Carlos Hugo of Bourbon, Duke of Parma

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Carlos Hugo de Borbón Parma (born in Paris, April 8, 1930) is the head of the ducal house of Parma and a former pretender to the throne of Spain. His marriage to Princess Irene of the Netherlands in 1964 caused a constitutional crisis in The Netherlands.

He is the son of Francisco Javier de Borbón and Madeleine de Bourbon Busset. On May 5, 1957 his father proclaimed him Prince of the Asturias and Duke of San Jaime. He assumed the title Duke of Madrid in February 1964. In 1977, his father died, and Carlos Hugo succeeded him as Duke of Parma.

Baptized Hugo Xavier Marie Sixte Louis Robert Jean Georges Benoît Michel, he later took the name Charles (Carlos) before all his baptismal names.

[edit] Carlism

Carlism was a Spanish political movement seeking to place Carlos Hugo's branch of the House of Bourbon on the Spanish throne.

In 1952, Carlos Hugo's father publicly laid claim to the Spanish throne as Javier I, but he was ignored by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who chose Juan Carlos to be his successor instead. Carlos Hugo assumed Carlist leadership in August, 1975.

After alienating many Carlists with his attempts to approach Franco (1965–1967), Carlos Hugo switched to a leftist Titoist socialist movement. His mother, Madeleine of Bourbon, and his brother, Sixto Enrique de Borbón, stood for traditional Carlism.

He abandoned Carlist claims in 1979 and became a naturalised Spanish citizen as Carlos-Hugo de Borbón-Parma y Borbón, by royal decree of King Juan Carlos.

In 1980, Carlos Hugo left the political arena, abandoning the new "Partido Carlista" which he had created.

During the Franco regime, the organization of Carlism has been known as the Traditionalist Communion. After Franco's death, also the Carlist movement was badly split, and unable to get wide public attention again. At Montejurra, on 9 May 1976, there was a clash between Carlos Hugo's supporters, aided by extreme left-wing militants and Carlists led by Carlos Hugo's brother, Sixto Enrique de Borbón, Duke of Aranjuez. Two men, neither of them a Carlist, were killed.

In the first democratic elections on 15 June, 1977, only one Carlist senator was elected, journalist and writer Fidel Carazo from Soria, who ran as an independent candidate. In the parliamentary elections of 1979, Carlists integrated in the coalition Unión Nacional, that won a seat in Congress for Madrid; but the elected candidate was not a Carlist himself. Since then, Carlists have remained extra-parliamentary, obtaining only town council seats.

In 2002 Carlos Hugo donated his House's archives to Spain's national historical achives, which was heavily opposed by his brother Sixtus Henry and by all Carlist factions.

[edit] Marriage to Irene

His marriage to Princess Irene of the Netherlands, celebrated in Rome April 29, 1964, caused a constitutional crisis in the Netherlands for several reasons. She lost her right of succession to the Dutch throne because the government refused to enact a law permitting the marriage, and her mother could not go to Rome to talk Princess Irene out of the marriage and of her conversion to Catholicism because the government advised her against it. The issue that prevented the government from making a law permitting the marriage was Carlos's claim of the Spanish throne. The Dutch government saw international political difficulties arising from a possible heir to the Dutch throne holding a controversial claim to the throne of a foreign state. Also, the Dutch Constitution does not allow the monarch to carry a foreign crown.

Carlos Hugo and Irene divorced in 1981.

[edit] Family

Carlos Hugo and Princess Irene had four children:

Carlos Javier Bernardo Sixto María de Bourbon Parma, Prince of Piacenza, born January 27, 1970 in Nijmegen. He is said to have a son, Carlos Hugo Roderik Sybren Klynstra, born on 20 January 1997 by Brigitte Klynstra.
Margarita María Beatriz de Bourbon Parma, Countess of Colorno, born October 13, 1972 in Nijmegen.
Jaime (Jacques) Bernardo de Bourbon Parma, Count of Bardi, born October 13, 1972 in Nijmegen .
María Carolina Cristina de Bourbon Parma, Marchioness of Sala, born June 23, 1974 in Nijmegen.