Juan de Borbon y Battenberg

Don Juan de Borbon

Juan de Borbón y Battenberg (Bust in the City Hall of Barcelona)

Coat of arms of the Count of Barcelona after his formal resignation from the throne (1977–1993)

Juan Carlos Teresa Silverio Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg , in Spain usually referred to as Don Juan de Borbón , Infant of Spain, Count of Barcelona (born June 20, 1913 in the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso , † April 1, 1993 in Pamplona ) was the third son and fifth child of King Alfonso XIII of Spain . and the Victoria Eugénie von Battenberg . Although he had been head of the Spanish royal family and pretender to the throne since 1941, he never became king of Spain, as after the end of the Second Republic and the Spanish Civil War , he and his family lived in exile even during Franquism and the monarchy in Spain only after death Francisco Franco was re-established under Juan de Borbón's son Juan Carlos .

Life

Juan de Borbón was born in the Palace of San Ildefonso in the province of Segovia . He attended the Naval School in San Fernando , Province of Cádiz . After the proclamation of the second republic on April 14, 1931, the royal family left the country and settled in Rome . Here Juan married María de las Mercedes de Borbón y Orléans , Princess of the Two Sicilies, on October 12, 1935 , thus joining two lines of the House of Bourbon .

Both had four children together:

María del Pilar Alfonsa Juana Victoria Luísa Ignacia de Todos los Santos (1936–2020), Duchess of Badajoz
Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor María (* 1938), King of Spain
Margarita María de la Victoria Esperanza Jacoba Felicidad Perpetua de Todos los Santos (* 1939), Duchess of Soria and second Duchess of Hernani
Alfonso Cristino Teresa Angelo Francisco de Asis y Todos los Santos (1941–1956)

After the death of his father and the abdication of his brothers Alfons , who married a commoner, and Jaime , who was deaf, Juan became head of the Spanish royal family in 1941.

During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) Juan de Borbón was initially inclined to the anti-republican troops. After their leaders forbade him to fight by their side and Franco rejected the restoration of the monarchy, Juan repeatedly emphasized his family's claim to rule in Spain and his claim to the throne. In 1945 from Lausanne and in 1947 from his new exile in Estoril (Portugal), he distributed manifestos calling for the reinstatement of the royal family in Spain.

Franco declared Spain a monarchy in 1947, but made himself head of state until further notice. This theoretically paved the way for the “ reinstauration ” (reinstauración) of a king. However, Franco refused to view don Juan as the future king. Instead, they made an unofficial agreement in 1948 according to which Don Juan's eldest son Juan Carlos should be brought up in Spain and, if necessary, determined to succeed him as head of state. Indeed, in 1969 Franco passed a law officially designating Juan Carlos as his political heir. In 1975, after Franco's death, Juan Carlos was installed as king. Don Juan, however, formally renounced his dynastic claim to the throne in 1977 in favor of his son; he left him, as he wished, the title of Count of Barcelona , which has belonged to the King of Spain since the 16th century.

Juan de Borbón died in Pamplona in 1993 after suffering from cancer for a long time. His remains, like those of his late wife, are currently in the decomposition chamber of the El Escorial monastery near Madrid. According to the Spanish tradition, the bones of the deceased should find their final resting place after complete decomposition in the sarcophagi provided for this purpose in the “ Pantheon of Kings ” of the monastery.

Web links

Commons : Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona - Collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
Alfons of Bourbon and Battenberg	Prince of Asturias 1933–1941	Juan Carlos of Bourbon and Bourbon-Naples-Sicily ( Juan Carlos I. )

personal data
SURNAME	Borbón y Battenberg, Juan de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Borbón, Don Juan de; Borbón y Battenberg, Juan Carlos Teresa Silvestre Alfonso de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Spanish nobleman, son of the Spanish king Alfonso XIII.
DATE OF BIRTH	June 20, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH	La Granja de San Ildefonso near Segovia
DATE OF DEATH	April 1, 1993
Place of death	Pamplona