Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies

Prince Carlos
Infante of Spain
Formal photo portrait wearing a Spanish Hussar uniform, 1913
Born(1870-11-10)10 November 1870
Gries-San Quirino [it], Bolzano, Austria-Hungary
Died11 November 1949(1949-11-11) (aged 79)
Seville, Spain
Burial
Iglesia Colegial del Divino Salvador, Seville
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1901; died 1904)​
​
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(m. 1907)​
Issue
Names
Italian: Carlo Maria Francesco d'Assisi Pasquale Ferdinando Antonio di Padova Francesco de Paola Alfonso Andrea Avelino Tancredi
HouseBourbon-Two Sicilies
FatherPrince Alfonso, Count of Caserta
MotherPrincess Maria Antonietta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
SignaturePrince Carlos's signature

Don Carlos, Prince of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain (Full Italian name: Carlo Maria Francesco d'Assisi Pasquale Ferdinando Antonio di Padova Francesco de Paola Alfonso Andrea Avelino Tancredi, Principe di Borbone delle Due Sicilie, Infante di Spagna;[citation needed] 10 November 1870 – 11 November 1949) was the son of Prince Alfonso of the Two Sicilies, Count of Caserta and his wife Princess Maria Antonietta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and nephew of the last King of the Two Sicilies, Francis II.[citation needed]

Marriages and children

On 14 February 1901 in Madrid, Carlos married Mercedes, Princess of Asturias, elder daughter of the late King Alfonso XII of Spain and of his wife Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria.[citation needed] Mercedes was the elder sister and heir presumptive to King Alfonso XIII of Spain, an unmarried teenager. A week before the wedding, on 7 February, Carlos was given the title of Infante of Spain.[1]

Carlos and Mercedes had three children:[citation needed]

Mercedes died in childbirth in 1904.

In 1907, Carlos married secondly to Princess Louise of Orléans, daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris.[citation needed] The couple had four children:[citation needed]

Prince Carlos's descendants include King Felipe VI of Spain, Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria, Prince Pedro Carlos of Orléans-Braganza, and Prince Peter of Yugoslavia, among others.

Military service

Carlos served in the Spanish Army in the Spanish–American War and received the Military Order of Maria Cristina.[2] Eventually he rose to the rank of Inspector General.[3]

Prince Carlos with his second wife, Princess Louise of Orléans, c. 1909

Two Sicilies succession

In 1894, Carlos's father Alfonso became the head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. On marrying his first wife, Carlos renounced on 14 December 1900 his future rights of succession to the non-existent Crown of Two Sicilies in an official document, known as the Act of Cannes, subject to a requirement in the Treaty of Naples of 1759 and the Pragmatic Decree of 6 October 1759 that the Crown of Spain should not be combined with the "Italian Sovereignty".[4] In 1960, Carlos' elder brother Ferdinand died without male issue, and a dispute arose between Carlos' son Alfonso and Carlos' younger brother Ranieri on the headship of the house, this with competing claims: by the law of primogeniture, Carlos' son Alfonso was considered the heir, but Ranieri claimed that Carlos had renounced his rights and those of his descendants according to the Act of Cannes. Alfonso refuted that claim by stating that it was only a promise from his father to relinquish this right if the crown of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies were to be united with the Spanish Crown. Since this did not happen, the act had no effect and Carlos' son Alfonso reclaimed his rights. The dispute is still not resolved. Alfonso's claim was recognised by the heads of the different lines of the House of Bourbon, although not by the head of the Orleans family,[5] and in 1983 the Spanish Council of State, following an investigation by the Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs, the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation and the Institute Salazar y Castro concluded unanimously in favour of Infante Don Alfonso's only son, Prince and Infante Don Carlos, a position shared by the Spanish Royal House.[6]

Honours

Coat of Arms of Prince Carlos as Infante of Spain

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ "Royal Decrees" (PDF). Gaceta de Madrid (in Spanish). Page 555. 8 February 1901. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Carlos of Bourbon Dead in Spain at 79", The New York Times (12 November 1949): 15.
  3. ^ "Infante Don Carlos", The Times (12 November 1949): 7.
  4. ^ Lecanda Crooke, Íñigo (2012). "Análisis jurídico de la legitimidad en la Jefatura de la Casa Real de Borbón Dos-Sicilias y el Gran Maestrazgo de sus Órdenes" (PDF). Anales de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía. Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía.
  5. ^ Sainty, Guy Stair (2018). The Constantinian Order of Saint George: and the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon families which governed it. Boletín Oficial del Estado. ISBN 978-8434025066.
  6. ^ Opfell, Olga S. (2001). Royalty Who Wait: The 21 Heads of Formerly Regnant Houses of Europe. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 37–8. ISBN 9780786450572. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  7. ^ a b c Boletín Oficial del Estado
  8. ^ Boletín Oficial del Estado
  9. ^ Boletín Oficial del Estado
  10. ^ Boletín Oficial del Estado
  11. ^ Boletín Oficial del Estado
  12. ^ Escalafón general del Real Estamento Militar del Principado de Gerona. Girona. 2014. p. 137.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreich Bayern (1908), "Königliche Orden" p. 9
  14. ^ Royal Thai Government Gazette (8 June 1902). "ส่งเครื่องราชอิสริยาภรณ์ไปพระราชทานเจ้าต่างประเทศ ฮิสรอแยล ไฮเนส ปรินศ์ ดองการ์ลอส เดอร์บัวร์บอง" (PDF) (in Thai). Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2019. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  15. ^ "No. 27519". The London Gazette. 27 January 1903. p. 529.
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