Louis Alphonse de Bourbon

Louis Alphonse de Bourbon, Duke of Anjou (; born 25 April 1974) is regarded by French Legitimists as the head of the House of Bourbon and the rightful claimant to the defunct throne of France under the name Louis XX. His claim is based on his descent from Louis XIV (r. 1643–1715) through his grandson Philip V of Spain. Philip renounced his claim to the French throne under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The rival Orleanist pretenders argue that this, as well as being born a Spanish citizen, makes Louis Alphonse ineligible for the throne.

Louis Alphonse is patrilineally the senior great-grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain. His grandfather Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, renounced his rights to the Spanish throne for himself and his descendants owing to his deafness. The crown of Spain has descended to his second cousin, King Felipe VI. Through his mother, he is also a great-grandson of Spain's caudillo (dictator) General Francisco Franco; and through his father, a great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Childhood Louis Alphonse's parents separated in 1982, and their Catholic marriage was annulled in 1986. His mother has since remarried civilly twice; he had two stepsisters Mathilda (deceased) and Marella, and a stepbrother Frederick, all born before his mother's marriage to Jean-Marie Rossi and a half-sister, Cynthia Rossi, born afterwards. On 7 February 1984, Louis Alphonse's older brother Francisco died as the result of a car crash in which Louis Alphonse was also injured, although less so than their father, who was driving the automobile. From that date Louis Alphonse was recognised as the heir apparent to his father by the Legitimists. As such, he was given the additional title Duke of Bourbon on 27 September 1984 by his father.

Succession

On 30 January 1989, his father died in a skiing accident near Vail, Colorado. In 1994, Louis Alphonse received 150 million pesetas from a lawsuit against Vail Associates, which owned the ski resort where the accident occurred. and took the title Duke of Anjou, but not his father's Spanish dukedom. Legitimists consider him the rightful pretender to the defunct French throne.

Louis Alphonse was the heir apparent to his mother's Spanish Dukedom of Franco and Grandeeship until the abolition of the titles by the Democratic Memory Law.

In 2002, Louis Alphonse was elected by the French Society of the Cincinnati as the representative of Louis XVI. He is also an honorary member of the "Academia de Historia y Geografía Militar del Paraguay" (Academy of History and Military Geography of Paraguay).

In addition to his Spanish citizenship, Louis Alphonse acquired French nationality through his paternal grandmother, Emmanuelle de Dampierre, also a French citizen.

In 2021, Louis Alphonse attended the wedding of Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia.

Politics

Louis Alphonse describes himself as a monarchist, "but not anti-republican". He argues for a constitutional monarchy, with a king who acts as moral authority, foreign ambassador, unifying figure, and reminder of a nation's history.

He opposes same-sex marriage, same-sex adoption, euthanasia, and abortion.

He holds ties to the right-wing populist Spanish political party Vox and is a close friend of its leader, Santiago Abascal. In March 2018, Louis Alphonse was named honorary president of the Francisco Franco National Foundation, a position held by his grandmother, Carmen Franco, 1st Duchess of Franco, until her death in December 2017. On 15 July, later that year, he headed a Movement-for-Spain demonstration at the Valley of the Fallen monument, leading supporters of the late Spanish dictator, his great-grandfather Francisco Franco. They opposed the Spanish social democratic government's plan to remove Franco's remains from a basilica near Madrid. He also launched a change.org petition, calling for the resignation of the social democratic Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

In 2019, he expressed public support for the yellow vests movement in France. Later that year, he spoke at the World Congress of Families XIII, where he called for a return to "Christian society".

In 2025, he offered to replace French President Emmanuel Macron saying, "My family has served France for centuries, and if France asks, I will be at its service."

Marriage and children

Louis Alphonse's engagement to marry María Margarita Vargas Santaella, the daughter of Venezuelan businessman Victor Vargas, was announced in November 2003. They were married civilly in Caracas on 5 November 2004 and religiously on 6 November 2004 in La Romana, Dominican Republic. None of the members of the Spanish royal family attended the wedding. Although no official reason was given, it was no secret that the then king of Spain, Juan Carlos I, did not approve his cousin's claim to the French throne, nor the fact that Louis Alphonse issued the wedding invitations styled as "Duke of Anjou".

Louis Alphonse and María Margarita had their first child, Eugénie, on 5 March 2007 at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, Florida. She was baptised in June 2007 at the papal nunciature in Paris. Her godparents are Prince Charles-Emmanuel of Bourbon-Parma and his wife, Constance. French Legitimists recognize her as , Their father has conferred upon them the historic French titles of, respectively, Duke of Burgundy and Duke of Berry . In Spain, the twins are and .

Financial controversies

Through his marriage to María Margarita Vargas Santaella, Louis Alphonse became closely linked to the Banco Occidental de Descuento (BOD) financial group, owned by his father-in-law Victor Vargas, a Venezuelan banker known colloquially as "the banker of Chavismo" for the growth of his empire during the governments of Hugo Chávez. Between 2005 and 2019, Louis Alphonse served as International Vice President of BOD and also sat on the board of two of its offshore subsidiaries: AllBank Corp in Panama and Banco del Orinoco N.V. in Curaçao. According to investigative reports, his aristocratic profile and status as a claimant to the French throne lent an air of prestige and credibility to the group, helping to attract investors and depositors who associated his name with financial trustworthiness.

In September 2019, Panamanian banking authorities intervened and ordered the liquidation of AllBank Corp after finding it unable to guarantee depositor funds. Days earlier, the Central Bank of Curaçao had declared Banco del Orinoco N.V. bankrupt, finding that it had presented fraudulent documentation regarding its assets—particularly Venezuelan sovereign bonds—to justify its solvency. The collapse of both institutions left approximately 2,441 affected clients and an estimated debt of $854 million.

In February 2022, investigative journalism consortium Suisse Secrets revealed that Louis Alphonse and Margarita Vargas had appeared as signatories on a Credit Suisse account holding approximately 1.2 million euros between 2007 and 2017, held in the name of a Panamanian company. A spokesman for Louis Alphonse stated that he held only "authorized signature" on the account and that the funds belonged to his wife, and that the account was closed in 2017.

In April 2021, a Panamanian law firm filed a criminal complaint against the board of AllBank—of which Louis Alphonse was a member—on behalf of companies claiming damages exceeding $20 million, alleging misappropriation of $15 million.

On 2 October 2025, the trustee of the Curaçao court overseeing the Banco del Orinoco N.V. case filed a criminal complaint before the Curaçao Public Prosecutor's Office for alleged "fraudulent bankruptcy." The complaint named Victor Vargas, Louis Alphonse, and other directors of the bank, accusing them of mismanagement of assets of approximately $1.5 billion and document forgery. In the event of a conviction, victims could seek the seizure of assets in Curaçao, the Netherlands, and other EU countries through judicial cooperation mechanisms.