HIRH Princess Doña Esperanza de Borbón-Dos Sicilias y Orleáns
HIRH Princess Doña Esperanza de Borbón-Dos Sicilias y Orleáns, Born Princess of the Two Sicilies, Dame Grand Cross of the Constantinian Order, died at the palace of Villamanrique de la Condesa, in Seville, on 9 August 2005.
D. Esperanza was the daughter of HRH the Infante D. Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and his second wife Infanta D. Maria-Luisa, born Princess of Orléans, the youngest daughter of the Duke of Orléans and granddaughter of the Duke of Montpensier. She and her siblings were accorded the honours and treatment of Infantes of Spain at their birth, without the titles; she served as a nurse during the Spanish civil war. Her older brother Prince D. Carlos was killed in action in the Spanish Civil War, her sister Maria de las Mercedes married HRH D. Juan, Count of Barcelona and her sister Dolores married first Prince Czartoryski and secondly Dr Carlos Chias. Infante D. Carlos had first married Maria de las Mercedes, Princess of the Asturias, elder sister of Alfonso XIII and was the father of HRH the late Infante D. Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, father of the present head of the Royal House of the Two Sicilies, HRH the Infante D. Carlos, Duke of Calabria.
Princess Esperanza married in 1944 HIRH Prince D. Pedro-Gastão of Orléans-Bragança, senior representative of that house and was the mother of four sons, Princes Pedro-Carlos, Alfonso, Manuel and Francisco, and two daughters, Princesses Maria da Gloria (formerly Crown Princess of Yugoslavia and now Duchess of Segorbe) and Cristina (formerly Princess Jean Sapieha). She was grandmother of the future Crown Prince Petar of Serbia and Yugoslavia, and his two brothers.
HIRH was interred in the Chapel of the Sacristy of the Church of Santa Maria Magdalena in Villamanrique de la Condesa in the presence of her husband, Prince D. Pedro-Gastão, TM the King and Queen of Spain, TRH the Infante D. Carlos and the Duchess of Calabria, her two daughters and three of her sons. Her coffin was covered with the national flag, the privilege of Infantes of Spain.
HM The King of Spain saluting Princess Doña Esperanza on the occassion of the Marriage of his daughter, HRH Infanta Elena in 1995
TRH Duke and Duchess of Calabria and TM King and Queen of Spain attending the funeral
The coffin of D. Esperanza was covered with the national flag, the privilege of Infantes of Spain.
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