The children of Alfonso XIII of Spain

[Romanov_fan]

Beatriz looks blonde from her pictures..or at least not heavily brunette. What was the colour of her hair? I think she looked very Battenberg still, rather like Princess Beatrice, her grandmother?

[Eurohistory]

Beatriz looks blonde from her pictures..or at least not heavily brunette. What was the colour of her hair? I think she looked very Battenberg still, rather like Princess Beatrice, her grandmother?

In contrast to her younger sister, Infanta doña Beatriz inherited her father's darker looks, while Infanta doña María Cristina was more "Battenberg" looking.

Arturo Beéche

[Eric_Lowe]

She also look a bit like Jamie too...

[isabel]

Yes....., but Jaime was not so identical. Beatriz was in my opinion the most similar, as she became an old lady the similarity was bigger. My opinion

[Eric_Lowe]

I think she looked more like Dowager Maria Cristina in old age...especially when she smiles. 

[Romanov_fan]

Perhaps I haven't looked at pictures enough to tell who Infanta Beatriz resembled... it seems everyone but me thinks she looked more like the Spanish side of the family.

[Svetabel]

Infanta Beatriz was really the spitting image of her father

[Eric_Lowe]

I think you should also compare her to her Austrian grandmother. A splitting image there too ! 

[isabel]

I am agree with you Eric, she looks very much like Maria Cristina de Austria.

[Eric_Lowe]

Yes especially if you compare them both as old women. The resemblence was striking ! It works with Alfonso XIII too, since he resembled his mother a lot. 

[Romanov_fan]

Indeed, she did resemble her grandmother in features to quite an extent. But was not her colouring more Battenberg, like that of her mother?

[Romanov_fan]

Maybe we should discuss her personality now, because the looks thing has been pounded to death. Who was she more like in personality- her mother or her father or neither?

[isabel]

Beatriz was born the 22 june 1909, in family they call her Baby, she was very attached of her sister and her brother Juan.

I belive she had a happy childhood. About her youth i am not so sure.

 She and Crista were concious about the posiblity of be carriers of the tragic illnes of haemophilia, they also knew how their brothers suffered with it, specially Alfonso (Pimpe), the haemophilia of the little one ,Gonzalo (Kiki), was more soft. The second brother Jaime, was deaf and dumb, ( the illnes was installed in their family),  Beatriz was an expert in the language of signs of the deafs, she was a happy and fiendly young girl.

She was 17, when her grandmother gived a party to presented her in society. As an anecdote, in that party all the silver spoons disapeared, that´s why in the party of her sister Cristina, the spoons were metalic.

In 1931, the family had to exile to France, Beatriz would never forget the tragic moments they lived:

"Daddy told us that he was going to France, so we went to the window crying to see the car, a Düssenberg , with him and uncle Ali. In Palace we were all crying because the car was very well know in Madrid and we were affraid that they could kill him. During that naight , from Palace we heard "Death for the King", we all thought of the Russian Imperial Family, mother´s first cousins...."

In the exile she had a quite calm life, but quickly her parents had separated lifes, her father lived in Rome, her mother finally lived in Switzerland, this too had to be hard and sad for their children.

 In 1934 an other tragedy arrived. She was in Austria with her father and little brother Gonzalo. Beatriz was driving her car accompanied by Gonzalo, suddenly a cyclist invaded the road, she lost the control of the car and crashed in a fence. First they didn´t think that the hurt was serious, but Gonzalo had a strong haemorrage, and died one day later.

She married Alejandro Torlonia, Prince of Civitella-Cesi, it was a happy marriage,. They had four children, Sandra, Marco, Marina and Olimpia (it´s curious, but no one of her children had an spanish name). Also it´s curious that she didn´t visit Spain frecuently , even after the end of the Dictature of Franco and the retablishement of the monarchy...., perhaps she never forgot that dark night of 1931.

She always lived as a discret woman, a true lady.

[grandduchessella]

Thanks so much for all that information, Isabel.

I read an article once about the acknowleded child(ren) of Alfonso XIII. Was it Beatriz or Maria Christina who refused to meet with the one gentleman, her half-brother?

[Eurohistory]

Infanta doña Beatriz refused to have anything to do with don Leandro Ruiz Moragas, the alledged ilegitimatge son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain.

Arturo Beéche