Saturday, May 5, 2012

Emmanuelle de Dampierre, Duchess of Segovia (1913-2012)

Emmanuelle de Dampierre, Duchess of Segovia, died Thursday in Rome (the city in which she had been born on November 8, 1913) at the age of 98.  Married in 1935 (divorced 1947) to Infante Jaime (1908-1975), second son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, she sadly outlived both of their children, Don Alfonso (1936-1989) and Don Gonzalo (1937-2000) de Bourbon, as well as Alfonso's elder son Francisco (1972-1984).  Prior to the births of her great-grandchildren in 2007 and 2010, her sole surviving descendant was her grandson Luis Alfonso, Duke of Anjou (b 1974), who is regarded by those French royalists ("Legitimists") who do not accept the validity of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht (according to which Felipe V of Spain renounced for himself and his descendants any claim to the French throne) as the de jure King Louis XX of France since the death of his father in a skiing accident in Colorado in 1989.  Now after a long life she has joined her sons and grandson.  Requiescat in pace.

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