Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera and Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

[An Ard Ri]

July 15, 1909-Marriage of Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón and Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg.

Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria,she married Infante Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón,Duke of Galliera who was a grandson of Isabella II of Spain.The marriage was controversial as Alfonso was Roman Catholic and Beatrice was Lutheran.In August 1913,Beatrice converted to Catholicism.

Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera - Wikipedia

 

[An Ard Ri]

Death of Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera-6th of August 1975

Death of Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera -6th of August 1975

Alfonso was the eldest son of Infanta Eulalia of Spain and also a a grandson of Queen Isabella II of Spain.He married Princess Beatrice of Edinburgh in 1909,he died only months before his cousin Juan Carlos became King of Spain.

Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[An Ard Ri]

Infante Alvaro, Duke of Galliera-Death of,August 22nd 1997

Infante Alvaro, Duke of Galliera-Death of,August 22nd 1997

Infante Alvaro, Duke of Galliera was the eldest son of Infante Alfonso of Spain and Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha .He became the 6th Duke of Galliera upon his fathers death in 1975,he married Carla Parodi Delfino on the 10th of July 1937.


Infante Alvaro, Duke of Galliera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Blog Real]

Photo by Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón, Duke of Galliera.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Alfonso_de_Orleans,_de_Franzen.jpg

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Princess Beatrice with her husband, Infante Alfonso on July 15, 1959
http://i.pinimg.com/originals/be/fc/5a/befc5a3551d6bdc7ceccca085a109beb.png

 

[An Ard Ri]

As a grandson of Queen Isabella II of Spain wouldn't the Duke of Galliera have been in the line of succession?

I'm not sure if he renounced his rights upon marriage.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

I could find no information that Infante Alfonso renounced his rights of succession when he married Princess Beatrice. In 1913 Beatrice was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Were there not numerous heirs between Infante Alfonso and his cousin King Alfonso XIII?

 

[An Ard Ri]

The couple lived in exile until 1913 as Beatrice had not converted to Catholicism and was stripped of some of his titles/honours but were later restored.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Plenty of childhood and adult photos of Princess Beatrice

 

[An Ard Ri]

The duke and duchess used the Palace of Orleans and Borbón in Sanlúcar de Barrameda as a summer residence .
This residence was sold of in 1971 and is now part of the Historic-Artistic Complex of Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...003.jpg/640px-Palacio_montpensier_2018003.jpg

 

[Blog Real]

Infante Alfonso and Princess Beatrice had three children:

• Infante Alvaro, Duke of Galliera (20 April 1910 – 22 August 1997) m. Carla Parodi-Delfino
• Alfonso de Orleans (28 May 1912 – 18 November 1936). Killed in action during the Spanish Civil War.
• Ataúlfo de Orleans (20 October 1913 – 8 October 1974)

Their son Ataulfo died, unmarried, in 1974. Their only grandchildren are the children of Prince Alvaro.
Source:

Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Tatiana Maria]

It was Infante Alfonso's second son and namesake Alfonso, rather than his eldest son Alvaro, who was registered as an Infante at birth. But that seems to have been an error, as subsequent official documents referred to the three brothers as HRH Prince without the title of Infante.

Infantes de España

 

[Marengo]

I suppose the first son was born whent he couple was still was deprived of their Spanish titles, while a few years later , when the second son was born, these titles were restaured?

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Infante Alfonso with Prince Juan Carlos and his wife

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/474215035760700624/

 

[Blog Real]

Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha on her wedding day July 15, 1909.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQt6tf0bjUaC7JmYOyAtwrxENGZSPVdjAfxe4roPPbB1-yuQVnDjOYb368l8kvCsQZh7zhimOsClWRkYRQ4oa6u1E_Z2XdvhlVBGeLjvPMUoPtgGSwO8quXOMTnr1Smne5I6yRXq6FjFDpaf58z3HUK7sRgcb444YrCIAI9L6TqCPkp1tQHCF-_xHyK97S/s1153/170773455_1475377368.jpg

 

[Tatiana Maria]

I suppose the first son was born whent he couple was still was deprived of their Spanish titles, while a few years later , when the second son was born, these titles were restaured?

Yes, that's right. Infante Alfonso was deprived of all his honors from the Spanish crown in 1909, his eldest son was born in Germany in 1910, and Alfonso was restored to his rank in 1912.

https://boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1909/198/A00126-00126.pdf

https://boe.es/datos/pdfs/BOE//1912/075/A00762-00762.pdf

 

[Prinsara]

So what made her decide to convert?

 

[An Ard Ri]

An article to mark the anniversary of the death of Beatrice, Infanta of Spain and Duchess of Galliera in 1966.
Princess Beatrice, Duchess of Galliera

 

[Tatiana Maria]

Though Infante Alfonso was indeed the Italian Duke of Galliera, he never used that non-royal Italian title (nor did his wife Infanta Beatriz). In Spain, a holder of a royal title is known by that royal title, not by any non-royal noble title (whether Spanish or foreign) they may also hold.

One might compare it to how Prince Joachim to Denmark never uses his non-royal noble title "Count of Monpezat".

For example, note how Alfonso and Beatriz were styled in the Royal Decree creating their children Royal Highnesses with the rank (but not the title) of Infantes of Spain:

"Queriendo dar una prueba de Mi real afecto á Mis amados Primos los Infantes Don Alfonso María de Orleáns y Borbón y Doña Beatriz de Sajonia Coburgo Gotha y con motivo del próximo alumbramiento de ésta, vengo a disponer que el hijo ó hija que nazca, á los demás que nacieren en lo sucesivo como al ya habido de este matrimonio, se dará tratamiento de Alteza Real y se tributarán y guardarán iguales honores, preeminencias y distinciones que á los Infantes de España."

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boe.es

 

[Tatiana Maria]

From 1772 to 2015, the UK’s Royal Marriages Act meant that certain descendants of British kings needed the British sovereign’s official consent to marry. Without his permission, their marriages would not be legally recognized in the United Kingdom.

In the 1890s, the British palace lawyers concluded that this law applied to Victoria Eugenie’s cousins Princess Louise of Schleswig-Holstein and Prince Adolphus of Teck, and so they obtained the monarch’s permission to marry.

As with Louise and Adolphus, Victoria Eugénie too was a member of the British royal family whose mother was a British princess and whose father was a German prince who moved to Britain and became a naturalized British subject to marry a British princess.

With Victoria Eugénie’s marriage, Edward VII could have given his formal consent and explained to the anti-Catholic critics that this was about ensuring the marriage would be legal in Britain, not an endorsement of the groom’s church. Or he could have withheld his consent and accepted that Victoria Eugénie and Alfonso XIII’s children would be illegitimate for British law (and why not; what difference would it make to their Spanish children?).

Instead, Edward VII had the British palace lawyers draw up a new doctrine: The gap of a few days between Victoria Eugenie’s father’s marriage to a British princess and his naturalization as a British subject supposedly meant that she was exempt from the Royal Marriages Act and did not need his permission (even though, according to this doctrine, Adolphus should not have needed permission, either).

So Edward VII and Victoria Eugénie managed to have their cake and eat it too, when it came to this marriage.

HO 45/25238

The term you are looking for is “loophole abuse”.

And Edward was very canny about PR even in the relative infancy of such a thing, and usually happy to try and appeal to emotions rather than doctrine or precedent. And quite used to doing things on the sly.

So I can see why he tried to make his niece’s marriage less controversial even while nearly-wholeheartedly approving of and validating it. (I don’t think declaring a king’s marriage invalid in any country would be wise, practical differences or not. It would have been absolutely scandalous for Victoria Eugenie to be declared unmarried in her native country in 1906.)

It’s interesting though that Edward VII did exactly that, only three years later, when his niece Princess Beatrice of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha married Infante Alfonso María of Spain.

HO 45/25238

So why was he and/or the British politicians willing to bastardize Beatrice’s future children as far as UK law was concerned, but not Victoria Eugénie’s, even though both were the king’s nieces and both married into the Spanish royal family just three years apart?

After the fall of the Spanish monarchy in 1931, the now Infanta Beatriz and Infante Alfonso lived in exile in Britain for some years. I wonder if the fact that their marriage was not legally recognized in the UK ever affected their life there.