to his cousin Princess Mercedes, daughter of the Duke of Montpensier, the king gave his young wife, among other things, a small ring as an intimate remembrance and, so to speak, besides his official gifts.

The young queen immediately put the ring on her finger and never took it off. Two months later, she was gone. The king took the ring off the finger of his dearly loved wife, who had died so young, and gave the cherished ring as a keepsake to their mutual maternal grandmother, Queen Christina.

A short time later, Queen Christina died, and the ring was returned to the king and was given by him to his sister, the Infanta Maria del Pieler. The Infanta died a few days after receiving this gift.

The third time the ring was returned to King Alfonso, who then gave it to Infanta Christina, sister of Queen Mercedes, the second daughter of the Duke of Montpensier. Not three months later, Infanta Cristina was already lying in her coffin.

These four deaths occurred within the same year, 1878.

King Alfonso demanded for the fourth time the return of his so infamous ring but did not wear it himself. As seven years passed, the impression of being so sadly lost, the king was not superstitious, and at the end of September 1885, he decided to wear it and put it on his finger.

Less than two months later, the newspapers announced that on November 25, Alfonso of Bourbon, the twelfth king of Spain, died in the morning at his residence near Madrid, twenty-eight years old. The king was somewhat weak in breath, but there was nothing serious in his state of health, and even a week before his death, no one suspected such a near death.

After the king’s death, the fateful ring was removed from his finger, and as the items and jewels in the room were removed, this ring reminded those present that all those who had worn it up to that time had died soon after wearing it. Indeed, the five people who owned it soon died with the ring on their finger: two queens, two princesses, and a king.

There seemed to be something fatal, pernicious about this intimate souvenir, and no one wished to take it for themselves. The ring is now offered as a gift to the Blessed Virgin of Almudena, the patroness of the city of Madrid. But instead of placing it on one of the fingers of the statue of the Madonna, the ring was hung around her neck on a simple ribbon.

Unfortunately, not a word was said about the origin of this deadly ring….