It was tradition to summond the Cortes after the accesion of a new monarch to swear in the heir as Prince of Asturias. No exception with Carlos IV. His son, later Fernando VII, was also sworn in immediately after his father’s accession. It was also the case with Fernando VI. Not with Luis I, because he was not born when his father became King.
The nationality requirement, now renamed by you as absolute neccessity, or the place of birth, has been invoked by some authors, but it is simply “fake news”. It was simply impossible, as the Cortes concluded, because it would be against the Spanish law and the treaty of Utrecht, which gave the crown to the House of Savoy after Felipe V’s descendants.
No it was not required but it was considered an absolute necessity to succeed - which is why it was considered necessary for Prince Carlo de BDS to take Spanish nationality in 1901, at the time of his marriage. I did not suggest that the earlier Infanta's renounced when marrying Bavarian princes, but they took their husband's nationality. The law of 1713 was not about nationality, but about where a dynast was born and the proposal - never passed - was that Spanish dynasts must be born in Spain. The Jesuit supporters of Infante Luis Antonio claimed this was a legal requirement when arguing that Luis Antonio was the heir to Carlos III - it was in part because of this that having the future Carlos IV sworn as Prince of Asturias in front of the Cortes was considered a priority when the family arrived in Spain. It was also the reason that Luis Antonio was prevented twice from marrying foreign princesses and so in the end married morganatically.
Nationality was never a requirement to have succession rights and not for the sovereign or the heir, either. Although the Cortes discussed to introduce that point in the 1713 law of succession, it was never passed.
Infantas Amalia and Paz never renounced their rights to the Spanish throne, which required a law, never passed.
There was a desire to keep the Spanish succession in the house of Bourbon - which had supposedly been guaranteed by the introduction of semi-salic law in 1713. The decision in 1788 to revert to the historic mixed male preference succession, not published at the time (and therefore not part of the law), but kept in reserve in case of need as happened in 1830 (actually to keep Infante Don Carlos from the throne), meant that the throne was no longer guaranteed to a Capetian. Isabel II and her sister both married Capetian dynasts, although the British continued to argue that Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, was excluded by the 1712-13 renunciations attached to the Treaty of Utrecht. The eldest daughter of Isabel II, Infante Isabel, was married Prince Gaetano of the Two Sicilies, Count of Girgenti (who was not required to renounce, although a renunciation document was drawn up for him to sign if his wife became Queen). The elder daughter of Alfonso XII, Maria de las Mercedes, who would have been Queen if Alfonso (born posthumously) had been a girl, was married to Prince Carlo of the Two Sicilies, had a son and a daughter by the time her sister married Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria, who did not renounce his Bavarian succession rights until 1914, by which time his wife had died and his intention of remarrying (unequally) was certainly a factor in renouncing his Bavarian rights rather than his position in Spain. At the time it was not possible to hold dual nationality, so the children were born Spanish but their father's renunciation did not actually affect their notional Bavarian rights. The eldest and youngest never married, the second son, Jose Eugenio married unequally and so his issue lost any Bavarian rights and the older daughter married Prince Irakly Bagration. Nationality was not a constitutional requirement, as such, but it was a requirement for the sovereign, and therefore for the heir(ess) to the throne. So Prince Carlo renounced his former nationality in a solemn act when marrying Maria de las Mercedes as at that time a wife took her husband's nationality and there needed to be no doubt as to her nationality because of the precarious health of Alfonso XIII.
A recent discussion of renunciations and forfeitures of succession rights, upon settling into foreign territory, leads me to ask:
Was she born with succession rights, only to forfeit them after marrying (in 1856) Prince Adalbert of Bavaria (youngest son of King Ludwig I)? If so, then it goes without saying that her children would have been excluded from the Spanish royal succession.
A similar question applies to her niece, Infanta Maria de la Paz, who in 1883 married her first cousin, Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria (elder son of Adalbert and Amelia Filippina). I'm assuming that she likely forfeited her own Spanish succession rights upon marriage, which she presumably was born with (as a daughter of Queen Isabel II) ...
That being said, her own elder son, Prince Ferdinand of Bavaria, married her niece (Infanta Maria Teresa of Spain), younger daughter of King Alfonso XII. As I understand, he left Bavaria and settled in his wife's country, even being created into an Infante of Spain. So I'm assuming that their children had succession rights, just like their mother. Correct?
Of course, Infante Fernando eventually renounced his Bavarian royal titles and succession rights: so it goes without saying that his descendants are excluded from the Bavarian succession. But I believe his male line is on the verge of extinction, anyway ...
1
Message Thread
« Back to index