Princess María Teresa of Bourbon-Parma


Princess María Teresa of Bourbon-Parma was a French-Spanish political activist and academic. She was a member of the House of Bourbon-Parma, a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family. She was a socialist activist, earning the nickname "Red Princess", and a monarchist who supported the Carlist movement. She is the first royal known to have died of COVID-19.

Early life and education

María Teresa was born on 28 July 1933 in Paris. She was the daughter of Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, a Carlist claimant to the Spanish throne, and Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon. She was the younger sister of Princess Marie-Françoise and Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma, and an older sister of Prince Sixtus Henry, Duke of Aranjuez.
She grew up at the Old Bostz Castle, Besson, Bourbonnais. Having attended middle school in Tours, she went on to obtain a doctorate in Hispanic studies from Paris-Sorbonne University and another doctorate in political sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid. She also studied Islam and how it related to women's rights. Her 1977 thesis at the Sorbonne was entitled "La clarificación ideológica del Carlismo contemporáneo".

Career and activism

María Teresa was a professor at both of her alma maters. She was also a socialist activist and fought for women's rights.
María Teresa supported her brother Carlos Hugo in his fight to make the Spanish Carlist party more liberal, supporting an ideological shift in her family's Carlism. Her royal roots and liberal socialist views attracted many personalities, leading her to meet André Malraux, François Mitterrand, Yasser Arafat and Hugo Chávez, and earned her the nickname of "Red Princess". This nickname was used as the title of a 2002 biography of María Teresa written by historian.

Personal life

In 1981, María Teresa acquired Spanish citizenship by royal decree; the official state bulletin said that it was given "at the request of the interested party and in response to the exceptional circumstances and her belonging to a family so closely linked to Spain".
In a 1997 interview, María Teresa said that she was Christian, but criticized some Christian attitudes to immigration that sought to create a divide.
María Teresa never married, and had no children. She was the aunt of Prince Carlos, Duke of Parma and 4th cousin, once removed, of the current King of Spain, Felipe VI.
In 2014, she published a history of the Bourbon-Parma family.
On 26 March 2020, María Teresa became the first member of a royal family known to die of COVID-19. She died at Hôpital Cochin in Paris at the age of 86. A memorial service was held in Madrid on 27 March 2020, presided over by Rev. José Ramón García Gallardo, a priest of the Society of Saint Pius X and an officer of the Order of Prohibited Legitimacy. A second Catholic funeral was held on 2 April 2020 at Notre-Dame-des-Champs in Paris. Her death was announced on the official website of the House of Bourbon-Parma. Her family paid tribute to her involvement "in the struggle for democratization, social justice and freedom in Spain".

Ancestry