Unfortunately the Duke of Castro decided he felt betrayed and declared his eldest daughter his heiress. So we're back to square one.
Like the Savoy dispute i hope it will settle down in the next generation as one line has no sons and the other does. As both kingdoms have not been able to update their line of succession to gender-neutral the lines with sons automatically end up winning.
Just what exactly do such persons do, anyway? What are their precise responsibilities? The reason for my asking is that Prince Ranieri, Duke of Castro (1883-1973), one of two disputed claimants of the defunct throne of Two Sicilies, *handed over the responsibilities of dynastic headship* to his son, Prince Ferdinando, Duke of Castro (1926-2008), in 1966.
His nephew and rival claimant, Prince Alfonso, Duke of Calabria (1901-1964), of course, had no reason for so doing, since he didn't long survive his uncle Ferdinando Pio, Duke of Calabria (1869-1860), the last undisputed head of the royal house of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Instead, his own son Carlo, Duke of Calabria (1938-2015) inherited his claim upon his death. To the best of my knowledge, the dispute between the descendants of Alfonso and Ranieri has not yet been resolved, with neither faction surrendering its claim to headship. If only Prince Ruggieri, Duke of Noto (1901-1914) had lived ...
I find it interesting that Ferdinando Pio, the titular king of Two Sicilies for a quarter of a century, was born in Rome but for years made his home in his wife's native land of Bavaria. His brother-in-law Rupprecht (the older brother of his wife, Princess Maria Ludwiga) had become the head of the house of Wittelsbach upon the death in 1921 of his father Ludwig III, the last king.
As such, there were two quasi *royal courts* functioning in Bavaria between the death in 1934 of Ferdinando's father, Alfonso, Count of Caserta, and his own death in 1960 (Crown Prince Rupprecht, who was the same age as himself, had died in 1955 and been succeeded by his eldest surviving son, styled Duke Albrecht of Bavaria). But not to worry: they were separate royal houses; so dispute was not an issue.
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