Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona

Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Barcelona (Juan Carlos Teresa Silverio Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg; 20 June 1913 – 1 April 1993), also known as Don Juan, was the third son and designated heir of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg. His father was replaced by the Second Spanish Republic, and under his son, Juan Carlos I, a constitutional monarchy was installed.

Infante Juan
Count of Barcelona
Don Juan de Borbón in 1946
Head of the Royal House of Spain
Tenure	15 January 1941 – 14 May 1977
Predecessor	Alfonso XIII
Successor	Juan Carlos I
Born	20 June 1913 Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, San Ildefonso, Kingdom of Spain
Died	1 April 1993 (aged 79) Navarra University Hospital, Pamplona, Kingdom of Spain
Burial	7 April 1993 El Escorial, Community of Madrid, Spain
Spouse	Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies ​ ​ (m. 1935)​
Issue	Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz Juan Carlos I of Spain Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria Infante Alfonso of Spain
Full name Spanish: Juan Carlos Teresa Silverio Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg[1]
House	Bourbon
Father	Alfonso XIII of Spain
Mother	Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg
Religion	Roman Catholic

Early life

Juan was born at the Palace of San Ildefonso. His father was forced into exile when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931. Owing to the renunciations of his brothers Alfonso of Spain, Prince of Asturias, and Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, Infante Juan was thus next in line to the defunct Spanish throne. He thus received the title Prince of Asturias when he was serving with the British Royal Navy in Bombay.

In March 1935, he passed his naval exams in gunnery and navigation, which would have entitled him to become a lieutenant in the Royal Navy if he gave up his Spanish nationality. This, however, he refused to do.

Marriage

He met his future wife at a party hosted by Victor Emmanuel III of Italy on the day before his sister (Infanta Beatriz) was to be married. He married Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1910–2000), known in Spain as Doña María de las Mercedes de Borbón Dos-Sicilias y Orleans, in Rome on 12 October 1935.

Just before the birth of the Infante Juan Carlos, the Count of Barcelona decided to go hunting, with the doctor telling him and his wife that the future king would not be born for weeks. When he was told of the birth, he drove to the hospital so quickly that he broke an axle spring.

Children

They had four children:

• Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz (30 July 1936 – 8 January 2020), who married Luis Gomez-Acebo y de Estrada, Viscount de la Torre, on 6 May 1967, and had five children
• Juan Carlos I of Spain (born 5 January 1938), who married Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark on 14 May 1962, and had three children
• Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria (born 6 March 1939), who married Don Carlos Zurita y Delgado on 12 October 1972, and had two children
• Infante Alfonso of Spain (3 October 1941 – 29 March 1956)

They lived in Cannes and Rome, and, with the outbreak of World War II, they moved to Lausanne to live with his mother, Queen Victoria Eugenie. Afterwards, they resided at Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera.

Claim to the Spanish throne

Portrait by Philip de Laszlo, 1927

Juan became heir apparent to the defunct Spanish throne after the renunciations of his two older brothers, Alfonso and Jaime, in 1933. To assert his claim to the throne, following his father's death he used the title of Count of Barcelona, a sovereign title associated with the Spanish crown.

In 1936, his father sent him to participate in the Spanish Civil War but he was arrested near the French border, and sent back by General Emilio Mola.

On 19 March 1945 he announced a manifesto in Lausanne, demanding he replace Franco

Today, six years after the Civil War, the regime established by General Franco, inspired from the start by the totalitarian systems and the Axis powers, so contrary to the character and tradition of our people, is fundamentally incompatible with the circumstances, which the present war is creating in the world. The foreign policy followed by the regime is compromising the future of the nation. Spain runs the risk of being dragged into a new fratricidal conflict and of finding itself totally isolated from the world. The present regime, however hard it tries to adapt to the new situation, is responsible for this double danger. Moreover, a new republic, however moderate in its beginnings and its intentions, will not be long in shifting to one of the extremes, thus strengthening the other and finishing up in a new civil war. Only the traditional monarchy can be an instrument of peace and concord to reconcile Spaniards; it alone can obtain respect from abroad, by means of an effective state of law, and realize a harmonious synthesis of that order and freedom upon which is based the Christian concept of the state. Millions of Spaniards of the most varied ideologies are convinced of this truth and see in the monarchy the only saving institution.ref>http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2216/1/U613448.pdf</ref>

When General Francisco Franco declared Spain a monarchy in 1947, he characterized it as a "restoration". However, Franco was afraid that Juan would roll back the Spanish State because he favored constitutional monarchy, which would restore parliamentary democracy. As a result, in 1969, Franco passed over Juan in favour of Juan's son, Juan Carlos, who Franco believed would be more likely to continue the Francoist State after his death. Juan Carlos later surprised many by his support of democratising Spain. Franco and Juan did not have a good relationship, with the latter constantly pressing Franco to restore the monarchy. Relations soured further when Juan called Franco an "illegitimate usurper".

Juan formally renounced his rights to the Spanish throne eight years after being displaced as recognised heir to the throne by Franco, and two years after his son, Juan Carlos, had become king. In return, his son officially granted him the title of Count of Barcelona, which he had claimed for so long.

He was buried with honours due a King, in the Royal Crypt of the monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, near Madrid. His wife survived him by seven years.

He was fond of the sea, and joined the Naval School at San Fernando, Cádiz, and had tattoos of a marine theme from his time in the British Royal Navy.

Arms

• Heraldry of Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Barcelona
• 
  Arms as Infante of Spain
  (1927–1931/1933)
• 
  Royal Coat of Arms of Spain
  Version of 1924/1931
  Used as Pretender and Head of the Royal House.
  (1941–1977)[2]
• 
  Lesser Royal Coat of Arms of Spain
  Also used by Don Juan as Pretender.
  (1941–1977)[2]
• 
  Arms after the renunciation of the Throne
  (1977–1993)[3]

Ancestors

Ancestors of Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona

8. Infante Francisco de Asís of Spain 4. Alfonso XII of Spain 9. Isabella II of Spain 2. Alfonso XIII of Spain 10. Archduke Karl Ferdinand of Austria 5. Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria 11. Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria 1. Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona 12. Prince Alexander of Hesse and by Rhine 6. Prince Henry of Battenberg 13. Countess Julia Hauke 3. Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg 14. Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha 7. Princess Beatrice of the United Kingdom 15. Victoria of the United Kingdom

References

1. Boletín Oficial del Estado
2. García-Mechano y Osset, Eduardo (2010). Introducción a la heráldica y manual de heráldica militar española. Madrid: Ministerio de Defensa. ISBN 978-84-9781-559-8. pp. 105–107
3. "Coat of arms of Juan de Bourbon after his renounce at the emblem of the Frigate "Juan de Borbón"". Navy official coats of arms (in Spanish). Spanish Navy. Retrieved 18 March 2013.