Of course, when it came to the dynastic status of the marriage, it would have been subject to the approval of HIS father, Alfonso -- who had claimed headship of the royal house of Bourbon- Two Sicilies upon the death in 1960 of his uncle (Prince Ferdinando Pio, Duke of Calabria), rejecting the Act of Cannes in 1900 (according to which his own father, also named Carlo, had renounced the succession rights of himself and his descendants through his first wife, Infanta Maria de las Mercedes of Spain).
Now to be sure, Prince Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, Infante of Spain (born in 1901) had died in the preceding year (1964). But his son had already met and fallen in love with his future wife by then. Did Carlo request his father's consent, before his death? What did Alfonso think of the union, in light of the fact that his prospective daughter-in-law's father did not regard himself as the rightful Sicilian claimant? Evidently the Count of Paris (whose maternal aunt was Alfonso's stepmother, born Princess Louise of Orléans) based his own royal claim on a renunciation of succession rights (Philippe, the Duke of Anjou who in 1713 renounced for himself and his descendants all claims to the throne of France, in order to assume the throne of Spain) -- notwithstanding the fact that the circumstances of the two renunciations (Anjou and Cannes) were vastly different.
Parental opposition aside (it seems that only the fathers had issues with the marriage -- if not to the couple themselves, then to each other; I'm not sure what the mothers thought), Carlo and Anne were able to successfully wed. So it seems that love won out, and the story had a happy ending, unlike Romeo and Juliet ...
Message Thread
« Back to index