Infante Juan | |||||
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Infante of Spain Count of Barcelona |
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Don Juan de Borbón in 1959.
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Born |
Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, San Ildefonso, Spain under the Restoration |
20 June 1913||||
Died | 1 April 1993 , Pamplona, Spain |
(aged 79)||||
Burial | 7 April 1993 El Escorial |
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Spouse | Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies | ||||
Issue | |||||
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House | Bourbon | ||||
Father | Alfonso XIII of Spain | ||||
Mother | Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg | ||||
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Full name | |
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Spanish: Juan Carlos Teresa Silverio Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg |
Infante Juan of Spain, Count of Barcelona (Don Juan Carlos Teresa Silverio Alfonso de Borbón y Battenberg; 20 June 1913 – 1 April 1993), 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 restored.
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.
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 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.