Emmanuelle de Dampierre (Victoire Jeanne Emmanuelle Joséphine Pierre Marie; 8 November 1913 – 3 May 2012) was an Italian-French aristocrat and a member of the Spanish royal family. Her husband, Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, was the second son of King Alfonso XIII and the Legitimist pretender to the former French throne. While she and Infante Jaime divorced in 1947 and each subsequently married a second time, their divorce was not recognized by the Spanish and French governments nor by the Catholic Church.
Emanuela was born on 8 November 1913 at the Palazzo Ruspoli, her maternal family's palace on the Via del Corso in Rome. She was the eldest daughter of the French nobleman Roger de Dampierre, 2nd Duke of San Lorenzo Nuovo, Vicomte de Dampierre and the Italian noblewoman and HSH, the painter Princess Vittoria Emilia Ipsycrathea Agricola Ruspoli, a daughter of Emanuele Ruspoli, 1st Prince of Poggio Suasa.[2][3] Both her maternal and paternal families were part of the Papal nobility. She grew up in Paris until her parents divorced in 1930, at which time she returned with her mother to the Palazzo Ruspoli to live with her grandmother Josephine, Princess of Poggio Suasa.
On 4 March 1935, she married Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, a member of the Spanish royal family, at the Church of Sant'Ignazio in Rome.[4] The marriage was arranged by their parents.[5] Her husband, the son of King Alfonso XIII, was born deaf and mute, and had had to relinquish his rights to the Spanish throne.[4] Although he renounced his rights to the Spanish throne,[6] her husband was the Legitimist claimant to the former French throne and was granted the Dukedom of Segovia by his father.[4][2] They had two sons:
In 1947, Emanuelle and Infante Jaime divorced in Bucharest.[4] She married a second time to Antonio Sozzani, a Milanese stockbroker, in Vienna.[4] She and Sozzani divorced in 1967.[4] While her first divorce was legally recognized in Italy, it was not recognized by the Catholic Church nor by the Spanish and French governments.[4][2]
From 1947 until her death in 2012, Emmanuelle was considered, both in Spain, in France and in many European courts, to be the true wife of the Infante.[2]
The 1980s were a very difficult period for Emmanuelle. After three years of separation, her eldest son, Alfonso, and his wife divorced in 1982. Two years later, in 1984, a serious car accident claimed the life of the Duke's eldest son, François de Bourbon (1972-1984), while Alfonso and his second son were seriously injured. Finally, in 1989, Alfonso died of a serious neck injury in a skiing accident in the United States. Many years later, in 2000, Emmanuelle's youngest son, Gonzalo, died from leukemia.
In 2003, Emanuelle published a memoir titled Memorias: Esposa y madre de los Borbones que pudieron reinar en España.[2][7]
She died on 3 May 2012 in Rome following a long-term illness.[4] She was buried in the Dampierre family vault at the Passy Cemetery in Paris.[2]
National
Spain: Dame of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa Spain: Dame of the Decoration of the Royal Cavalry Armory of Seville
Kingdom of Italy: Dame of the Italian Red Cross
Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Bailiff Dame of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
Married. Don Jaime, 26, second son of ex-King Alfonso XIII of Spain; and Emanuela de Dampierre. 20, granddaughter of Princess Ruspoli Poggio di Suasa, (née Josephine Curtis of Boston); in Rome. Born a deaf-mute, Don Jaime has learned to speak croakingly.
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