Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz

Infanta Pilar
Duchess of Badajoz; Viscountess de la Torre
Spouse Luis Gomez-Acebo y de Estrada
Issue
Simoneta Luisa Gomez-Acebo y de Borbón
Juan Filiberto Nicolás Gomez-Acebo y de Borbón
Bruno Alejandro Gomez-Acebo y de Borbón
Luis Alfonso Gomez-Acebo y de Borbón
Fernando Umberto Gomez-Acebo y de Borbón
Full name
María del Pilar Alfonsa Juana Victoria Luisa Ignacia
House House of Bourbon
Father Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona
Mother Princess Maria Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies
Born 30 July 1936 (1936-07-30) (age 75)
Cannes, France
Religion Roman Catholicism

Infanta Pilar of Spain, Duchess of Badajoz, Grandee of Spain, Dowager Viscountess de la Torre (María del Pilar Alfonsa Juana Victoria Luisa Ignacia y Todos los Santos de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias[1]) (born Cannes, 30 July 1936) is the elder daughter of Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona and Princess Maria Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and older sister of reigning King Juan Carlos of Spain. She has also a younger sister, Infanta Margarita of Spain.

Contents

Marriage and issue

She married Don Luis Gómez-Acebo y Duque de Estrada, ?th Viscount de la Torre, Grandee of Spain (Madrid, 23 December 1934 – Madrid, 9 March 1991) on 5 May 1967 in Lisbon, Portugal. He was a son, the fourth of six children, of Jaime Gómez-Acebo y Modet (ca. 1900 – ?) and wife (m. 1927) Isabel Duque de Estrada y Vereterra, 9th Marchioness de Deleitosa (ca. 1903 – ?). His father was a son of the 3rd Marquesses de Cortina and an uncle of Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela. They had five children:

Pilar renounced her right of succession upon marriage, but her renunciation took place before the adoption of the Spanish Constitution and was not ratified by the Cortes.

She was President of the International Equestrian Federation from 1994 to 2005, when she was replaced by Princess Haya bint Hussein. She was member of the International Olympic Committee for Spain from 1996 to 2006, when she became an honorary member, and Member of the Executive Board of the Spanish Olympic Committee.

The Infanta is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles

Royal styles of
Infanta Pilar of Spain
Reference style Her Royal Highness
Spoken style Your Royal Highness
Alternative style Ma'am

The Infanta's style and title in full: Her Royal Highness María del Pilar Alfonsa Juana Victoria Luisa Ignacia de Todos los Santos, Infanta of Spain, Duchess of Badajoz, Viscountess Dowager of la Torre.

Honours

Orders

Arms

Arms of Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz
Notes
The Duchess's personalized coat of arms is based on the arms of the monarch in right of Spain.
Crest
The crown of Infantes of Spain
Escutcheon
Quarterly: 1 gules a castle triple-embattled with three towers each triple-turreted or masoned sable and ajouré azure; 2 argent a lion rampant purpure crowned or, langued and armed gules; 3 or, four pallets gules; 4 gules a cross, saltire and orle of chains linked together or, a centre point vert; enté en point argent, a pomegranate proper seeded gules, supported, sculpted and leafed in two leaves vert.
Inescutcheon: azure bordured gules, three fleurs-de-lys or. The whole differenced by a label of three points argent, charged on the middle point with a lion gules and one of the Pillars of Hercules argent and on the outer points with an oak proper.
Orders
The Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III ribbon.
Symbolism

As with the Royal Arms of Spain. The first quarter are the arms of Castile, the second of León, the third of Aragon and the fourth of Navarre. Enté en point, the arms of Granada. Inescutcheon, the arms of Bourbon-Anjou.

A lion gules with one of the Pillars of Hercules argent has been the arms of Badajoz, an oak has been a charge of the arms of Extremadura.[5]

Ancestry

Footnotes and References

  1. ^ Infanta Pilar's actual given name is María del Pilar; however, due to the high number of women in Spain named María, as is the convention, she uses the name Pilar. For more information, see Spanish names.
  2. ^ Simoneta Gomez-Acebo and Jose Miguel Fernandez Sastron separate
  3. ^ Separation of Beltran Gomez-Acebo and Laura Pont
  4. ^ Hola - Interview with Monica Martin Luque
  5. ^ "(Spanish) Cadency of the Spanish Royal House". José Juan Carrión Rangel, Blog de heráldica. http://blogdeheraldica.blogspot.com/2009/04/conceptos-heraldicos-iv-la-brisura-en.html. Retrieved 2009-11-29. 

External links