Prince of Asturias defies father

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June 5, 1933

Official notice of the forthcoming marriage between Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, and Edelmira Sampedro, a Cuban commoner, was posted earlier today in Lausanne's City Hall, reports the Chicago Tribune news service.

The announcement will remain posted until June 13, when the couple will be able to wed.

Alfonso and his bride-to-be are both 26 years old. Alfonso is the eldest son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, who left the country two years ago following the establishment of a republic.  

Edelmira Sampedro is the daughter of a wealthy Cuban merchant.

A spokesman for the King, who now lives at Fontainebleau, France, released a statement: "The king is not happy about the marriage and will not go to the wedding."

This will be the second morganatic marriage by the eldest son of a former ruling family.  Last Saturday, in Bonn, Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, eldest son of Crown Prince Wilhelm, and a grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II, violated family law, by marrying Dorothea von Salviati, a commoner.

It was the Tribune's Madrid correspondent who first revealed the romance between the former heir to the throne and the Cuban commoner.  It was on February 9 when the paper reported that the prince, a hemophiliac, was a patient in a Lausanne hospital.  Miss Sampedro and her mother live in the city. 

The prince said he wants to have "a little happiness in my life."  The younger Alfonso added: "Let Juan have the throne. I love her and want to marry her.  That's where real happiness."

Don Juan is Alfonso's younger brother.

Alfonso will lose his rights to the throne and his title, Prince of Asturias, when he marries.  He will be known as the Count of Covadonga. 

Although the plans of the couple are not known,  they may choose to honeymoon in the United States, and live in Havana.

Although Alfonso has been described as the heir to the throne,  the Chicago Tribune notes that he is not the heir.  According to the "best information," the heir is the third son, Infante Juan, since July 1931, when "a round of abdications was signed at Fontainebleau. 

This happened three months after Spain became a republic.

Juan is serving as a cadet in the Royal Navy.  King Alfonso has "ruled himself out," as he has taken "personal blame" for the events in Spain.

Don Alfonso and his brother, Don Jaime, were also removed as heirs.  Alfonso is a hemophiliac and his brother is a deaf-mute.

King Alfonso has not given "official confirmation" to the abdications because the Carlist branch of the family have not "publicly renounced their claims to the throne.