Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma

Who was Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma?

Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma and Piacenza was the head of the House of Bourbon-Parma from 1977 until his death. Carlos Hugo was pretender to the defunct throne of Parma, and a Carlist pretender to the throne of Spain under the name Carlos Hugo I.

He was born as a direct male descendant of Louis XIV in Paris and baptized Hugues Marie Sixte Robert Louis Jean Georges Benoît Michel. On 28 June 1963 he was officially renamed Charles Hugues, by judgment of the court of appeal of la Seine, France. He was a French citizen, and since 1980 a naturalized Spanish citizen.

His marriage to Princess Irene of the Netherlands in 1964 caused a constitutional crisis in the Netherlands.

Carlos Hugo was the son of Xavier, Duke of Parma, and Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset. In 1977, his father died, and Carlos Hugo succeeded him claiming the thrones of Parma, Etruria and Spain.

He claimed the headship of the Constantinian Order of Saint George, although it was not tied to the ducal throne of Parma, but is adjudicated by the church of Rome to follow the male primogeniture.