Louis Alphonse, Duke of Anjou
Encyclopedia
Prince Louis Alphonse of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou was not originally among his given names ; born 25 April 1974, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid 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...
) is a member of the historically royal dynasty of the House of Bourbon
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
, and one of the current pretenders to the defunct crown of France. A descendant of King Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
of France (ruled 1643–1715) through his grandson King Philip V of Spain
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
, he is recognized as the rightful claimant to the French crown by those French royalists who adhere to the continued validity of the French rights of inheritance of Philip V ("Legitimists
Legitimists
Legitimists are royalists in France who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession of the descendants of the elder branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of the July Monarchy of 1830–1848, whose kings were members of the junior...
"). Louis Alphonse is a great-grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII of Spain
Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1886 until 1931. His mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was appointed regent during his minority...
and first cousin once removed of King Juan Carlos I of Spain
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...
. Through his mother, he is also a great-grandson of Spain's former dictator Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
. He is styled "Duke of Anjou", although the French courts have ruled that this is an abolished title. According to Legitimist usage, dynasts who are French nationals are accorded the style Prince of the Blood (prince du sang
Prince du Sang
A prince of the blood was a person who was legitimately descended in the male line from the monarch of a country. In France, the rank of prince du sang was the highest held at court after the immediate family of the king during the ancien régime and the Bourbon Restoration...
).
Life
Louis Alphonse was born in MadridMadrid
Madrid 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...
, the second son of Alfonso de Bourbon, Duke of Cádiz
Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz
Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Duke of Cádiz, Grandee of Spain was a grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and a Legitimist claimant to the throne of France.-Life:Alfonso was born in the Clinica Santa Anna in Rome, the elder son of Infante...
, and of his wife Doña María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco
María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco
María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco is a Spanish aristocrat and social figure. Under Spanish law since 2006 she precedes her younger brother as heir to her mother's dukedom, and is eligible to be succeeded by and/or to cede that grandeza to her descendants.-Birth and youth:She was born in...
, El Caudillo Franco's granddaughter. Alfonso
Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz
Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Duke of Cádiz, Grandee of Spain was a grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and a Legitimist claimant to the throne of France.-Life:Alfonso was born in the Clinica Santa Anna in Rome, the elder son of Infante...
was at that time the dauphin (using "Duke of Anjou" as title of pretence
Pretender
A pretender is one who claims entitlement to an unavailable position of honour or rank. Most often it refers to a former monarch, or descendant thereof, whose throne is occupied or claimed by a rival, or has been abolished....
) according to those who supported the claim of his father, Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia
Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia
Infante Jaime of Spain, Duke of Segovia, Grandee of Spain , was the second son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and his wife Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg...
to the French throne. On 20 March 1975, the Infante Jaime ("Jacques-Henri VI", according to Legitimist reckoning) died (having recognised the claim of his nephew Juan Carlos de Bourbon, Prince of Spain to the Spanish crown, while adhering to his own claim as heir to the French crown). Alfonso
Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz
Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Duke of Cádiz, Grandee of Spain was a grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and a Legitimist claimant to the throne of France.-Life:Alfonso was born in the Clinica Santa Anna in Rome, the elder son of Infante...
then asserted his claim to be both head of the House of Bourbon
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
and Legitimist claimant to the throne of France, being the senior male descendant of Louis XIV through the branch of Francis, Duke of Cádiz, 1822-1902 (sometime King Consort of Spain}. As such, he took the title Duke of Anjou, and on 19 September 1981 gave Louis Alphonse the title Duke of Touraine
Touraine
The Touraine is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, the Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher and Indre.-Geography:...
.
Louis Alphonse's parents divorced in 1982. The religious marriage was annulled in 1986. His mother has since remarried civilly twice; he had two half-sisters Mathilda (deceased) and Marella, and a half-brother Frederick, all born before her 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
Heir apparent
An heir apparent or heiress apparent is a person who is first in line of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting, except by a change in the rules of succession....
to his father by Legitimists. As such, he was given the additional title Duke of Bourbon
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
on September 27 of that year by his father. In 1987, the Spanish government declared that titles traditionally attached to the dynasty (such as the Dukedom of Cádiz) would henceforth be borne by its members on an ad personam basis, forestalling Louis Alphonse from inheriting it.
On 30 January 1989, his father died in a skiing accident near Vail, Colorado
Vail, Colorado
The Town of Vail is a Home Rule Municipality in Eagle County, Colorado, United States. The population of the town was 4,589 in 2005. The town was established and built as the base village to Vail Ski Resort, with which it was originally conceived...
(in 1994 Louis Alphonse would receive 150 million peseta
Peseta
Peseta may refer to:*The Spanish peseta, the former currency of Spain*The Catalan peseta, the former currency of Catalonia*The Equatorial Guinean peseta, the former currency of Equatorial Guinea...
s following a lawsuit against Vail Associated, which owned the ski resort where the accident occurred). Louis Alphonse was recognised by some members of the Capetian dynasty
Capetian dynasty
The Capetian dynasty , also known as the House of France, is the largest and oldest European royal house, consisting of the descendants of King Hugh Capet of France in the male line. Hugh Capet himself was a cognatic descendant of the Carolingians and the Merovingians, earlier rulers of France...
as Chef de la Maison de Bourbon (Head of the French Royal House of Bourbon) and took the title Duke of Anjou, but not his father's Spanish dukedom. He is considered the rightful pretender
Pretender
A pretender is one who claims entitlement to an unavailable position of honour or rank. Most often it refers to a former monarch, or descendant thereof, whose throne is occupied or claimed by a rival, or has been abolished....
to the French throne by adherents of the Legitimist movement.
Louis Alphonse possesses French, as well as Spanish citizenship, in right of his paternal grandmother, Emanuelle de Dampierre, also a French citizen. He attended the Lycėe Français de Madrid, obtaining his COU
Curso de Orientación Universitaria
The University Orientation Course or COU was an academic level taught in Spain, its curriculum set by the Education Act 1970. It consisted of one single annual course, equivalent to the second year of the current bachillerato system. The previous completion of the three-year Bachillerato Unificado...
in June 1992. He studied economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
. He worked several years for BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas S.A. is a global banking group, headquartered in Paris, with its second global headquarters in London. In October 2010 BNP Paribas was ranked by Bloomberg and Forbes as the largest bank and largest company in the world by assets with over $3.1 trillion. It was formed through the merger...
, a French bank in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid 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...
. Although he regularly visited France, where his mother lived for several years, he continued to live in Spain.
His engagement to marry Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
n heiress María Margarita Vargas Santaella
Maria Margarita, Duchess of Anjou
Princess Marie Marguerite of Bourbon, Duchess of Anjou is a Venezuelan heiress and wife of Louis Alphonse of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, who is considered to be the head of the French Royal House making Marie Marguerite the Legitimist titular queen consort of France by royalists who consider the...
was announced in November 2003. They were married civilly in Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
on 5 November 2004 and religiously on 6 November 2004 in La Romana, Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
. None of the members of the Spanish Royal Family
Spanish Royal Family
The Royal Family of the Kingdom of Spain consists of the current king, Juan Carlos, his spouse, Queen Sofia of Spain and their direct descendants. The Spanish royal family belongs to the House of Borbón...
attended the wedding. Though no official reason was given, it is not a secret that the King of Spain
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...
does not approve his cousin's claim to the French throne and the fact that Louis Alphonse issued the wedding invitations as "Duke of Anjou" did not sit well with the king. The couple lived in Venezuela beginning 2005, where he worked at Banco Occidental de Descuento
Banco Occidental de Descuento
Banco Occidental de Descuento is a Venezuelan bank. With around 6.6% of the Venezuelan market, it was Venezuela's fifth-largest bank in 2009...
, before moving to the United States. They currently reside in New York.
In June 2006, Louis Alphonse refused to attend his mother's third wedding, because he does not agree with her way of life as a celebrity, and her separation from her previous husband, a man whom he greatly respects.
Louis Alphonse and Maria Margarita had their first child, a daughter, named Eugénie on 5 March 2007 at Mount Sinai Medical Center
Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute
Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute is a hospital located at 4300 Alton Road in Miami Beach, Florida, and is the largest independent non-profit teaching hospital in the state. The institution was incorporated on March 11, 1946, and opened on its current location on Sunday, December...
, Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. She was baptised at the papal nunciature in Paris in June 2007. Legitimists recognise her as Princess Eugénie (in Spain her name is Doña Eugenia de Borbón y Vargas). The couple had twin sons, Louis and Alphonse on 28 May 2010. Louis has been given the title of Duke of Burgundy (duc de Bourgogne), and Alphonse the title of Duke of Berry (duc de Berry). Prince Louis, as Legitimist Dauphin of France, will succeed his father as head of the French Royal House in Legitimist reckoning (in Spain, the twins are Don Luis and Don Alfonso de Borbón y Vargas). In November 2011, he meets and stablishes a friendship with the Count George Ferrara.
Legitimist pretender
Louis Alphonse is championed as the pretender to the throne of France by the Legitimist faction (légitimistes), one of three monarchist parties supporting different claimants to a restoredRestoration
Restoration may refer to:-Historical examples :* Kemmu Restoration * Restoration * Portuguese Restoration War...
throne of France. The term was originally applied to those who supported Charles X of France
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...
(and, later, his descendants) after his deposition as King of France by his cousin, Louis-Philippe on 9 August 1830. Louis-Philippe had been Duke of Orléans so his supporters were called Orléanist
Orléanist
The Orléanists were a French right-wing/center-right party which arose out of the French Revolution. It governed France 1830-1848 in the "July Monarchy" of king Louis Philippe. It is generally seen as a transitional period dominated by the bourgeoisie and the conservative Orleanist doctrine in...
s.
When Charles X's grandson, Henri, Count of Chambord, died on 24 August 1883, some Legitimists joined the Orleanists in recognising Louis-Philippe's grandson, Philippe, Comte de Paris
Philippe, Comte de Paris
Philippe d'Orléans, Count of Paris was the grandson of Louis Philippe I, King of the French. He was a claimant to the French throne from 1848 until his death.-Early life:...
, as the rightful heir. Others transferred their loyalty to members of the Spanish Royal Family who were descended from Philip V of Spain
Philip V of Spain
Philip V was King of Spain from 15 November 1700 to 15 January 1724, when he abdicated in favor of his son Louis, and from 6 September 1724, when he assumed the throne again upon his son's death, to his death.Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a...
, a grandson of Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. Philip V had renounced his claim to the French throne as a condition stipulated in the Treaty of Utrecht
Treaty of Utrecht
The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713...
for the Great Powers
Historical powers
Historical powers include great powers, nations, or empires in history.The term "Great power" represent the most important world powers. In a modern context, recognised great powers came about first in Europe during the post-Napoleonic era. The formalization of the division between small powers and...
to cease waging war against France and to recognize him and his descendants as kings of Spain. Legitimists regard the renunciation clauses of the treaty as invalid because, under the ancien regimes fundamental law of the French monarchy, neither a king nor his heirs may alter succession to the French throne, by renunciation or any other known means. Louis Alphonse is the current claimant, in the view of this group.
Louis Alphonse de Bourbon has been in a dispute with a rival pretender, Henri d'Orléans, count of Paris, the current heir to the Orléans line. In 1988 and 1989, French courts dismissed lawsuits brought by Henri and other Bourbons to prohibit use of the title "Duke of Anjou" and of the undifferenced arms
Cadency
In heraldry, cadency is any systematic way of distinguishing similar coats of arms belonging to members of the same family. Cadency is necessary in heraldic systems in which a given design may be owned by only one person at once...
of France by Louis Alphonse's father, Alphonse de Bourbon, on the grounds that Orléans failed to establish his own right to bear the Anjou ducal title and undifferenced arms. Thus he lacked the standing
Standing (law)
In law, standing or locus standi is the term for the ability of a party to demonstrate to the court sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action challenged to support that party's participation in the case...
to challenge another's use thereof. The courts also noted that this ruling reflected their disinclination, on behalf of the French Republic, to implicitly adjudicate the dynastic rivalry.
Styles
- In Spain:
- His ExcellencyExcellencyExcellency is an honorific style given to certain members of an organization or state.Usually, people styled "Excellency" are heads of state, heads of government, governors, ambassadors, certain ecclesiastics, royalty, aristocracy, and military, and others holding equivalent rank .It is...
Don Luis Alfonso de Borbón y Martínez-Bordiú (1974–present)
- His Excellency
- Internationally, in pretence:
- His Royal Highness Prince Louis Alphonse de Bourbon (1974–1984)
- His Royal Highness The Duke of TouraineDuke of TouraineDuke of Touraine was a title in the Peerage of France, relating to Touraine.It was first created in 1360 for Philip, youngest son of King John II of France. He returned the duchy to the Crown in 1363 on being made Duke of Burgundy and died in 1404....
(1981–1984) - His Royal Highness The Duke of BourbonDuke of BourbonDuke of Bourbon is a title in the peerage of France. It was created in the first half of the 14th century for the eldest son of Robert of France, Count of Clermont and Beatrice of Burgundy, heiress of the lordship of Bourbon...
(1984–1989) - His Royal Highness The Duke of Anjou (1989–present)
Titles
Louis Alphonse is currently the Head of the House of Bourbon, and claims the following titles:- Titular Duke of Anjou
- Titular Duke of TouraineDuke of TouraineDuke of Touraine was a title in the Peerage of France, relating to Touraine.It was first created in 1360 for Philip, youngest son of King John II of France. He returned the duchy to the Crown in 1363 on being made Duke of Burgundy and died in 1404....
- Titular Duke of BourbonDuke of BourbonDuke of Bourbon is a title in the peerage of France. It was created in the first half of the 14th century for the eldest son of Robert of France, Count of Clermont and Beatrice of Burgundy, heiress of the lordship of Bourbon...
- Titular King of France
- Titular King of Navarre
Honours
Louis Alphonse is Grand Master of the following dynastic orders:- Grand Master of the Order of the Holy GhostOrder of the Holy GhostThe order was responsible for running hospitals - Hospitals of the Holy Ghost - throughout Europe for centuries, and in its heyday the number of its houses ran into many hundreds...
- Grand Master of the Order of Saint MichaelOrder of Saint MichaelThe Order of Saint Michael was a French chivalric order, founded by Louis XI of France in 1469, in competitive response to the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece founded by Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, Louis' chief competitor for the allegiance of the great houses of France, the Dukes of...
- Grand Master of the Order of Saint LouisOrder of Saint LouisThe Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis was a military Order of Chivalry founded on 5 April 1693 by Louis XIV and named after Saint Louis . It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, and is notable as the first decoration that could be granted to non-nobles...
- Grand Master of the Order of the Holy SpiritOrder of the Holy SpiritThe Order of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Order of the Knights of the Holy Spirit, was an Order of Chivalry under the French Monarchy. It should not be confused with the Congregation of the Holy Ghost or with the Order of the Holy Ghost...
The Grand Mastership of the first three orders are disputed between Prince Louis Alphonse as Legitimist pretender and Prince Henri, Count of Paris, Duke of France, the Orleanist pretender.
The Legitimist pretenders to the French throne have continued to nominate members of the Order of the Holy Spirit, long after the abolition of the French monarchy itself.
He is furthermore Knight of the following Order:
- Bailiff Grand Cross of Honour and Devotion of the Order of Malta
Ancestors
See also; Descendants of Louis XIV of FranceDescendants of Louis XIV of France
The descendants of Louis XIV of France, Bourbon monarch of the Kingdom of France, are numerous. Although only three of his children by his wife Maria Theresa of Spain survived past infancy, Louis had many illegitimate children by his mistresses...
.
External links
- Institut de la Maison de Bourbon of which he is Président d'honneur under the appellation: Mgr le Prince Louis, duc d'Anjouhttp://www.royaute.org/page4.html
- Institut Duc d'Anjou
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