Funeral of Prince Carlos Hugo, arrival at Steccata
Funeral of Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon Parma. Video courtesy of RoyalblogNL.
Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon Parma, a branch of the Spanish House of Bourbon, died August 18th in Barcelona. Carlos Hugo was a Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne.
Carlism is a legitimist political movement in Spain which seeks to place the descendants of Infante Carlos, Count of Molina (1788 – 1855) on the Spanish throne. They only recognize the semi-Salic succession law that gave Infante Carlos precedence over King Ferdinand VII’s daughter, Isabella II.
Infante Carlos had been the heir until his brother Ferdinand created his unborn child the next in line to the throne. The baby would be the new heir, regardless of sex, and when it was revealed to be a girl, Carlos and various cadet Bourbon family branches declared her father’s claim invalid and illegal. This dispute over the laws of succession, coupled with disappointment in the loss of Spanish colonies in the Caribbean, fueled the movement.
Prince Carlos Hugo’s father publicly laid claim to the Spanish throne as Javier I in 1952. He was ignored by Spain’s leader at the time, dictator Francisco Franco, who later chose Infante Juan Carlos to be his successor and restore the monarchy. King Juan Carlos rules today, and his son, Crown Prince Felipe, is the next in line to the throne.
