Infanta Beatriz of Spain, Princess di Civitella-Cesi (Doña Beatriz de Borbón y Battenberg) (22 June 1909 – 22 November 2002) was a daughter of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, wife of Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince di Civitella-Cesi. She was a paternal aunt of King Juan Carlos I.

Childhood

Born at the royal palace of La Granja, San Ildefonso near Segovia, Spain on 22 June 1909, Infanta Beatriz was the third child among the six surviving children of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg.^[1] She was christened Beatriz Isabel Federica Alfonsa Eugenia Cristina. She was named Beatriz after her maternal grandmother, Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria; Isabel for her great-aunt, Infanta Isabel; Federica for Princess Frederica of Hanover in whose house her parents had been engaged; Alfonsa after her father; Eugenia for Empress Eugénie of the French, her mother's godmother, and Cristina for her paternal grandmother.^[2]

Infanta Beatriz was educated within the walls of the Palacio de oriente by English nannies. She learned English and French, but did not became proficient in German. The children spoke in English to their mother and Spanish to their father.^[2] Infanta Beatriz and her sister Maria Cristina, two years her junior, yearned to go to private schools like the daughters of the nobility who frequented the palace as their playmates, but, following Spanish tradition, they were educated by governesses and privates tutors.^[2] They studied languages, history religion and took piano and dancing lessons.^[3] Their parents placed great importance in outdoor exercise and Infanta Beatriz became fond of sports.^[4] She was a very good swimmer, played tennis and golf and loved horseback riding.^[5][4] While in Madrid she played in the palace gardens and made horse excursions.^[6] In summer the royal family moved to Palacio de la Magdalena, near Santander, where they practiced water sports. They two sisters also made some visits to England to stay with their maternal grandmother at Kensington Palace.^[7]

Early life

During the late 1920s, Infanta Beatriz and her sister Infanta Maria Cristina of Spain, appeared publicly presiding official engagements as they headed a number of institutions and events.^[4] They were involved among others issues in animal protection.^[4] Beatriz and her sister took nursing classes, helping twice a week at the Red Cross in Madrid from 9 am to 1 pm and from 3 to 7 pm.^[4] Beatriz was president of the Red Cross in San Sebastián, working there during the royal family's summer vacation. ^[4]The two infantas, always elegantly dressed, were of contrasting looks. One blonde one dark.^[8] Beatriz, who resembled her Spanish relatives, was a brunette, tall and lean like her father.^[8] Her official coming into society was celebrated in 1927 with a court ball at the royal palace. She was social and among her friends were the Duques of Alba, Fernán Nuñez and Aveyro.^[7] The shadow of hemophilia marked her life. Her eldest and youngest brothers were hemophiliacs; her second brother, Jaime, was deaf and only the third brother, Juan, was completely healthy.^[9]

In 1929, Infanta Beatriz turned twenty years old. She felt in love with Miguel Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, the youngest son of Miguel Primo de Rivera, who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1923 to January 1930 with dictatorial powers.^[10] They were seen taking horse rides together, but a marriage between them was out of the question. When the dictator found out about their romance, he sent his son abroad.^[10] Because Beatriz and her sister could be carriers of hemophilia, like their mother, King Alphonso XIII was reluctant to follow the tradition of finding husband for them among catholic royal princes. The two sisters constant companions were their cousins Alonso, Alvaro and Ataúlfo d'Orléans, the three sons of Infante Alfonso de Orleans y Borbón.^[11] It was expected that Infanta Beatriz would marry Alonso and Maria Cristina, Alvaro, but nothing came out of it as their closeness was interrupted when the turbulent political situation in Spain derailed their lives.^[8]

Nicknamed baby by her family, Infanta Beatriz was much loved by her parents and close to her siblings. Her comfortable life at the royal palace of Madrid was abruptly cut short by the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic.

Exile

The support that Alfonso XIII gave to the unpopular dictatorship of Primo de Rivera discredited the king. Municipal election, held on April 12 1931, were unfavorably to the monarchy. The Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed two days later.^[12] Without the backing of the military forces, King Alfonso left the country the same day, but did not abdicate, hoping to be called back to the throne. Infanta Beatriz, her mother and her siblings, except for Infante Don Juan, who was away following a career in the Spanish navy, were left behind at the royal palace of Madrid. Following the advice of her supporters, the queen and her five children left the Royal Palace by car to El Escorial, and from there, they took a train to France.

The royal family first home in exile was the Hôtel Meurice in Paris. They soon moved to a private wing of the hôtel Savoy in Fontainebleau.^[13] Accompanied by their mother, the two Infantas made visits to Paris twice a week by car or with a lady in waiting by train^[14]While in Paris they spent time with horses at a riding school or playing tennis with friends. ^[14]The marriage of their parents was unhappy and even in Spain the King and Queen lead separate lives. Once in exile, the royal couple separated permanently.^[14] Queen Victoria Eugenie moved to London and later to Lausanne, Switzerland and the two infantas lived for a time with her.^[15] In 1933 the king settled permanently in Rome and as life was too isolated for Beatriz and her sister in Lausanne, they moved with their father who rent a house for them. ^[15] Infanta Beatriz and her sister became friends with the members of the Italian royal family and quickly adapted to life in Rome.^[16]

In 1934 tragedy struck. Beatriz, who was spending summer vacation in the region of Pörtschach am Wörthersee in Carinthia, Austria was riding a car with her brother Gonzalo. Trying to avoid a bicycle rider who had crossed their path, she slammed her car into a wall. The accident, at first, did not seem serious, but Infante Gonzalo, a hemophiliac, was bleeding internally and died in the early hours the following day, 13 August 1934.^[17][18]

Marriage and issue

At the time of her brother’s death, Infanta Beatriz was looking forward towards her marriage. While visiting Ostia, she was introduced to an Italian aristocrat, Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince di Civitella-Cesi.^[19] Torlonia, who had inherited large states from his father in 1933, was the son of Don Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince of Civitella-Cesi and Mary Elsie Moore, an American heiress.^[19] Alessandro belonged to aristocratic circles and was very wealthy, but although he was a prince, he was not member of a reigning or formerly reigning dynasty. His family had acquired a huge fortune in the 18th and 19th centuries through administering the finances of the Vatican receiving the title of Prince di Civitella-Cesi in 1803 from Pope Pius VII.^[19] Alfonso XIII, realizing that the combination of the threat of hemophilia and their situation in exile would make difficult for his daughters to find royal husbands, gave his consent to this union. Infanta Beatriz married Torlonia morganatically, renouncing her rights of succession to the throne of Spain.^[20]

The wedding took place on 14 January 1935 at the Santa Maria in Trastevere Basilica with Beatriz wearing a 20 ft train, a coronet of orange blossom holding her veil in place, in the presence of King Alfonso, the King and Queen of Italy and some 52 princes of the blood royal. Thousands of Spaniards traveled from the Spain to give support to the disposed royal family in what became a political event. However, neither Queen Victoria Eugenie nor Beatriz’s eldest brother, Alfonso, Count of Covadonga, who were in bad terms with King Alphonso XIII, assisted to the wedding.^[21] After the ceremony, the young couple was received by Pope Pius X.

Infanta Beatriz of Spain, Princess di Civitella-Cesi, and her husband had four children:

• Doña Sandra Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (b. 14 February 1936), who married Count Clemente Lecquio di Assaba (9 December 1925 – 28 June 1971), had issue
• Don Marco Torlonia (born 2 July 1937), later 6th Prince di Civitella-Cesi, who married (1) Donna Orsetta Caracciolo di Castagneto (17 May 1940 – 10 March 1968), one son; (2) Philippa McDonald (born 3 June 1942), one daughter; (3) Blažena Svitáková (born 16 October 1940), one daughter, born before marriage
• Don Marino Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (born 13 December 1939 – 28 December 1995) died unmarried and without issue
• Doña Olimpia Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (born 27 December 1943), who married (married 16 June 1965) Paul-Annik Weiller (28 July 1933 – 2 November 1998), and had six children (including Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg)

Later life

Infanta Beatriz settled with her husband in the Palazzo Torlonia, a 16th-century Early Renaissance town house in Via della Conciliazione, Rome, Italy.^[22] King Alfonso XIII died in 1941 and as the situation deteriorated in Italy during World War II, Infanta Beatriz with her family joined her siblings in Lausanne Switzerland, spending the rest of the war close to their mother Queen Victoria Eugenie. Beatriz returned to Italy after the war living there for the rest of her life.

Known for her discretion, easy manners and joie de vivre, Infanta Beatriz became a prominent figure in Rome’s social scene. Of her four children, Alexandra, the eldest, was a great beauty and the family tried to arrange a marriage for her with King Baudouin of Belgium, but she caused her parents concerned when in 1958 she married Clemente Lequio di Assaba, a widower with a son, who was given the title of count in 1963 by Umberto II of Italy.^[20] Alexandra, known as Sandra, had a son a daughter with Count Lequio, who died after a fall from an upper floor in his house in Turin in 1971. Sandra Torlonia’s son, Alesandro Lequio, moved to Spain in 1991 working initially for Fiat.^[23] Married to the Italian model Antonia Dell’Atte, a muse in the late 1980s of Giorgio Armani, Alessandro Lequio quickly became a favorite of the Spanish jet set and gossip press, when, after his divorce, he began a relationship with, Ana Obregón, a Spanish actress and T.V. presenter.^[23] Infanta Beatriz eldest son, Marco Torlonia, 6th Prince of Civitella-Cesi had married three times and had three children one in each marriage. His eldest son, Giovanni Torlonia, is a well known designer. Marino Torlonia, Infanta Beatriz’s second son died unmarried in 1995 of HIV-related illnesses.^[22] The youngest child, Olimpia Torlonia, married in 1965 Paul-Annick Weiller (1933–1998), the first son of the aviator Paul-Louis Weiller of the Javal family.^[24] Among their six children is Princess Sibilla of Luxembourg.^[24]

She died at her home in Palazzo Torlonia, Rome on 22 November 2002 at 93 years 5 months.

Ancestry