Don Carlos, Prince of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain (Full
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
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) (10 November 1870,
GriesGries may refer to:* Gries am Brenner, a municipality in Tyrol, Austria* Gries, Bas-Rhin, a municipality in the department Bas-Rhin, France* Gries im Sellrain, a municipality in Tyrol, Austria* Gries, Germany, a municipality in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany...
, Bolzano,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
– 11 November 1949,
SevilleSeville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
) was the son of
Prince Alfonso of the Two Sicilies, Count of CasertaPrince Alfonso Maria Giuseppe Alberto of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Count of Caserta was the third son of Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies and Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria....
and his wife Princess Maria Antonietta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and nephew of the last
King of the Two SiciliesThe Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, commonly known as the Two Sicilies even before formally coming into being, was the largest and wealthiest of the Italian states before Italian unification...
,
Francis IIFrancis II , was King of the Two Sicilies from 1859 to 1861. He was the last King of the Two Sicilies, as successive invasions by Giuseppe Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia ultimately brought an end to his rule, and marked the first major event of Italian unification...
.
Marriages and children
On 14 February 1901 in
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Carlos married
Mercedes, Princess of AsturiasInfanta María de las Mercedes of Spain , Princess of the Asturias, for all 24 years of her life the heiress presumptive to the Crown of Spain, was the eldest daughter of King Alfonso XII of Spain and his second wife, Maria Christina of Austria.For a period from...
, elder daughter of the late King
Alfonso XII of SpainAlfonso XII was king of Spain, reigning from 1874 to 1885, after a coup d'état restored the monarchy and ended the ephemeral First Spanish Republic.-Early life and paternity:Alfonso was the son of Queen Isabella II of Spain, and...
and of his wife Archduchess
Maria Christina of AustriaMaria Christina of Austria was Queen consort of Spain as the second wife of King Alfonso XII of Spain...
. Mercedes was the elder sister and heiress presumptive to King
Alfonso XIII of SpainAlfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority...
, an unmarried teenager. A week before the wedding, on 7 February, Carlos was given the title,
Infante of Spain.
Carlos and Mercedes had three children:
- Don Alfonso, Prince of the Two Sicilies, Infante of Spain
Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria was one of two claimants to the title of the head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies from 1960 until his death in 1964...
(1901–1964).
- Fernando (1903–1905), died in San Sebastián
Donostia-San Sebastián is a city and municipality located in the north of Spain, in the coast of the Bay of Biscay and 20 km away from the French border. The city is the capital of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. The municipality’s population is 186,122 , and its...
one year after his mother's death.
- Doña Isabella Alfonsa, Princess of the Two Sicilies, Infanta of Spain
Princess Isabel Alfonsa Maria Teresa Antonia Cristina Mercedes Carolina Adelaide Raphaela of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Infanta of Spain, was a member of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and a Princess of Bourbon-Two Sicilies by birth...
(1904–1985). Married Count Jan Kanty Zamoyski (1900–1961) and had issue.
Mercedes died in childbirth in 1904.
In 1907, Carlos married secondly to
Princess Louise of OrléansLouise d'Orléans was a Princess of the Two-Sicilies and maternal grandmother of King Juan Carlos I of Spain....
, daughter of Prince Philippe, Count of Paris. The couple had four children:
- Don Carlo of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1908–1936). Killed in the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
.
- Doña Maria de los Dolores of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1909–1996). In 1937, she married Prince Augustyn Józef Czartoryski
Prince Augustyn Józef Czartoryski was a Polish noble . He was the son of Prince Adam Ludwik Czartoryski and Countess Maria Ludwika Krasińska....
(1907–1946) and had one surviving son, AdamPrince Adam Karol Jezus Maria Józef Franciszek Salezy and all the Saints Czartoryski, es. Adán Carlos Jesús María José Francisco de Sales y todos los Santos Czartoryski-Bórbon Krasinski y Orléans is a Polish-Spanish aristocrat, the creator of the Princes Czartoryski Foundation, and a patron of the...
. She remarried to Carlos Chias on 1950.
- Doña María Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1910–2000) who married Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona and became the mother of current reigning King Juan Carlos I of Spain
Juan Carlos I |Italy]]) is the reigning King of Spain.On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated king according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. Spain had no monarch for 38 years in 1969 when Franco named Juan Carlos as the...
.
- Doña Maria de la Esperanza of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
Princess Maria de la Esperanza Amalia Raniera Maria Rosario Luisa Gonzaga of Bourbon-Two Sicilies was the youngest daughter of Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and his wife Princess Louise of Orléans...
(1914–2005), who married Prince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-BraganzaPrince Pedro Gastão of Orléans-Braganza was one of two claimants to the Brazilian throne and head of the Petrópolis branch of the Brazilian Imperial House.-Biography:Prince Pedro Gastão was the son of Prince Pedro de Alcântara...
.
Prince Carlos's descendants include the King of Spain (King Juan Carlos), the present
Duke of CalabriaDuke of Calabria was the traditional title of the heir apparent of the Kingdom of Naples after the accession of Robert of Naples. It was also adopted by the heads of certain Houses that had once claimed the Kingdom of Naples in lieu of the royal title....
(
Infante Carlos, Duke of CalabriaInfante Carlos of Spain, Prince of the Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria, KOGF, KGCHS is the son of Don Alfonso of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Calabria and Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma .-Biography:Infante Carlos is one of two claimants of the dignity of...
) and the present Brazilian Imperial Family.
Military service
Carlos served in the
Spanish ArmyThe Spanish Army is the terrestrial army of the Spanish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is one of the oldest active armies - dating back to the 15th century.-Introduction:...
in the Spanish–American War and received the Military Order of Maria Cristina. Eventually he rose to the rank of
Inspector GeneralAn Inspector General is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is Inspectors General.-Bangladesh:...
.
He was the 1,099th
KnightA knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
of the
Order of the Golden FleeceThe Order of the Golden Fleece is an order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip III, Duke of Burgundy in 1430, to celebrate his marriage to the Portuguese princess Infanta Isabella of Portugal, daughter of King John I of Portugal. It evolved as one of the most prestigious orders in Europe...
in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
in 1901 and the 280th
Grand CrossThe phrase Grand Cross is used to denote the highest grade in many orders of knighthood. Sometimes the holders of the highest grade are referred to "knights grand cross" or just "grand crosses"; in other cases the actual insignia itself is called "the grand cross".Alternatively, in some other...
of the
Order of the Tower and SwordThe Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit is a Portuguese order of knighthood and the pinnacle of the Portuguese honours system. It was created by King Afonso V in 1459....
.
Two Sicilies succession
In 1894, Carlos's father Alfonso became the Head of the
House of Bourbon-Two SiciliesThe House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies is a cadet Italian branch of the House of Bourbon. It is thus descended from the Capetian dynasty in male line...
. On marrying his first wife, Carlos renounced his rights of succession to the Crown of Two Sicilies on 14 December 1900. In 1960, Carlos's older brother
FerdinandPrince Ferdinand Pius , Duke of Calabria , was head of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and pretender to the throne of the extinct Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from 1934 to 1960....
died without male issue, and Carlos' son Alfonso reclaimed his rights. However, Carlos's younger brother
RanieriPrince Ranieri Maria Gaetano, Duke of Castro was a claimant to the headship of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.-Biography:...
objected and also claimed rights based on the renunciation of 1900. The dispute is still not resolved. While most royal houses in Europe recognize the claim of Ranieri's descendants, the Spanish Royal House recognizes the claim of Carlos's descendants.
Ancestry
External links