Alberto de Borbón y Castellví, I. duque de Santa Elena

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• English translation - wikipedia
• Enrique Alberto Maria Vicente Ferrer Francisco de Paula Antonio de Borbon y Castellví (de Borbon y Castellví, Bourbon and Shelly), (Valencia, January 22 or February 1854 - Madrid, January 21, 1939) was a Spanish nobleman, Marquis I and, later, I Duke of St. Helena, related to the kings of Spain, but never received the title of Infante of Spain.

Family

• Don Alberto was the son of Don Enrique de Bourbon and his wife Maria Elena Castellví and Shelly. Patrilineal grandson of Don Francisco de Paula de Borbón and Princess Luisa Carlotta of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, on his mother was the grandson of Don Antonio de Padua Castellví and Fernandez de Cordoba, XII Count of Villanueva, Count X Count VIII Castellá and Carlet, and Shelly McCarthy Margarita. Elena's family came from Valencia and Ireland.
• The marriage of his parents, held in Rome in 1847, did not have the consent of Queen Isabel II of Spain, and his parents were exiled to France, birthplace of the brothers of Don Alberto. However, during one of his brief reconciliation with the royal couple, Don Enrique and his wife were able to return to Valencia, where Alberto was born.

Biography

• Alberto was born in 1854 in Valencia. Shortly after birth, died Louis, one of his older brothers who were born in France. Soon his father to return to antagonize her cousin and sister, Queen Elizabeth II, and again the boy and his family had to leave for France.
• Alberto's father was killed in a duel in the Dehesa de los Carabancheles in 1870 by his cousin, Antonio of Orleans, Duke of Montpensier. The incident shocked the whole of Europe, and Albert and his brothers were tutored by his relatives until they could make their own lives. Alberto's older brother, Henry Pio, refused any financial assistance which originated from the fortune of the Duke of Montpensier.
• During the Restoration of the Bourbons on the throne of Spain, Don Alberto received from his cousin, King Alfonso XII the Marquis of Santa Elena, which was granted on October 31, 1878. In 1917, already during the reign of his nephew Alfonso XIII, Don Alberto was elevated to Duke, receiving the title of Duke of St. Helena that same year and was appointed Gentleman Grandee of Spain with exercise and servants of the King.

Marriages and descendants

• Don Alberto married in Beaumont Lomagne the November 27, 1878 with his maternal cousin, Marguerite d'Ast of Novelé (Lomagne Beaumont, June 27, 1855 - Château de Bonneville, 12 August 1915 ), daughter of Louis Oscar d'Hélène Ast, Novelé Baron and his wife Maria Francisca de Paula Castellví and Shelly. After the death of his first wife remarried. His second marriage took place in Madrid on January 30, 1918, with his wife Clotilda Gallo Ruiz y Diez de Bustamante (Madrid, June 3, 1869 - Madrid, December 18, 1936), Queen of Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, daughter of Miguel de Gallo Ruiz and Manuela Diez de Bustamante. After the death of his second wife (who was killed in the Spanish Civil War), Alberto married for the third time in Madrid on June 5, 1937, to Isabel Rodriguez de Castro Bueno Mena Castro (Seville, April 19, 1888 - Madrid, May 7, 1947), daughter of Manuel Rodriguez de Castro Castro Ore Garci-Hidalgo and Leticia and White Well, I Marchioness of Good.

He had two daughters and a son, born from his first marriage:

• Margarita Isabel Maria Carlota de Borbon y d'Ast (Valladolid, October 18, 1879 - Madrid, October 19, 1966), unmarried and without issue.
  
• Margaret Elizabeth Albertine Mary Immaculate of Bourbon and d'Ast (Lomagne Beaumont, September 14, 1880 - Madrid, April 10, 1967), unmarried and without issue.
  
• Alberto Maria Francisco de Paula Luis Enrique Ferrer Vicente Oscar Benigno Isidro de Borbon y d'Ast (Madrid, February 12, 1883 - Valladolid, December 1, 1959), II Duke of St. Helena as his father's successor to the title. He married in Madrid on July 10, 1908 with Maria Luisa Pinto and Lecanda (Valladolid, April 30, 1887 - Madrid, December 13, 1977), and had two children: Alfonso (died fighting in Lleida in the Civil War 1938) and Maria Luisa. Both with succession.
  

• Alberto de Bourbon died in Madrid in 1939, Spanish Civil War, having lost his second wife and his only grandson during the war. Other close relatives were also killed because of war.