Gonzalo de Borbon

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Coat of arms of Gonzalo de Borbón

Don Gonzalo de Borbón y de Dampierre , full name Gonzalo Victor Alfonso José Bonifacio Antonio Maria y Todos los Santos de Borbón y de Dampierre (born June 5, 1937 in Rome , Italy , † May 27, 2000 in Lausanne , Switzerland ) was a member the Spanish line of the Bourbons and Duke of Aquitaine .

Life

Gonzalo was the second and youngest son of Jaime de Borbón (1908-1975), Duke of Anjou and Segovia, and his first wife, Princess Victoire Jeanne Joséphine Emmanuelle (1913-2012), daughter of Roger de Dampierre , 2nd Duke de San Lorenzo , and Princess Vittoria Ruspoli . His paternal grandparents were the Spanish King Alfonso XIII. and Princess Victoria Eugénie von Battenberg .

He was baptized in the Palazzo Ruspoli , which belonged to his maternal grandparents, by Cardinal Eugenio Maria Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII ) in Rome. Since his mother was not a princess from a royal house, his grandfather excluded him and his older brother Alfons Jaime from the Spanish succession according to the pragmatic sanction of 1776 . In any case, his father disagreed that his sons were Spanish infants with all rights.

In 1941 the family moved to Lausanne in Switzerland, Gonzalo and his brother attended the Collège Saint-Jean in Friborg . On December 8, 1946, he received his first communion from Pedro Segura y Sáenz , Archbishop of Seville . A year later, his parents divorced in Budapest and in 1949 they both remarried. In 1952 the dictator Francisco Franco asked Gonzalo's father to send him and his brother Alfonso to Spain for training under his supervision, as did their cousins Juan Carlos and Carlos . Gonzalo and his brother were picked up from the Swiss boarding school Institut Montana Zugerberg against their mother's wishes in 1953 and brought to Spain. Gonzalo graduated from high school there. After military service, he began studying at the University of Madrid . In contrast to his brother, whom Franco gave his granddaughter to wife, Gonzalo was never seriously considered as a possible candidate for the throne.

Marriages

Coat of arms of Emanuela, Duchess of Aquitaine (since 1995).
  • In December 1959, Don Gonzalo became engaged to the Huntington Hotel heiress Dorothy Marguerite Fritz in San Francisco , but the marriage never took place.
  • A daughter was born from a liaison with the American Sandra Lee Landry: Stephanie Michelle de Borbón (born June 19, 1968 in Miami ).
  • Don Gonzalo married Doña María del Carmen Harto y Montealegre (* 1947) on January 28, 1983 in Puerto Vallarta , Mexico , and divorced on April 18, 1983 before being registered in Spain. The marriage remained childless.
  • A few months later he entered into a second marriage. The wedding with Doña María de las Mercedes Licer y García (* 1963) took place on June 25, 1984 in Madrid . The couple separated in July 1985, divorced in 1989 and annulled in 1994. The connection remained childless.
  • On December 12, 1992, Don Gonzalo married Donna Emanuela Maria Pratolongo (* 1960) in Genoa .

Don Gonzalo died of leukemia in Lausanne on May 27, 2000 . He was buried in the San Sebastian chapel in the Descalzas Reales church in Madrid.

Titles, orders and honors

title

  • 1937–2000 Prince de Bourbon and of France with the address His Royal Highness
  • 1972–2000 Duke of Aquitaine

In 1941, the Legitimists proclaimed his father the rightful heir to the throne of France and head of the French Bourbon line . Don Gonzalo ranked second for many years until the birth of his nephews Francisco and Louis Alphonse .

medal

On September 14, 1988, the Tribunal d'instance in Montpellier issued him French citizenship.

literature

  • Jiří Louda, Michael MacLagan: Lines of Succession. Heraldry of the Royal Families of Europe. Little, Brown and Company, London 1999, ISBN 0-316-84820-4 .
  • Arnold McNaughton: The Book of Kings. A Royal Genealogy. 3 volumes. Garnstone Press, London 1973, ISBN 0-900391-19-7 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Borbon, Gonzalo de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Borbón y de Dampierre, Don Gonzalo de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish nobleman, member of the Spanish line of the Bourbons and Duke of Aquitaine
DATE OF BIRTH June 5, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH May 27, 2000
Place of death Lausanne