Broken Engagements WI Thread

What if Mary Todd married Stephen A. Douglas instead Abraham Lincoln?

I've often wondered what the outcome might have been had Ann Rutledge, Lincoln's first documented love, survived. I wonder if Abe would have lived out his life as a shopkeeper and part-time lawyer in Illinois, maybe reaching as far politically as Justice of the Peace, or maybe even state assemblyman, dying at home in his later fifties or early sixties of degenerative heart failure.

Regards,
John Braungart
 
I came across some curious matches while reading up on the sunset years of the monarchy in Spain (i.e. reign of Alfonso XIII) (yes, I know it's 20th century, but interesting nonetheless):

Starting with the the king himself, besides the well-documented switcheroo between Princess Patricia of Connaught and Princess Ena of Battenberg, in an attempt to get Spain to chart a pro-German rather than a pro-British course, the Kaiser proposed a match between Alfonso XIII and Maria Antonia of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.

[Now an interesting aside, Maria Antonia's brother, Heinrich Borwin, was married to Natalie Olrichs Martin, and Natalie's sister, Blanche, was married to John Barrymore. If the marriages timing had been a little more coordinated, the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna "Mieche-Miechen" might've shared enough stories about Rasputin with them that John's performance of the "mad monk" might've been totally different]

Also, there was a plan, so long as Alfonso lacked a healthy male heir (first son haemophiliac, second son a deaf-mute, etc) to marry his two daughters, Beatriz and Maria Cristina, to their Orléans-Montpensier cousins, the sons of the duke of Galliera and Baby Bee of Coburg. Of course, once the count of Barcelona was born, this plan was, in theory, rendered void, but it stayed on the table.

In 1932 a press release was published "denying reports of her [Kira Kirillovna] engagement to the Prince of Asturias, former heir to the Spanish throne,". Her mother Victoria Melita confirmed that there "was no engagement at present, but my daughter shows a serious liking for the young man."

Now Kira was interested in an unnamed Romanian prince - Nicolae? - who was forbidden by Carol II to marry her. And Ena and Baby Bee were pushing for Alfonsito - the Prince of the Asturias - to marry Ileana of Romania (OTL archduchess of Austria, princess of Tuscany) instead. Alfonsito would hear nothing since he was in love with Cecilie of Salm-Salm.

Oh what a merry mixup. Just think how exotic it would be if any of these matches had come to pass. Granted, some are unlikely, but hey, if there was a plan in the 18th century already to marry Mariana Victoria (OTL Queen of Portugal, rejected fiancée of Louis XV) to marry Peter II of Russia, why not in the 20th century.
 
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