Prince Charles of Luxembourg (1927–1977)


Prince Charles of Luxembourg, Prince of Bourbon-Parma and Nassau, was a younger son of Grand Duchess Charlotte and Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma.

Education

He grew up at his mother's court in Luxembourg, until the German invasion in 10 May 1940 during World War II. The Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg left the country to find refuge in Portugal, after receiving transit visas from the Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes, in June 1940. They arrived at Vilar Formoso on 23 June 1940. After travelling through Coimbra and Lisbon, the family first stayed in Cascais, in Casa de Santa Maria, owned by Manuel Espírito Santo, who was then the honorary consul for Luxembourg in Portugal. By July they had moved to Monte Estoril, staying at the Chalet Posser de Andrade. On 10 July 1940, Prince Charles, together with his father Prince Félix, his siblings, Heir Prince Jean, Princess Elisabeth, Princess Marie Gabriele, princess Marie Gabriele and Princess Alix, the nanny Justine Reinard and the chauffer Eugène Niclou, along with his wife Joséphine, boarded the S.S. Trenton headed for New York City.
The family eventually left the United States and moved to Canada, where Prince Charles completed secondary school in Canada. After World War II he undertook studies in Louvain, then at the Royal Military Academy at Aldershot.

Career

After university, he returned to Luxembourg, where he worked to address national economic and social issues.
He inherited from his father Villa Pianore, an estate held by the Bourbon-Parma family in Italy.

Marriage and family

He married at St. Edward's, in Sutton Park, Guildford, Surrey, on 1 March 1967 Joan Douglas Dillon, daughter of U.S. Treasury Secretary C. Douglas Dillon and wife Phyllis Chess Ellsworth. As an unprecedented marriage between a prince of Luxembourg's reigning family and a commoner, Charles's brother, Grand Duke Jean, issued a decree to authorize the union as dynastic on 16 February 1967.

Children and descendants

Prince Charles and his wife Joan Dillon had two children, who are also princes of Luxembourg and Nassau: