Prince Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

Alfonso, Duke of Anjou, Duke of Cádiz, Grandee of Spain (Spanish: Don Alfonso Jaime Marcelino Manuel Víctor María de Borbón y Dampierre; French: Alphonse Jacques Marcellin Emmanuel Victor Marie de Bourbon; 20 April 1936 – 30 January 1989) was a grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, a potential heir to the throne in the event of the restoration of the Spanish monarchy, and the Legitimist claimant to the throne of France.

Upbringing Alfonso was born at Sant'Anna Clinic in Rome, the elder son of Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, King Alfonso's second of four sons. His mother was Donna Emanuela de Dampierre, daughter of Roger, Duke of San Lorenzo and Donna Vittoria Ruspoli dei principi di Poggio Suasa. The Segovias lived in Rome where Jaime's father had maintained a royal court-in-exile since the royal family fled Spain following the 1931 election of republicans and socialists in Spain's major cities. Alfonso was baptised by Eugenio Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) at the Palazzo Ruspoli on the Via del Corso in Rome, home of his maternal grandmother, Donna Vittoria Ruspoli dei principi di Poggio Suasa.

In 1941, Alfonso and his parents followed his English-born grandmother, Queen Victoria Eugenie to Lausanne in Switzerland. They lived first at the Hotel Royal, before Alfonso and his younger brother Gonzalo were sent to the Collège Saint-Jean (later Villa St. Jean International School) in Fribourg. On 8 December 1946 Alfonso made his first communion with his brother, Gonzalo; on the same day he was confirmed by Pedro Cardinal Segura y Sáenz, Archbishop of Seville.

Spanish succession rights The king's eldest son, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, had inherited hemophilia from his maternal great-grandmother Queen Victoria, yet had been considered Spain's heir apparent until the republic was established in 1931. In 1933 he renounced any claim to inherit the Spanish throne (in the event of a restoration) to marry a Cuban commoner, Edelmira Sampedro-Ocejo, and later died of internal bleeding following a minor auto accident by September 1938. Next in the line of succession, Infante Don Jaime, deaf and largely mute, was that same day persuaded to renounce his claim (and that of future descendants) alongside his elder brother, thereby assuming the Duke of Segovia title and clearing the way for King Alfonso's third son, Don Juan, Count of Barcelona to take up the monarchist cause on behalf of the banished dynasty. There being no need for Segovia to contract a dynastic alliance, Emanuela de Dampierre's noble rather than royal background was looked upon approvingly by the former king and former queen when the couple wed in Rome in 1935, and neither style nor title is attributed to Alfonso de Borbón-Segovia y Dampierre in the 1944 edition of the Almanach de Gotha.

During the Spanish Civil War which began in July 1936 Franco emerged as the Caudillo of the Falangist movement, overturning the republic and promising restoration, yet consolidating his grip on power in Madrid. Following Alfonso XIII's death in Rome in February 1941, Franco wrote Don Juan, acknowledging him as rightful heir to the throne (though without inviting him to occupy it), implicitly confirming that he considered Segovia and his sons excluded from the royal succession.

In Spain up until 1972, Alfonso was generally addressed as Don Alfonso de Borbón y Dampierre. Elsewhere he was often addressed as a prince. In 1963, Alfonso engaged the French historian and ardent royalist Hervé Pinoteau as his private secretary. Pinoteau remained with him until the duke's death.

On 20 March 1975, Alfonso's father Jaime died. On 3 August 1975, he took the courtesy title Duc d'Anjou (Duke of Anjou).

On 21 January 1985 (the 192nd anniversary of the death of King Louis XVI) Alfonso was present for the requiem mass at the Chapelle expiatoire in Paris.

Marriage and children

Don Francisco de Asís Alfonso Jaime Cristóbal Víctor José Gonzalo Cecilio de Borbón y Martínez-Bordiú, Duke of Bourbon (Madrid, 22 November 1972 – Pamplona, 7 February 1984). Don Luis Alfonso Gonzalo Víctor Manuel Marco de Borbón y Martínez-Bordiú, Duke of Anjou (born Madrid, 25 April 1974).

Lawsuit of the Count of Clermont against the Duke of Anjou In 1987, his paternal 10th cousin Prince Henri of Orléans, Count of Clermont, eldest son of Henri, Count of Paris, the then Orléanist claimant to the defunct throne of France, initiated a court action against Alfonso for his use of the title Duke of Anjou and the coat-of-arms France Moderne (three fleur-de-lis or); Henri asked the court to fine Alfonso 50,000 French francs for each future violation. In 1988, Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro and Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma joined Henri's lawsuit in reference to the use of the title Duke of Anjou, but not in respect to the coat-of-arms. On 21 December 1988, the Tribunal de grande instance of Paris ruled that the lawsuit was inadmissible because the title's legal existence could not be proven; that neither the plaintiff (Henri) nor the intervenors (Fernando and Sixtus) had established their claims to the title; and that Henri was not injured from the use of the plain arms of France by the Spanish branch of the Bourbon family.

In 1989, Prince Henri d'Orléans and Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma appealed the judgment in the lawsuit about the use of a title and arms by Alfonso; the original judgment in favour of Alfonso was upheld.

Career From 1977 to 1984, Alfonso was President of the Spanish Skiing Federation, and from 1984 to 1987 President of the Spanish Olympic Committee.

Death Alfonso died in a skiing accident in Beaver Creek Resort, Eagle County, Colorado, on 30 January 1989,

Honours Bailiff Knight Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Commander Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Polar Star

Dynastic House of Bourbon-France: Sovereign and Knight of the Royal Order of Saint Michael House of Bourbon-France: Sovereign and Knight of the Royal Order of the Holy Spirit House of Bourbon-France: Sovereign and Knight of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis House of Savoy: Knight Grand Cordon of the Royal Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies: Knight Grand Cross of Justice of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George