Luís Fernando de Orleans y Borbón
Encyclopedia
Luís Fernando de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain (November 5, 1888 – June 20, 1945) was a Spanish prince who lost his title.

Early life and education

Luís Fernando was born at 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...

, the younger son of Infante Infante Antonio, Duke of Galliera
Infante Antonio, Duke of Galliera
Antonio Maria Luis Felipe Juan Florencio de Orléans y Borbon was an Infante of Spain and the fourth Duke of Galliera in the Kingdom of Italy...

 and of his wife, Infanta Eulalia of Spain
Infanta Eulalia of Spain
Infanta Eulalia of Spain was a Spanish infanta known for her controversial books.-Early life:Eulalia was born in the Royal Palace of Madrid, the youngest child of Queen Isabella II of Spain and of her husband, Francis of Spain...

. He was baptised with the names Luís Fernando Maria Zacarias; the name Zacarias is in honour of Saint Zechariah
Zechariah (priest)
In the Bible, Zechariah , is the father of John the Baptist, a priest of the sons of Aaron, a prophet in , and the husband of Elisabeth who is the cousin of Mary the mother of Jesus.In the Qur'an, Zechariah plays a similar role as the father of John the Baptist and ranks him as a prophet alongside...

 on whose feast day Luís Fernando was born. In 1899 Luís Fernando and his older brother Alfonso
Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera
Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Infante of Spain, Duke of Galliera was a Spanish military aviator.-Early life:...

 were sent to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to be educated by the Jesuits at Beaumont College
Beaumont College
Beaumont College was a Jesuit public school in Old Windsor, Berkshire, England. In 1967 the school closed. The property became a conference centre, and from 2008 an hotel.-History of the estate:...

. They remained there until 1904.

Marriage rumors and exile

On July 17, 1914, The New York Times reported the marriage of Luís Fernando to Beatrice Harrington. The newspaper was mistaken, however; the groom was actually Don Luís de Borbón, Duke of Ansola.

In October 1924 Luís Fernando was expelled from France. He was purportedly involved in the trade of illegal drugs. In response 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...

 deprived him of his privileges as an Infante of Spain.

Unable to reside either in Spain or France, Luís Fernando moved to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

. In March 1926 he was arrested at the Portuguese-Spanish border disguised as a woman. Some smuggled goods were found in his possession, but no drugs.

In 1929 it was reported that Luís Fernando was engaged to Mabelle Gilman Corey, a Broadway actress and the former wife of William E. Corey, a steel magnate. The marriage never took place.

Marriage

In July 1930 an engagement was announced between Luís Fernando and Marie Constance Charlotte Say (August 25, 1857, Verrières-le-Buisson
Verrières-le-Buisson
Verrières-le-Buisson is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is from the center of Paris, in the Essonne department just outside the inner ring of the Île-de-France.The commune borders the Bièvre River....

 - July 15, 1943, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

), the widow of Prince Henri Amédée de Broglie
Henri Amédée de Broglie
Henri Amédée de Broglie, Prince de Broglie .He was born in Paris, the son of Jacques Victor Albert de Broglie, Duc de Broglie and his wife Pauline de Galard de Brassac de Béarn....

 and the owner of the Château de Chaumont
Château de Chaumont
The Château de Chaumont is a French castle at Chaumont-sur-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, France.The first château-fort on this site between Blois and Amboise was a primitive fortress built by Eudes II, Count of Blois, in the 10th century with the purpose of protecting Blois from attacks from his feudal...

. Luís Fernando was 41 years old, while Marie was 72 years old.

Marie’s nephew, François de Cossé, 11th Duke of Brissac
Duke of Brissac
Duke of Brissac is the title of a distinguished noble family of France. The fief of Brissac in Anjou was acquired at the end of the 15th century by a noble French family named Cossé belonging to the same province. René de Cossé married into the Gouffier family, who were at that time very powerful...

, brought a lawsuit on behalf of her family before the Tribunal de grande instance
Tribunal d'instance
In France, the Tribunal d'instance , is a judicial inferior court of record of first instance for general civil suits and includes a criminal division, the Police Court , which hears cases of misdemeanors or summary offences...

 of the Seine to try to stop the wedding. He claimed that his aunt was mentally incompetent. Marie claimed that she had thought about the marriage twelve years ago, but had delayed on account of her grandchildren. The court determined that a nephew had no legal right to oppose the marriage of an aunt. It appointed a commission of three doctors to investigate Marie’s mental state and confirmed a judicial administrator appointed on July 7 to manage Marie’s estate.

On September 19, 1930, Luís Fernando and Marie married in a civil ceremony in a London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 registry office. On October 4, 1930, they were married in a religious ceremony in the Cathedral of San Siro in Sanremo
Sanremo
Sanremo or San Remo is a city with about 57,000 inhabitants on the Mediterranean coast of western Liguria in north-western Italy. Founded in Roman times, the city is best known as a tourist destination on the Italian Riviera. It hosts numerous cultural events, such as the Sanremo Music Festival...

 on the Italian Riviera
Italian Riviera
The Italian Riviera, or Ligurian Riviera is the narrow coastal strip which lies between the Ligurian Sea and the mountain chain formed by the Maritime Alps and the Apennines...

. They had no children. After their wedding Luís Fernando and Marie lived in Sanremo in a house given to Luís Fernando by his mother. In February 1935 Luís Fernando was again expelled from France. He had been arrested in a vice squad raid.

Luís Fernando’s wife Marie died in 1943. He spent the next two years in a Paris nursing home where he died in 1945. He is buried at the Eglise du Coeur Immaculé de Marie, 51bis rue de la Pompe, in Paris.

Further reading

Mateos Sáinz de Medrano, Ricardo. Los desconocidos Infantes de España: Casa de Borbón. Barcelona: Thassàlia, 1996. ISBN 8482370545.
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