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13/11/2007

90th birthday of Infanta D. Alicia, Princess of Bourbon-Parma, Dowager Duchess of Calabria
 
HRH Infanta D.Alicia, Dowager Duchess of Calabria
 

13 November 2007 is the 90th birthday of HRH the Infanta Alicia, Dowager Duchess of Calabria, born Princess of Bourbon-Parma. She was born in Vienna, the 4th daughter of Prince Elio of Bourbon-Parma, then serving as an officer in the Austrian Imperial Army who was Regent for his brothers Enrico and later Giuseppe, whom he succeeded in 1950 as Duke of Parma. Her mother was Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (1882-1940), daughter of Archduke Friedrich, Duke of Teschen and Princess Isabelle of Cröy and a niece of Queen (Regent) Maria Cristina of Spain. Princess Alice was the only one of the eight children of Prince Elio to marry and, with the death of her older sister, Maria, in 1994, became the senior genealogical representative of the ancient Kings of Navarre, of King David I of Scotland, and of the known surviving successors of Edward the Confessor of England. She is also the senior genealogical representative of Ferdinand and Isabella of Aragon and Castile, and of the ancient Hauteville, Hohenstaufen, Aragon and Anjou Kings of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem. She thus combines the representation of more royal claims than any other person, probably in history ranging across much of Western Europe.

Princess Alice of Bourbon-Parma was married in Vienna on 16 April 1936 to HRH Infante D. Alfonso de Borbón-Dos Sicilias y Borbón (1901-1964), the elder son of Prince D. Carlo of the Two Sicilies and the late D. Maria de las Mercedes de Borbón y Austria, Princess of the Asturias; his uncle, Prince D. Ferdinando Pio, Duke of Calabria, was the principal witness for the Infante D. Alfonso. From his mother's death on 17 October 1904 until the birth of Alfonso, Prince of the Asturias, on 10 May 1907, Infante D. Alfonso was heir presumptive to the Spanish throne with the title of Infante Heredero.  Following the death in 1960 of his uncle, the Duke of Calabria, Infante D. Alfonso succeeded by right of primogeniture to the headship of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies and the Grand Magistery of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George. Among the first to receive the collar of this Order from the new Grand Master was his wife's brother, Roberto II, Duke of Parma, while Princess Alice, the last but one surviving Dame of the Order of Maria Luisa, became a Dame Grand Cross of the Constantinian Order.

Infanta (as she became at her marriage) D. Alicia and her husband had three children: Princess Teresa, Marquesa de Laula (born in Lausanne in 1937), Prince (since 1994 Infante) D. Carlos, (born in Lausanne 1938) who became Duke of Noto in 1960, and Princess Ines (born in Ouchy 1940). In 1941 the changed political circumstances permitted the family to return to Spain where they remained; Infanta Alicia lives mainly at the country estate, La Toledana, that was acquired by her husband following their return to Spain. In addition to her three children she has  seventeen grandchildren and twenty-five great grand children. Infante D. Alfonso died more than forty-three years ago on 3 February 1964, and was succeeded in all his titles by Prince, now Infante, D. Carlos.

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