Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz

17

Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz : biography

20 April 1936 – 30 January 1989

Marriage and children

Alfonso and Carmen had two sons:

  • Don Francisco de Asís Alfonso Jaime Cristóbal Víctor José Gonzalo Cecilio de Borbón y Martínez-Bordiú, Duc de Bourbon (Madrid, 22 November 1972 – Pamplona, 7 February 1984)
  • Don Luis Alfonso Gonzalo Víctor Manuel de Borbón y Martínez-Bordiú (born 1974).

On 7 February 1984 in Pamplona, Alfonso was driving home with his sons from a ski trip in the Pyrenees. His car collided with a truck. His eldest son Francisco de Asís was killed in the accident; his younger son Luis-Alfonso was in hospital for a month; Alfonso himself required six operations.Marc Dem, Le duc d’Anjou m’a dit: la vie de l’aîné des Bourbons (Paris: Perrin, 1989), 139. A Spanish court granted the boy’s mother temporary custody of the other son. But, six months later, the court ruled that the child could be returned to his father’s custody.

Notes

Ancestors

Death

Alfonso died in a skiing accident in Beaver Creek Resort, Eagle County, Colorado on 30 January 1989. He collided with a cable which was being raised to support a banner at the finish line of a course at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.

Lawsuit of the Count of Clermont against the Duke of Anjou

Coat of arms of the Duke Anjou and Cádiz (1936–1989) In 1987, Prince Henri of Orléans, Count of Clermont, eldest son of Henri, Count of Paris, the then Orléanist claimant to the defunct throne of France, initiated a court action against Alfonso for his use of the title Duke of Anjou and the coat-of-arms France Moderne (three fleur-de-lis or); Henri asked the court to fine Alfonso 50,000 French francs for each future violation. In 1988, Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro and Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma joined Henri’s lawsuit in reference to the use of the title Duke of Anjou, but not in respect to the coat-of-arms. On 21 December 1988, the Tribunal de grand instance of Paris ruled that the lawsuit was inadmissible because the title’s legal existence could not be proven; that neither the plaintiff (Henri) nor the intervenors (Fernando and Sixtus) had established their claims to the title; and that Henri was not injured from the use of the plain arms of France by the Spanish branch of the Bourbon family.François Velde, "".

In 1989 Prince Henri d’Orléans and Prince Sixtus Henry of Bourbon-Parma appealed the judgment in the lawsuit about the use of a title and arms by Alfonso; the original judgment in favour of Alfonso was upheld.