Alfonso's "half brother" wants help for estate

February 19, 1923

Don Louis de Bourbon, who claims to be the half-brother to King Alfonso XIII of Spain, has forwarded a formal petition to the Pope and the Sacred College of Cardinals at Rome, requesting that the Spanish monarch be summoned to a hearing before the Papal court, according to a report in the New York Times.
De Bourbon is claiming a share of the estate of the late King Alfonso XII. He is seeking the inheritance "on a claim that he is the eldest son of the late Spanish ruler through a morganatic marriage." Louis states that he is two years older than Alfonso.
He "asserts that his father and mother were married by a high Church official, and that the ceremony was witnessed by the grandees of Spain," and he claims that he has been an exile since his birth on the orders of his grandmother, Queen Isabel, and "subsequently by King Alfonso."
Louis says that his mother, a member of the French nobility, lives in Paris, and "has consented to appear in his behalf at the papal hearing. He claims that one hundred witnesses from the present and exiled Spanish nobility "have volunteered to come from South America, Italy and Austria to testify." He adds: "I do not seek the crown of Spain, but I do seek my just share in my father's estate and recognition of my royal privileges. I am also doing this to vindicate myself from the Spanish Embassy at Washington, which branded me as an impostor."

[King Alfonso was born in 1886. If Louis was two years older than Alfonso, he was probably born in 1884. But Alfonso XII was already married to Archduchess Maria Cristina of Austria. They were married in 1879. The couple's two daughters, Mercedes and Maria Teresa were born in 1880 and 1882, respectively. Alfonso's first wife, Mercedes, died in June 1878, sixteen months before he married Maria Cristina. Looks like the Spanish embassy was right: impostor.]