Infanta Alicia, Dowager Duchess of Calabria

Infanta Alicia
Duchess of Calabria
Spouse Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria
Issue
Princess Teresa
Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria
Princess Inés Maria
Full name
Italian: Alicia Maria Teresa Francesca Luisa Pia Anna Valeria
House House of Bourbon-Parma
House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
Father Elias, Duke of Parma
Mother Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria
Born 13 November 1917 (1917-11-13) (age 94)
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Religion Roman Catholic
Two Sicilies Royal Family

HRH The Dowager Duchess

Extended family

Infanta Alicia, Dowager Duchess of Calabria[1] (née: Princess of Bourbon-Parma; given names: Alicia Maria Teresa Francesca Luisa Pia Anna Valeria; born 13 November 1917)[1] is a daughter of Elias, Duke of Parma and Piacenza and his wife Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria.[1] Alicia was Duchess of Calabria through her marriage to Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria (1901–1964).[1] From 1936 she is infanta of Spain.[2] She was born in Vienna, Austria.[1]

Contents

Marriage and issue

Alicia married Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria (30 November 1901 - 3 February 1964),her second cousin and the eldest child and son of Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies and his wife Mercedes, Princess of Asturias, on 16 April 1936 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary.[1] Alicia and Alfonso had three children:[1]

Heiress to thrones

Infanta Alicia is heiress to the throne of the Kingdom of Navarre if its traditional succession law (male-preference primogeniture) is followed, according to her son's official website.[3]

If France had adopted male-preference primogeniture before the death of Henri, comte de Chambord, she would also be the current pretender to the French throne. This line follows the Count of Chambord's older sister, Louise Marie Thérèse d'Artois, mother of Robert I, Duke of Parma, father of Elias, Duke of Parma, father of Infanta Alicia.

As the heir-general of Louis XIV of France and Maria Theresa of Spain,[4] Infanta Alicia is also the representative of the ancient kings of Castile, Aragon, Naples and Sicily. Thus her son Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria will at her death not only be the direct senior genealogical representative of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies but also of the longest reigning dynasty in Naples and Sicily, which ruled Sicily from 1282 and Naples from 1442, until 1700 with the death of King Charles II of Spain who ruled both kingdoms through a viceroy when the two thrones passed temporarily to the Habsburgs and Savoys until restored to the Bourbons, as heirs of the ancient kings, in 1734.

If the marriage of Maria Beatrice of Savoy to her uncle is counted as illegal, then Alicia, as heir of Maria Beatrice's next sister, would be the Jacobite pretender to the thrones of England, Scotland, France and Ireland.[5] However, English and Scots law in 1688 (after which point Jacobites must admit it to be static, as changes would require the approval of the monarch, who they hold is not the person actually on the throne) stated that a marriage contracted outside of the realms was not challenged if it was legal in its own land; thus, since Maria Beatrice and her mother's brother Francis IV, Duke of Modena received the Pope's consent to marry, Alicia's claim is weak.

She is also the heir-general of both Stephen of England and John of Scotland; through the latter's descent from Saint Margaret of Scotland, she also represents the line of the English kings descended from Egbert of Wessex.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Honours

Ancestry

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Darryl Lundy (10 May 2003). "Alice Maria di Borbone, Principessa di Parma". thePeerage.com. http://www.thepeerage.com/p11219.htm#i112184. Retrieved 2008-10-02. 
  2. ^ Genealogy of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Real Casa de Borbón de las Dos Sicilias website.
  3. ^ Real casa de Borbón de las Dos Sicilias
  4. ^ some footnote
  5. ^ "The Infanta Alicia of Spain". Jacobite.ca. http://www.jacobite.ca/essays/alicia.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-19. 
  6. ^ Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George (2008). "Membership of the Constantinian Order". Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George. http://www.constantinianorder.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5&Itemid=12. Retrieved 2008-10-13.