Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma

Infobox_pretender
English name = Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma


birth_date = Birth date and age|1930|4|8
birthplace = Paris
death_date =
deathplace =
regnal =
title = Duke of Parma, King of Spain, King of Etruria
throne = Parma, Spain, Etruria
pretend from = 7 May 1977
year = 1859
king = Robert I
relationship = Grandson
house = Bourbon-Parma
father = Xavier, Duke of Parma
mother = Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset
spouse = Princess Irene of the Netherlands (1964-1981)
children =
predecessor = Xavier, Duke of Parma
successor =
footnotes =

Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma and Piacenza (born April 8, 1930 in Paris, France) is the current titular duke of Parma and the head of the House of Bourbon-Parma (a branch of the House of Bourbon). Carlos Hugo is also known as having been a Carlist pretender to the throne of Spain under the name Carlos Hugo I.

He was baptized "Hugues Marie Sixte Robert Louis Jean Georges Benoît Michel". On 28 June 1963 he was officially renamed "Charles Hugues", by judgement of the court of appeal of La Seine, France. He was a French citizen, and since 1980 a naturalized Spanish citizen.

His marriage to Princess Irene of the Netherlands in 1964 caused a constitutional crisis in The Netherlands.

Carlos Hugo is the son of Xavier, Duke of Parma and Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset. In 1977, his father died, and Carlos Hugo succeeded him as Duke of Parma.

Carlism

Carlism is a Spanish political movement seeking to place Carlos Hugo's branch of the House of Bourbon on the Spanish throne.

In 1952, Carlos Hugo's father publicly laid claim to the Spanish throne as Javier I, but he was ignored by Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who later chose Juan Carlos to be his successor instead. On May 5 1957 Javier proclaimed Carlos Hugo Prince of the Asturias and Duke of San Jaime. In February 1964 Carlos Hugo assumed the title Duke of Madrid.

After alienating many Carlists with his attempts to approach Franco (1965–1967), Carlos Hugo switched to a leftist Titoist socialist movement. His mother, Madeleine of Bourbon, and his brother, Sixto Enrique de Borbón, stood for traditional Carlism.

Carlos Hugo assumed Carlist leadership in August, 1975. During the Franco regime, the organization of Carlism has been known as the Traditionalist Communion. After Franco's death, also the Carlist movement was badly split, and unable to get wide public attention again. In May 1976, a year after Franco's death, two Carlist sympathizers were shot down by far-right terrorists, among whom Gladio operative Stefano Delle Chiaie and members of the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance ("Triple A"), with logistic support of Francoist elements inside Spanish Intelligence agencies and the Civil Guard [ [http://www.elmundo.es/2001/05/06/espana/991175.html "Montejurra-76: crimen de Estado sin castigo"] , "El Mundo", 6 May 2001] [CARCEDO, Diego: "Sáenz de Santamaría: el general que cambio de bando", ISBN 8484603091] . This incident became known as the Montejurra massacre. [ [http://www.montejurra-jurramendi.3a2.com/ Crimes of Montejurra (translation)] ]

In the first democratic elections on 15 June, 1977, only one Carlist senator was elected, journalist and writer Fidel Carazo from Soria, who ran as an independent candidate. In the parliamentary elections of 1979, Carlists integrated in the coalition "Unión Nacional", that won a seat in Congress for Madrid; but the elected candidate was Blas Piñar, Francoist leader of "Fuerza Nueva". Since then, Carlists have remained extra-parliamentary, obtaining only town council seats.

Carlos Hugo abandoned his Carlist claims in 1979 and became a naturalised Spanish citizen as Carlos-Hugo de Borbón-Parma y Borbón, by royal decree of King Juan Carlos. In 1980, he left the political arena, abandoning the new "Partido Carlista" which he had created. The party would later become a founding member of the United Left coalition.

In 2002 Carlos Hugo donated his House's archives to Spain's national historical archives. This decision was opposed by his brother Sixtus.

On 28 September, 2003 at Arbonne in France, Carlos Hugo re-asserted his Carlist claim. [ [http://www.borbonparma.org/docs/sar.html Palabras de S.A.R. el Príncipe Don Carlos Hugo de Borbón Parma en al acto de imposición de cruces de la Orden de la Legitimad Proscrita, celebrado el domingo día 28 de septiembre de 2003 en Arbonne (Francia)] ] He announced that he would use the title Count of Montemolin (conde de Montemolín) for himself, and that three of his children would have Carlist titles: Duke of Madrid (duque de Madrid) for his son Carlos, Duke of San Jaime (duque de San Jaime) for his son Jaime, and Duchess of Gernika (duquesa de Gernika) for his daughter Carolina.

Marriage to Irene

Carlos Hugo's engagement to Princess Irene of the Netherlands, daughter of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, caused a constitutional crisis in the Netherlands for several reasons. Irene lost her rights of succession to the Dutch throne because the government refused to enact a law permitting the marriage, and her mother could not go to Rome to talk Irene out of the marriage and of her conversion to Catholicism because the government advised her against it. The issue that prevented the government from making a law permitting the marriage was Carlos's claim of the Spanish throne. The Dutch government saw international political difficulties arising from a possible heir to the Dutch throne holding a controversial claim to the throne of a foreign state. Also, the Dutch Constitution does not allow the monarch to carry a foreign crown.

Carlos Hugo and Irene were married on April 29, 1964, in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore by Cardinal Paolo Giobbe, the former Apostolic Nuncio to the Netherlands. ["Carlist Colours Flaunted at Princess's Marriage", "The Times" (April 30, 1964): 14.] No members of the Dutch Royal Family were present; Irene's parents watched the ceremony on television. ["Queen Juliana Sees It on Television", "The Times" (April 30, 1964): 14.] After the ceremony, Carlos Hugo and Irene had a private audience with Pope Paul VI. They spent their honeymoon in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, after which they settled in Madrid. [Josep Carles Clement, "Carlos Hugo de Brobon Parma: Historia de una disidencia" (Barcelona: Planeta, 2001), 121.]

Carlos Hugo and Irene divorced in 1981.

Family

Carlos Hugo and Princess Irene had four children:
*Prince Carlos Javier Bernardo Sixto María of Bourbon Parma, Prince of Piacenza, Duke of Madrid, born January 27, 1970 in Nijmegen. He has a natural son, Carlos Hugo Roderik Sybren Klynstra, born on 20 January, 1997 by Brigitte (Gitte) Klynstra. Carlos Klynstra is the first great-grand son of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and her husband Prince Bernhard, Prince of the Netherlands, Prince of Lippe-Biesterfeld.
*Princess Margarita María Beatriz of Bourbon Parma, Countess of Colorno, born October 13, 1972 in Nijmegen.
*Prince Jaime Bernardo of Bourbon Parma, Duke of San Jaime, Count of Bardi, born October 13, 1972 in Nijmegen.
*Princess María Carolina Cristina of Bourbon Parma, Duchess of Guernica, Marchioness of Sala, born June 23, 1974 in Nijmegen.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.carlismo.es Comunión Tradicionalista]
* [http://www.borbonparma.org/ Official website of the House of Bourbon-Parma]