Princess Alice of Bourbon

Princess Alice of Bourbon (29 June 1876 – 20 January 1975) was the youngest child of Prince Carlos, Duke of Madrid, the Carlist pretender to the Spanish throne, and his wife, Princess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma.^[1] She was a maternal first cousin of Marie Louise of Parma (consort of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria), Zita of Parma (Austria-Hungary’s last empress consort), Louise of Austria (Saxony’s last crown princess), Henry, Joseph, Elias and Xavier (all Titular Dukes of Parma), Felix (consort of Charlotte of Luxembourg) and Peter Ferdinand (Titular Grand-Duke of Toscana).

Born in France, her early life was marked by the defeat of the Third Carlist War. Princess Alice and her siblings, to whom she remained very close throughout her life, were raised in Paris and Viareggio by their mother, Princess Margherita of Parma, a great granddaughter of King Charles X of France. Her mother died in 1893 and her father remarried with French-Austrian Princess Marie-Berthe de Rohan.

In 1897, Alice married Prince Friedrich of Schönburg-Waldenburg. The couple had one son, Prince Karl, in 1902. The marriage was unhappy, violent and ended in divorce in 1903. In 1906, she married the Italian commoner Lino del Prete, they had nine children. During World War I, Princess Alice served as a nurse until the end of the war. The couple lived in Bargecchia, near Viareggio.

In 1956, Alice’s husband died. She became the last daughter of the Duke of Madrid after the death of her sister Beatrice, in 1961. She died at almost 99 in Bargecchia, Italy in 1975, being the oldest-living member of the French royal family.

Alice was born in Pau, near the Spanish border, just after the Third Carlist War.^[2] After the war, her family lived in Paris until 1881, when her parents separated. Alice was raised by her mother at the Tenuta Reale in Tuscany and attended the Sacre Coeur convent in Florence.^[3] Later, she and her sister Beatrice completed their education at the Trinità dei Monti in Rome.^[4]

Alice met Prince Friedrich of Schönburg-Waldenburg, a Bavarian army officer, in 1896.^[5] They were married in Venice on 26 April 1897 by Cardinal Sarto (the future Pope Pius X).^[6]

During the Boxer Rebellion and the Russo-Japanese War, Alice was a Russian Red Cross nurse with the approval of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna.^[7] During these campaigns, she befriended Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz, the future Tsaritsa of Bulgaria.^[8]

In late 1903, Alice fled her marriage, citing Friedrich's violent behavior in an interview with the newspaper L'Indépendance Belge.^[9] A civil divorce was granted in Dresden based on "assault and violence".^[10] The marriage was subsequently annulled by the Holy See on 26 May 1906.^[11]

On 2 June 1906, Alice married Lino del Prete in Viareggio.^[12]

Alice had ten children. Her eldest son, Karl Leopold (1902–1992), was followed by children with Lino del Prete: Margarita (1904), Giorgio (1905), Cristina (1907), Beatriz (1908), Luisa (1909), Francisca (1911), Ernestina (1915), Francisco (1918), and Valentina (1922).^[13]

Alice spent her later years in Italy. She survived all her siblings and died in Viareggio on 20 January 1975, aged 98.^[14]

• Alice with her first husband
• Princess Alice in 1910