THE CARLIST MANTLE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 90, 13 October 1931, Page 9

THE CARLIST MANTLE

BOURBON CLAIM TO SPAIN

SUCCESSOR TO DON JAIME

ROME, 11th. October. With all solemnity Don Alfonso Carlos, of Bourbon, now aged 82, was proclaimed King of Spain, at the tomlj of Don Jaime, in the family vault, at Torre Del Lago. Within a week of Ms reconciliation" with ex-King Alfonso, Don Jaime, of Bourbon, the Spanish Pretender, died suddenly of heart failure on 3rd October at the age of 61. The body lay iv staje, according to the custom, of the Bourbons, dressed in the robes of a Franciscan monk, and wearing all Ms decorations, and was buried a few days later. Jaimist circles in Madrid thereupon decided to support another pretender in the- person of Don Alfonso of Anjou. Don Jaime might have been King of Spain in place of ex-King Alfonso had his father been more active in taking the opportunities which placed themselves before him. Jaime's father was Don Carlos (Charles Maria de los Dolores), who was born in 1848, and died in 1909, and was a grandson of the first pretender to the throne of Spain. The Carlist claims to the throne were legitimate enough, for the first Carlos (Carlos Maria Isidro, 1788-1855) was a younger brother of King Ferdinand VII., who sought to alter the law of succession to secure the throne to his daughter Isabella. Carlos might have had the Crown then and there, but he refused to lead a rebellion because he considered this a sin. When Ferdinand died Carlos was shut off from Spain by civil war in Portugal, and could not lead the Spaniards who rose on his behalf, and after the war he escaped to England and reached the Pyrenees, where he joined his supporters, but came too late. His party was defeated, and he was deprived of his rights by Royal decree. Don Carlos VII., father of Don. Jaime, had richer opportunities still, for at one time the Carlists overran Spain to such an extent that they held tho interior of Navare, a great part of Catalonia, Lower Aragon, and Valencia, and the three Basquo provinces. Twice Carlos lost chances to rush the capital and assert his claims, and twice later he missed chances almost as good through lack of decision. At the death, of Alfonso XII. he might have unfurled his flag, as he was invited to do, and again after the defeat of Spain by the United States many of his countrymen looked to him for leadership, which he did not give. It will be seen that Jaime would b8 no friend of Alfonso XIII. until the King was driven into exile. Jaime's sudden death led to the Carlist mantle descending upon Don Alfonso Carlos, his uncle, who is S2, who will now receive the support of the clerical movement within Spain for restoratior of the throne to his branch of tl> family. Don Alfonso has no family.