Messages

16

Iberian Royal Families / Re: The Spanish branch of the Orléans family

« on: September 24, 2006, 12:44:00 AM »

Since Luis Fernando died in 1945, his relatives who are still alive (i.e. his great-newphews, children of his nephew Álvaro, Duke of Galliera) probably don't remember him (if they ever met him!). I know Eulalia's life wasn't a model to follow, but Luis Fernando's is so much worse (for in infante that is).
In the Memoirs I have of Eulalia's there are a few photos that come from the "Archivo de Orleáns-Borbón". Any idea where that is and how can one get in touch? Eulalaia hardly mentions her children in the memoirs, which were prublished I think in 1935 if memory serves me right... unhapily it doesn't mention the problems that started when Ali got married to Beatrice etc...

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: The children of Alfonso XIII of Spain

« on: September 23, 2006, 09:02:56 AM »

When they were in exile, it was extremely difficult to find a suitable husband for each of Alfonso XIII's daughters, being Catholics, not extremely rich anymore, exiled and with the taint of haemophilia in their family tree. Beatriz was introduced to her future husband by her sister, who ahd met him at  a party Beatrzi was unable to attend (she was ill). Beatrzi says in a book written by her grandson that there was never any friction at court between Maria Cristina and Victoria Eugenia, even throughout the World War. Both were Spanish queens already, she says, regardless of the country where they were born. Maria Cristina never spoke German in Madrid, contrary to popular supposition, which is why Alfosno XIII never really managed to speak the language. Ena spoke English or French with her children, but sometimes also reverted to Spanish since she spoke it very well after a few years at court.
I find this langyuage matter very interesting. The present King and Queen speak English to each other, but the King also speaks Italian and Portuguese. He doesn't speak a word of Greek, which he regrets, since his wife uses it privately, when counting etc...

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Queen Isabel (Isabella) II of Spain and her family

« on: September 23, 2006, 08:42:37 AM »

I was just browsing Infanta Paz's (1862-1946) article on Wikipedia (German version :http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_de_la_Paz_von_Spanien) and was VERY surprised to see that in the article it states she and her husband, Prince Louis Ferdinand, had FOUR  children! Ferdinand Maria (1884-1958), Adalbert (1886-1970), Maria del Pilar (1891-1987) and FRIEDA AMALIA (1886-1945), who married someone called Ernst Helft and had two children by him, Ilse and Horst. I know this must be some sort of error. In 1886 Infanta Paz gave birth to her son Adalbert. I have checked the Almanach de Gotha I have from 1902 and she is evidently not listed. Plus, only the article in German gives such information... Who was this Frieda Amalia in reality?
"Frieda Amalia wurde im Jahre 1886 als Tochter des Prinzen Ferdinand Maria Ludwig von Bayern und seiner Gattin Maria de la Paz, Infantin von Spanien.

Als sich Frieda Amalia 1910 in den Bürger und Metzger Ernst Heft verliebte, sich jedoch nicht mehr mit ihm treffen durfte (weil er ein Bürgerlicher war), riss sie zusammen mit ihrem Liebsten aus und heiratete ihn schließlich am 13. Juni 1912. Als ihre Eltern dies erfuhren waren Sie so erbost, dass sie Frieda Amalia aus der Königlichen Familie ausschlossen. Seither wurde sie nicht mehr schriftlich oder anderweitig erwähnt. Frieda Amalia war eine der ersten Prinzessinen die ausrissen und das Leben als Bürgerliche wählten. Sie war somit eine Revolutionärin.

Zusammen bekamen Frieda Amalia und ihr Mann Ernst Heft zwei Kinder:

    * Ilse (gest. 1984) oo Kurt Ledig (gest. 1989)
    * Horst (gest. 2001)

1945 starb Frieda Amalia."

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Antonio de Orleans and Eulalia de Borbón, Infantes of Spain

« on: September 22, 2006, 05:41:14 PM »

Eulalia's stay in the US and Cuba was an interesting one... people in Chicago were disappointed with her. They expected an exotic dark Spanish princess...what they got was a refined, blonde, blue-eyed princess!

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Antonio de Orleans and Eulalia de Borbón, Infantes of Spain

« on: September 22, 2006, 09:18:36 AM »

Does anyone know anything about Antoine d'Orléans' lovers? I know he had one (I don't have her name in front) whom Alfonso XIII gave a noble title and caused some friction and rather sour letters from Eulalia to her nephew.

I know Eulalia was the lover of Count Jametel, first husband of Princess Marie of Mecklenburg (they divorced in 1908. That same year he killed his brother-in-law Borwin in a duel). I understand Jametel and Marie had children. When did Eulalia's affaire with jametel start? How did they meet? Was he ever received at court?

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Antonio de Orleans and Eulalia de Borbón, Infantes of Spain

« on: September 21, 2006, 09:32:12 AM »

Out of Isabel II's surviving daughters (Isabel, Paz and Eulalia), the two latter were closer, due to their age, upbringing and marital status, since Isabel was a young widow when Paz and Eulalia were still very young. Though Eulalia lived at the Spanish court for many years even after her marriage, she visited her sister Paz in Nymphenburg on a yearly basis; Eulalia took every chance she could to go to Berlin to visit her old friend, Kaiser Wilhelm, whom she met at QV's Jubilee in 1887. According to her Memoires, in the Potsdam palace there are several rooms nicknamed "the infanta Eulalia's rooms".

Infanta Isabel was brought up in a strict, conservative court in Madrid. She was nineteen when her mother was overthrown, while Eulalia was just four and hardly remembered Spain when she came back in 1876 with her mother and sisters (Pilar died unexpectedly in 1879). Paz was always on good terms with both her sisters, but there was constant friction between Isabel and Eulalia due to their different education and moral standards. Even so, when Isabel died in France in 1931, Eulalia was at her deathbed... Paz died in 1946 and Eulalia in 1958.

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Antonio de Orleans and Eulalia de Borbón, Infantes of Spain

« on: September 20, 2006, 11:25:28 AM »

I venture to think it'd be for the King of Portugal Carlos I and his son, Prince Luis Filipe, who were shot by a republican on February 1st. Eulalia was a very old, close friend of Don Carlos and her sister-in-law (and cousin) Isabel was Don Carlos' mother-in-law (he was married to Maria Amelia of Orleans). Of course I don't know for certain who she's mourning for but I thin k it's more than plausible. As far as I know they were her closest relatives that died in 1908.

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Most Beloved Queen: Mercedes, consort of Alfonso XII

« on: September 20, 2006, 11:12:21 AM »

a bio on whom? Mercedes or Eulalia? Eric-Lowe, you don't by any chance know how I can get in touch with Medrano, as there are a couple of facts I want to point out to him on a book he's written. If he is writing a bio on Eulalia I'd be the most eager person to collaborate with him. How can I contact him?

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Most Beloved Queen: Mercedes, consort of Alfonso XII

« on: September 19, 2006, 06:28:00 PM »

yes,by ana de sagrera,a friend of infanta eulalia's. the bio is quite good and quite long considering mercedes' short life. i'm now writing a bio on eulalia

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: The Spanish branch of the Orléans family

« on: September 18, 2006, 05:09:08 AM »

Perhaps this has been discussed, but I don't remember reading it and a friend from here who is an expert on royalty could not answer my question. Why didn't Alfonso and Beatrice ask for permission to marry? I have some idea they got permission from Alfonso XIII privately, but the Cortes were never informed. Why is that? I am surprised they went off to marry in Coburg and were outcasts for a time from the Spanish Court. I don't think they would have objected Beatrice becoming future Duchess of Galiera since she was of VERY royal birth (a granddaughter of a Tsar and of a Queen of England....). Can anyone forward proof (books, references, etc)?
CIMBRIO

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Most Beloved Queen: Mercedes, consort of Alfonso XII

« on: September 16, 2006, 11:50:54 AM »

In her biography there are many photos of her and her family (family portraits, childhood pics etc); it also includes a photo of Mercedes lying on a bed dressed in a habit (I think it's the habit of the Order of Saint Francis, but I could be wrong -maybe it was a Benedictine habit now I think of it). There's a similar photo of her sister-in-law, the Infanta Isabel lying also in a nun's habit in Paris, where she died fifty years later, in 1931.

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Antonio de Orleans and Eulalia de Borbón, Infantes of Spain

« on: August 30, 2006, 05:43:32 AM »

When Eulalia married her coursin Antonio shortly after her brother's death he wasn't Duke of Galliera; the title of Duke of Galliera was not a royal title. The Duchess of Galliera, born Mademoiselle Brignole, was a generous woman who lived in her Italian palace. Her only son and heir refused the title because the late Duke of Galliera was not his real father. The Duchess turned to Antoine of Montpensier, Eulalia's aunt and father-in-law, and gave him the title. When he died in 1890 his only son inherited it, and Eulalia became Duchess of Galliera, a title used in many books to refer to her.
On the infanta's trip to America in 1893, in Cuba she decided to wear a dress which, it turned out, wore the exact coloursof the revolutionaries. After meeting the first crowd, she was hastened to change her problematic dress. In Chicago many were disappointed that a Spanish princess should turn out to be blue-eyed and blonde. She went also to New York and Washington DC, where she met the president and his wife, whom she liked very much.
Despite the Infanta's liberal views on politics and ways of life, she deeply loved her sister in law, the regent, and respected her nephew the king, although with not such blindness as her eldest sister Isabel, with whom she always took on a bizarre, tense relationship. Even so, she regretted the latter's death in 1931; she was very close to her mother and her sister Paz, whom she visited often after her separation and "divorce".
Eulalia was VERY close to the last Kaiser and liked the last Tsar and his wife, though she disapproved of their splendour and how they treated the lower classes. Among others, throughout her life she met Leopold II of the Belgians, Carlos and Manuel II of Portugal, Wilhelm II of Germany, Nicholas II of Russia, Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Maria Feodorovna of Russia and Empress Eugenie of France.

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Antonio de Orleans and Eulalia de Borbón, Infantes of Spain

« on: August 30, 2006, 05:31:10 AM »

I'm writing a biography on this peculiar Infanta of Spain; her memoires were written in the early 30's and published in 1935, which is why she doens't mention anything that happened after that (Franco, the Civil War, the death of her second grandson, etc), which is a shame because the last 20 years of her life were also quite interesting.
She did not "write" per se the memoires, but she dictated them. Alberto Lamar retouched them some time after, which is why the style changes so often (sometimes it's silly, pompous, others it's blunt and thoughtful -the latter is Eulalia's work, the former Lamar's-). This is why, also, "she" often remembers her sister Pilar at some party or other when she'd been dead for a year (Lamar's mistake), or that her mother attended this or that wedding (when she really didn't, as corroborated by the letters of Eulalia's sister, Princess Paz of Bavaria). In my opinion, the impressions and details on personalities she met are very useful and true, but other matters are not to be trusted.

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Iberian Royal Families / Re: Carlos IV of Spain and his family

« on: June 16, 2006, 09:32:39 AM »

According to court gossip, Maria Luisa's two youngest were Manuel de Godoy's children. Indeed, many claimed there was an "indecent likeness" between the two royal children and their parents' favourite. Though this may have just been a rumour started by an interested party, you may like to know that Francisco de Paula (Carlos IV's youngest (official) son was not given back the title of Infante upon the restoration of the monarchy and according to the 1812 constitution. Many have thought this was due to Francisco's doubtful parentage, but recent publications indicate it was due to the ex-Infante's political views, which were at the time close to Napoleon's. Due to this privation, years later King Fernando VII gave his nephews (Francisco's sons) the titles of Duque de Cádiz and Duque de Sevilla. Fernando VII's daughter, Queen Isabel, continued this tradition of granting titles to her numerous cousins.
Going back to Maria Luisa, she didn't get along with her daughter-in-law, Fernando VII's first wife Maria Antonia of Naples, whom she acused of dressing inappropriately. When Maria Antonia died in 1806, Maria Luisa and Godoy were accused of having poisoned her. Fernando, who by then was still Prince of Asturias and disliked Godoy, cleared things when he wrote that people were unfairly accusing Manuel Godoy of being a murderer.

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French Royals / Re: Henri VI second Comte de Paris and his 11 children

« on: June 15, 2006, 05:28:00 PM »

  I'm amazed... please let us have more info José. And anyone, if you have photos, post them.  :-?