Felix of Bourbon-Parma
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| Felix of Bourbon-Parma | |
| Prince Consort of Luxembourg, Prince of Bourbon-Parma | |
| Born | October 28, 1893 |
|---|---|
| Died | April 8, 1970 (aged 76) |
| Consort | November 6, 1919 - November 12, 1964 |
| Consort to | Charlotte |
| Issue | Jean, Elizabeth, Marie-Adélaide, Marie Gabriele, Charles, Alix |
| Royal House | House of Bourbon-Parma |
| Father | Robert I, Duke of Parma |
| Mother | Maria Antonia of Portugal |
Prince Felix of Luxembourg, Prince of Bourbon-Parma (given names: Felix Marie Vincent; born: October 28, 1893-April 8, 1970) was the consort of Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg and the father of her six children, including Grand Duke Jean.
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[edit] Early Life
Prince Felix was one of the twenty-four children of the deposed Robert I, Duke of Parma, being the duke's sixth child and third son by his second wife, Maria Antonia of Portugal. His maternal grandparents were Miguel of Portugal and Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg.
He was also the younger brother (by sixteen months) of Empress Zita of Austria. Of the twelve children of Duke Robert's first marriage to Maria-Pia of the Two Sicilies, three died as infants, six were mentally retarded, and only three married. Despite loss of his throne, Duke Robert and his family enjoyed considerable wealth, traveling in a private train of more than a dozen cars among his castles at Schwarzau am Steinfeld near Vienna, Villa Pianore in northwest Italy, and the magnificent château de Chambord in France.
| Styles of Prince Félix of Luxembourg |
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| Reference style | His Royal Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Royal Highness |
| Alternative style | Sir |
Less than four months after Robert's death in 1907 the Grand Marshal of the Austrian Court declared six of the children of his first marriage legally incompetent, at the behest of Duchess Maria Antonia. Nonetheless, Robert's primary heir was Elias, Duke of Parma, (1880-1959), the youngest son of the first marriage and the only one to father children of his own. Duke Elias also became the legal guardian of his six elder siblings. Although Prince Felix's elder brothers, Prince Sixte and Prince Xavier, eventually sued their half-brother Duke Elias to obtain a greater share of the ducal fortune, they lost in the French courts, leaving Prince Felix with modest prospects.
[edit] Prince of Luxembourg and Consort to Grand Duchess Charlotte
On November 6, 1919 the prince married Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, having become also Prince of Luxembourg by Grand Ducal decree the day before. Unlike some European consorts, Felix neither adopted his wife's dynastic surname (of Nassau), nor relinquished his own title and name "Prince of Bourbon-Parma". His traditional style as a Bourbon prince of the Parmesan branch is the reason that cadet members of the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg enjoy the style of Royal Highness (but that style belongs to the Luxembourg monarch and heir apparent by right, as the historical prerogative of grand ducal dynasties).
Felix served in the Austrian Dragoons as lieutenant and captain, but resigned his commission in November 1918. He was President of the Luxembourg Red Cross between 1923 and 1932 and again between 1947 and 1969. He was also Colonel of the Luxembourg Volunteers Company since 1920 and Inspector-General of the Luxembourg Army between 1945 and 1967.
Urban legend has it that Felix lost the Grünewald, a forest owned by the Grand Duchess, at a casino in 1934, but this is false; part of the property was sold, along with Berg Castle, to the Luxembourgian government, with the revenue paying for the upkeep of the grand-ducal household, and was not spent on personal consumption, let alone gambling losses.[1]
[edit] Marriage and children
On November 6, 1919, he married Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg, and they had six children:
- Grand Duke Jean (born 1921).
- Princess Elizabeth (born 1922), who married HSH Duke Franz of Hohenberg (1927–1977). Has issue.
- Princess Marie-Adélaide (1924-2007), who married Karl, Count Henckel of Donnersmarck (born 1928).
- Princess Marie Gabriele (born 1925), who married Knud, Count of Holstein-Ledreborg (1919–2001). Has issue.
- Prince Charles (1927–1977), who married commoner Joan Dillon, a daughter of C. Douglas Dillon, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. Had issue.
- Princess Alix (born 1929), who married Antoine Maria Joachim Lamoral, 13th Prince de Ligne (1925–2005)
[edit] Royal Relatives
Felix's royal relatives included not only Austria's last empress, Zita, but his half-siblings Duke Elias of Parma and Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, first consort of King Ferdinand I of the Bulgarians; his brothers Prince Sixte (French legitimist scholar) and Prince Xavier (Carlist pretender), who jointly attempted to negotiate a separate peace for Austria as World War I drew to a close; and Louis (1899-1967), who finally healed the Bourbon-Parmas' feud with the Savoy dynasty in 1939 by marrying Princess Maria, (1914-2001), daughter of King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. Felix's niece, Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma is the consort of ex-King Michael I of Romania; and his nephew Prince Michel of Bourbon-Parma (born 1926) also married, in 2003, the daughter of an Italian king, (Umberto II), Princess Maria Pia of Savoy (born 1934). Another of his nephews, Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma, inherited both the headship of the ducal dynasty and the Carlist claim to the Spanish crown, marrying in 1964 Princess Irene of Orange-Nassau, a younger daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. For Felix's own descendants, see Charlotte of Luxembourg.
[edit] Ancestry
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ (French) Juncker, Jean-Claude (15 February 2007). Réponse à la question parlementaire no.1220 du 4 août 2006 de Messieurs les Députés Gast Gibéryen et Roby Mehlen (PDF). Investigateur. Retrieved on 2007-06-28.
