Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Duke of Spoleto to wed Infanta Beatriz?




April 22, 1930

Italian Court Circles are "expecting within a short time" an announcement of the engagement of Infanta Beatriz, elder daughter of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, and the Duke of Spoleto, son of the Duke and Duchess of Aosta, reports the Chicago Daily Tribune  The Duke of Aosta is a cousin of King Vittorio Emanuele.

The Duke of Spoleto is the grandson of Prince Amedeo, who reigned as King of Spain from 1870-1873 during the Carlist uprisings.

Embed from Getty Images 

 The engagement announcement follows the recent visit of the Duke of Spoleto and his mother, the Duchess of Aosta, to Spain for the Easter holidays, as the guests of King Alfonso.  They stayed with the royal family in Madrid and Seville.

According to local gossip,  the Duchess arrived several days before her son to discuss the arrangements with King Alfonso and Queen Victoria Eugenia.

This marriage may "soothe some of the ruffled feelings in Spain" over the recent marriage of Crown Prince Umberto of Italy to Princess Marie Jose of Belgium.  Many had assumed that Alfonso had hoped Prince Umberto might "be a match for one of his daughters." 

It was said that the Spanish king did not attend the Italian wedding due to his disappointment that the Italian heir had chosen the King of Belgium's only daughter to be his bride. 

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