Infante Alfonso Carlos, Duke of San Jaime - Claimant To Spanish and French Thrones

Claimant To Spanish and French Thrones

On October 2, 1931, at the age of 82 Alfonso Carlos succeeded his nephew Jaime, Duke of Madrid as Carlist claimant to the throne of Spain and legitimist claimant to the throne of France. He issued several manifestos to his Spanish followers including one in August 1932 and another in June 1934. He affirmed that he would be "succeeded by whoever follows me according to the Salic law and accepts our fundamental proposition of fueros-regional rights". Since many Carlists believed that Alfonso Carlos' heir presumptive according to the Salic law, the deposed King Alfonso XIII of Spain, did not hold to traditional principles, Alfonso Carlos designated his wife's nephew Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma as Regent of the Carlist movement.

When the Spanish Civil War broke out, Alfonso Carlos instructed his Carlist followers to cooperate with the Nationalists under the command of General Francisco Franco.

On September 28, 1936, Alfonso Carlos was hit by a military truck as he crossed a street in Vienna. He died the next day. His body was buried in the chapel of his castle at Puchheim.

The obituary for Alfonso Carlos in The Times described him as "a great gentleman ... ; the very picture of distinction in his looks, there was in him a rare combination of uprightness, simplicity, and kindliness; and through it all there ran a vein of deep, unostentatious religious feeling."

Alfonso Carlos was the last male male-line descendant of Infante Carlos, Count of Molina. With his death the position of senior male descendant of King Charles IV of Spain passed to the deposed King Alfonso XIII of Spain.