Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro
| His Royal Highness | |
| Prince Carlo | |
|---|---|
| The Duke of Castro | |
| |
| Prince Carlo at the Pallavicini Palace, 2016 | |
| Tenure | 20 March 2008 – present |
| Predecessor | Prince Ferdinand |
| Heir apparent | Princess Maria Carolina |
| Born | 24 February 1963 Saint-Raphaël, Var, France |
| Spouse | Camilla Crociani (m. 1998) |
| Issue |
|
| Full name | |
| Carlo Maria Bernardo Gennaro di Borbone-Due Sicilie | |
| House | Bourbon-Two Sicilies |
| Father | Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro |
| Mother | Chantal de Chevron-Villette |
Prince Carlo Maria Bernardo Gennaro of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duke of Castro (born 24 February 1963) is one of the two claimants to the headship of the former House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.
Early life[edit]
Prince Carlo was born at Saint-Raphaël, Var, France, as the only son of Ferdinand, Duke of Castro, and his wife, Chantal de Chevron-Villette.
Marriage and issue[edit]
On 31 October 1998, Prince Carlo married Camilla Crociani, daughter of Italian billionaire Camillo Crociani and his second wife, Italian actress Edy Vessel. Together Carlo and Camilla have two children:
- Princess Maria Carolina, Duchess of Calabria, Duchess of Palermo (born 2003)[1]
- Princess Maria Chiara, Duchess of Noto, Duchess of Capri (born 2005)[2]
Claimed headship of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies[edit]
In 2008, Carlo succeeded to his father's claim as head of the House of the Two Sicilies and use of the title Duke of Castro. This claim is disputed by the Spanish branch of the House of the Two Sicilies. As claimant to the headship of the house, he thus also claims to be sovereign of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George as well as the Royal Order of Francis I.
The dispute between the Castroan and Spanish branches of the family began after the death of the last uncontested head of the house, Ferdinand Pius, in 1960. By male primogeniture, the immediate male heir of Ferdinand Pius was his nephew Infante Alfonso, the son of Pius's eldest younger brother Carlos. Carlos married María de las Mercedes, Princess of Asturias, the heir presumptive of Spain, in 1901. As a result of the marriage, his family forced Carlos to renounce his "eventual succession to the crown" of the Two Sicilies, in line with the centuries-old agreement that the crowns of Spain and Two Sicilies were not to unify. Although this renunciation was interpreted by some as removing Carlos and his descendants from the line of succession of the Two Sicilies, supporters of Alfonso argued that the renunciation would only have applied if Carlos's wife or an eventual son had actually become the sovereign of Spain, which did not happen and would have most likely not happened at the time of the signing regardless. Nevertheless, Ferdinand Pius's and Carlos's younger brother, Ranieri, began to regard himself as Pius's heir. Upon Pius's death, both Ranieri and Alfonso claimed to be the legitimate heads of the family.[3]
Alfonso's line of the family (today represented by Carlo's rival claimant, Pedro) has been officially recognized as the legitimate line by the Government of Spain,[4][5] the Spanish royal house,[6] the Parmesan royal house and the Portuguese royal house, whereas Ranieri's line was recognized by a wider share of European dynasts of former monarchies (no current monarch except the king of Spain has officially stated its view on the matter), namely the Count of Paris, Umberto of Italy, Gottfried of Austria-Tuscany, the Duke of Bavaria, the Duke of Württemberg, the Duke of Aosta, the Duke of Genoa, the Duke of Hohenberg, Prince Luiz of Orléans-Braganza and Prince Michael of Greece.[7] It has been argued by some that the Counts of Paris supported the Castro line simply because their own pretence to the French throne depends entirely on the same principle of renunciation as the Act of Cannes, and so it would be against their own interest to support the Castros. The Parises, however, sidelined a branch that renounced the claim on actually ascending a foreign throne and that reigns that throne until today (Bourbons of Spain). Interestingly, most of the other outspoken supporters of the Castro line were either sons-in-law of the Count of Paris or closely related to him. Up until recently, the Italian government only legally recognized Ranieri's line, but from the 1980s onwards, awards and distinctions granted by either line's representatives have been regarded as of equal legality, after careful consideration of the official documents published in 1984 by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Council of State, the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation and the Royal Academy of Heraldry and Genealogy.[8] There has nonetheless been great controversy as to the Italian government's early stance, as several public officials had been accepted into the Constantinian Order by Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro. When the senate agreed to revise its attitude to the dispute, it considered the Calabrian line to be the legitimate, but its verdict was eventually softened to simply recognising both branches.[8]
Ancestry[edit]
| 8. Prince Alfonso, Count of Caserta | |||||||||||||||
| 4. Prince Ranieri, Duke of Castro | |||||||||||||||
| 9. Princess Maria Antonietta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies | |||||||||||||||
| 2. Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro | |||||||||||||||
| 10. Count Andrzej Przemysław Zamoyski | |||||||||||||||
| 5. Countess Maria Carolina Zamoyska | |||||||||||||||
| 11. Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies | |||||||||||||||
| 1. Prince Carlo, Duke of Castro | |||||||||||||||
| 12. Charles Albert de Chevron-Villette | |||||||||||||||
| 6. Pierre Joseph, Count of Chevron-Villette | |||||||||||||||
| 13. Louise Fromentin de Saint Charles | |||||||||||||||
| 3. Chantal de Chevron-Villette | |||||||||||||||
| 14. Alphonse, Marquis of Colbert-Cannet | |||||||||||||||
| 7. Marie de Colbert-Cannet | |||||||||||||||
| 15. Anne Marie Brossier de La Roullière | |||||||||||||||
References[edit]
- ↑ "HRH Princess Maria Carolina, Duchess of Calabria and Palermo – Real Casa di Borbone delle Due Sicilie".
- ↑ "H.R.H. Princess Maria Chiara, Duchess of Noto and Capri – Real Casa di Borbone delle Due Sicilie".
- ↑ Sainty, Guy Stair (2018). The Constantinian Order of Saint George: and the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon families which governed it. Boletín Oficial del Estado. ISBN 978-8434025066. pp. 288, 347–350
- ↑ Published in English in Sainty, Op. cit. 1989, pp. 134–191.
- ↑ The Succession to the Headship of the Two Sicilies Royal House Archived 11 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Opfell, Olga S. (2001). Royalty Who Wait: The 21 Heads of Formerly Regnant Houses of Europe. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0786409013. pp. 37–38.
- ↑ Sainty, Guy Stair (2018). The Constantinian Order of Saint George: and the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon families which governed it. Boletín Oficial del Estado. ISBN 978-8434025066. pp. 359–360
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Sainty, Guy Stair (2018). The Constantinian Order of Saint George: and the Angeli, Farnese and Bourbon families which governed it. Boletín Oficial del Estado. ISBN 978-8434025066. p. 392
External links[edit]
- Official Website of the Royal House of Bourbon Two Siciilies
- Official Website of the Grand Magistry of the Constantinian Order
- Official Website of the British and Irish Delegation of the Constantinian Order
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