HOUSE OF BOURBON.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 3, 3 December 1931, Page 10

HOUSE OF BOURBON.

SPANISH THRONE CLAIMANT,

SUDDEN DEATH IN PARIS,

The sudden death of Don Jaime of Bourbon Duke of Anjou and Madrid, the head of the Carlist branch of the Spanish Royal Family, took place in October nt the age of 61 at his Paris residence. Ten days previously Don Jaime and his cousin. King Alfonso, had come to an agreement for the two branches of the family that they represent to show a united front against anarchism and Communism in Spain. This agreement, however, did not in any way affect Don Jaime’s claim to the Spanish Throne, which he inherited from his greatgrandfather, Don Carlos, brother of Ferdinand VII. Tire latter, who had no son, in 1883 autocratically abrogated the Salic law—until then always in force in Spain—in order that his daughter, Isabella, might come to the throne after him. Don Carlos took up arms, and the feud that led to two civil wars began. Don Jaime rvas bom in 1870, and succeeded to the rights of his father in 1909. He had received military education in Austria, entered the Russian Army, and served as colonel of the Hussain of the Guard iu the RussoJapanese War. He was the senior of tho direct descendants of Louis XI.V. of France and Philip V. of Spain, and styled himself “supreme chief of the whole Royal House of Bourbon,” using the arms of the House of France. His chief residence was the castle of Frohsdorf, near Vienna, which ho inher,ted from the Comte Chambord. It is now revealed that the recent reconciliation with King Alfonso took place on the initiative of the latter. On September 23 ho called on Don Jaime and a long conversation took place. Two days later Don Jaime, King Alfonso with the Order of tho travelling to Fontainbleau, invested Saint-Esprit, of which the Carlist chief was by inheritance grand master. The claim to the throne now passes to his uncle, Don Alfonso of Bourbon, yotunger brother of the last Don Carlos. Don Alfonso, who lives in Vienna, is 82, and little known to supporters of the Carlist cause, who are still numerous in the Basque Provinces. It is thought in Carlist circles in Paris that Don Jaime’s death may have a certain influence in healing the breach between the late reigning branch of tho Spanish Bourbons and the legitimist branch.