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| Blanca of Bourbon | |
|---|---|
| Archduchess Leopold Salvator of Austria | |
 | |
| Born | (1868-09-07)7 September 1868 Graz,Styria,Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 25 October 1949(1949-10-25) (aged 81) Viareggio,Tuscany, Italy |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | Archduchess Dolores Archduchess Immaculata Archduchess Margaretha Archduke Rainer Archduke Leopold Archduchess Maria Antonia Archduke Anton Archduchess Assunta Archduke Franz Josef Archduke Karl Pius |
| House | House of Bourbon |
| Father | Prince Charles of Bourbon |
| Mother | Princess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma |
Princess Blanca of Bourbon (7 September 1868 – 25 October 1949) was aSpanish[1] andFrench[2] princess by birth and anarchduchess by marriage toArchduke Leopold Salvator.
Blanca was the eldest child ofPrince Charles of Bourbon (Don Carlos),Carlist claimant to thethrone of Spain andlegitimist claimant of the throne of France, andPrincess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma. Blanca was a member of theHouse of Bourbon and - according to the Carlists and to the Legitimists- anInfanta of Spain and a Daughter of France by birth. In 1889, she marriedArchduke Leopold Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany, with whom she had ten children. The family left Austria after the end of the monarchy and finally settled inBarcelona. When the male line of Blanca's family died out at the death of her uncle,Alfonso Carlos, Duke of Anjou and San Jaime, some of the Carlists recognized her as the legitimate heiress to the Spanish throne.
Blanca was born inGraz,Styria,Austria-Hungary, the eldest child ofPrince Charles of Bourbon (Don Carlos), theCarlist claimant to the throne ofSpain under the nameCarlos VII and Legitimist claimant to the throne of France under the name ofCharles XI, and of his wifePrincess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma. At the time of her birth, her parents were living inStyria in order to be close to her maternal great-grandmother, the Duchess of Berry. Her father left the same day forParis where he learnt of the revolution that deposed QueenIsabella II of Spain. Don Carlos was joined in Paris by his wife and daughter and from there they moved toSwitzerland.
Blanca's childhood was marked bythe third Carlist War (1872–1876) in which her father tried, unsuccessfully, to gain the throne of Spain by force. To be near the Spanish border Margherita moved with her children toPau. For a time in 1875, Blanca lived inElizondo, Navarre at the court established by her father. After the war ended badly, crushing Don Carlos' hopes of taking the throne of Spain, the family lived mostly in the Parisian district ofPassy. In 1881 they were expelled from France due to Carlos's political activities. By then Blanca's parents had drifted apart. Her father went to live in his palace inVenice, while her mother retired to Tenuata Reale, an estate inViareggio,Italy inherited in 1879 from Blanca's great-grandmother, Duchess Maria Teresa of Parma. Blanca and her siblings divided their time between their parents. In 1881 Blanca and her sisters entered theSacre Coeur, a Catholic school run by nuns inFlorence. Blanca played themandolin and was very fond of horses. In 1883, upon finishing her schooling, she visited Spain incognito with her parents' permission. At her return she was officially introduced to the court inVienna.
At the court of theHabsburgs, Blanca, the eldest and the best looking of four sisters, attracted the attention ofArchduke Leopold Salvator of Austria, second child and eldest son ofArchduke Karl Salvator of Austria and his wifePrincess Maria Immaculata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. They were married on 24 October 1889 atSchloss Frohsdorf inLanzenkirchen,Lower Austria,Austria. The newlyweds settled inLemberg,Galicia, then inAgram,Croatia and finally in Vienna, following Archduke Leopold Salvator's military appointments.
Blanca and Leopold Salvator's main residence was thePalais Toskana inVienna. They also ownedSchloss Wilhelminenberg and a rural estate near Viareggio, which Archduchess Blanca inherited from her mother. The marriage was happy and produced ten children:
UntilWorld War I, Blanca and her large family had a pleasant uncomplicated existence moving according to the seasons among their various residences. During World War I her husband took on the provision of food for the Austrian Army in the front and was inspector general of Artillery until 1918. Blanca's two eldest sons also joined the Austrian army fighting in the Italian front, while her daughters Immaculata and Margaretha worked for the Austrian red cross. After the war and proclamation of the Republic, the properties of the imperial family were confiscated by the new Austrian government. Wilheminenberg was converted into a military hospital and then sold to a Swiss banker. With the loss of their wealth, they had to live in exile with meager means. The family could live neither inFrance nor inItaly, countries that had been Austria's enemies during the war.
Blanca was forced to ask her cousinAlfonso XIII, who belonged to the rival branch of the Spanish Bourbons, for permission to live inBarcelona. Alfonso XIII allowed them to come to Spain on the condition that they did not support the claims to the Spanish throne of Blanca's brotherInfante Jaime, Duke of Madrid. In 1922 Blanca was recognized as a Spaniard. The exiled family had to live modestly in a house in Barcelona. The fall of Alfonso XIII and the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in April 1931 did not directly affect their circumstances. However, five months later, Blanca's husband died during a trip to Austria while trying to recover some of their lost properties. Blanca was left under strained economical means, living from vineyards at La Tenuata Reale at Viareggio and from a small rent provided by theCarlist party ofCatalonia. Three of her children were still living with her: Dolores, Margaretha and Karl. The convulsed political situation in Spain made them return to Austria.
The family was able to rent three rooms at their former residence in Vienna, thePalais Toskana. In March 1938 Hitler annexed Austria and Blanca with her children Dolores and Karl moved toher property in Viareggio.
In early 1935 a minoritarian branch ofCarlism, the so-called “Cruzadistas” later to be namedCarloctavistas, staged a grand meeting inZaragoza; the gathering adopted a declaration that Doña Blanca was in position to transmit legitimate monarchical hereditary rights from her father, the Carlist king Carlos VII, to her sons.[3] During the following 14 years her position on the issue kept changing and her stand falls into 4 different periods;
She died, aged 81, inViareggio,Tuscany,Italy.
