Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia


Infante Jaime of Spain, Duke of Segovia , was the second son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and his wife, Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. He was born in the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso in Province of Segovia, and was consequently granted the non-substantive title of "Duke of Segovia". Upon his father's death in 1941, Jaime inherited the Legitimist claim to the French throne and thereafter used the courtesy title "Duke of Anjou".

Early life

Infante Jaime was born 23 June 1908 at the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, the second son of King Alfonso XIII and his Hessian wife, Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, the youngest granddaughter of Queen Victoria. He was baptised six days later in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace by the Archbishop of Toledo. His godparents were his great-aunt Infanta Isabel, Countess of Girgenti and Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria.
He had three brothers, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, and Infante Gonzalo ; and two younger sisters, Infanta Beatriz and Infanta María Cristina. His elder brother, the Prince of Asturias, and his youngest brother, Gonzalo, both had the bleeding disorder hemophilia, the genetic condition that plagued many descendants of Queen Victoria.
Infante Jaime was born with an infection of the inner ear that progressively worsened, causing him to gradually lose his hearing. He was left completely deaf by age four after an operation for double mastoiditis. His desperate parents feared he would be both deaf and mute and sent him to experts across the continent. He apparently endured inflicted electric shock therapy in attempts to treat him. He was educated by two nuns who prohibited anyone from using sign language to communicate with him. Through lip reading, he managed to learn to speak in three languages.
Despite his deafness, he was a well-liked child who loved sports, especially gymnastics, visiting museums, and walking in the countryside.

Right of succession

The Spanish Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, abolishing the monarchy. The family went into exile in Fontainebleau. Jaime completed his education at the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris.
On 11 June 1933, his elder brother and heir to the defunct throne, Alfonso, renounced his title of Prince of Asturias in order to marry a Cuban commoner. Infante Jaime then held the title of Prince of Asturias, as successor to the throne of Spain, for only ten days before under pressure from his father, he was forced also to renounce his rights and the rights of his heirs, in favor of his younger, healthier brother Infante Juan. He was then granted the title "Duke of Segovia" by King Alfonso XIII.
However he retained his rights as claimant to the defunct French throne. After his father's death in 1941, he proclaimed himself the senior legitimate male heir of the House of Capet, heir to the French throne, and head of the House of Bourbon. He then took the title of "Duke of Anjou" and became, in the opinion of French legitimists, the de jure king of France as "Henri VI", though to a minority as "Jacques II". There were however a handful of legitimists who questioned his claim, given the rumors of his paternal grandfather's illegitimacy.
In 1921, he became the 1,153rd Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece and Knight with Collar of the Order of Charles III and Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic both in 1925. Later in 1941, following the death of his father and his ascendance to the title of King of France, Jaime adopted the Order of the Holy Spirit as his own by his right to the French Throne.

Marriage and issue

On 4 March 1935, in Rome, Jaime married Victoire Jeanne Emmanuelle (Emanuela) Joséphine Pierre Marie de Dampierre, daughter of Roger de Dampierre, 2nd Duke of San Lorenzo Nuovo, Vicomte de Dampierre and of Donna Vittoria Ruspoli, daughter of Emanuele Ruspoli, 1st Principe di Poggio Suasa, and his third wife, English American Josephine Mary Curtis. Don Jaime and Donna Emanuela had two sons, named after Jaime's brothers, Alfonso and Gonzalo:
Don Jaime and Emmanuelle de Dampierre divorced on 6 May 1947 in Bucharest and, on 3 August 1949 in Innsbruck, Don Jaime remarried civilly to divorced singer Charlotte Luise Auguste Tiedemann, daughter of Otto Eugen Tiedemann and wife Luise Amalia Klein. In the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church and of the French legitimists, Emmanuelle de Dampierre remained always his wife. The second marriage produced no children. His first wife remarried in Vienna, on 21 November 1949, to Antonio Sozzani, son of Cesare Sozzani and wife Cristina Alemani, without issue.

Renunciation

On 6 December 1949, Don Jaime retracted his renunciation of the restored throne of Spain. On 3 May 1964, he took the title "Duke of Madrid" as head of a Carlist branch of the Spanish succession. On 19 July 1969, Don Jaime definitively renounced the Spanish succession in favour of his nephew, the future King Juan Carlos I of Spain, at the request of his elder son, Alfonso de Borbón.
Don Jaime died in St. Gall Cantonal Hospital in Switzerland on 20 March 1975. He is buried at the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

Honours and arms

Honours