The remains of Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia and Anjou could soon be moved to the Pantheon of the Princes at El Escorial. The body of the Infante, son of King Alfonso XIII and a great uncle of King Felipe VI of Spain, has rested at El Escorial since 1985 but recent announcements seem to indicate that it could soon be transferred to the Pantheon, the final resting place of princes, princesses and several Spanish consorts.
The Spanish newspaper Monarquía Confidencial reported earlier this week that preparations are being made to move the Infante’s body to the Pantheon. By tradition, the remains of Spanish royals are left in rooms known as pudrideros, or decaying chambers, until just the skeleton remains before they are buried in the Pantheons at El Escorial, which has become the final resting places of many of the most famous members of the ruling house.
In 2018, the Spanish National Heritage Foundation began work on a bronze tomb for the Duke. The new resting place is now almost complete. A date for the transfer has not been set, but the Foundation says it will happen soon.
Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, died in Switzerland in 1975 and he was initially buried there. However, ten years later, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, ordered that his remains were to be returned to Spain and they were brought to El Escorial.
Infante Jaime was born in 1908, the second son of King Alfonso XIII and his wife, Queen Victoria Eugenie. Jaime became deaf at the age of four following an operation, and as the result of this, he renounced his rights to the Spanish throne for himself and his descendants. By then, Alfonso XIII and his family had gone into exile.
After his father’s death in 1941, Jaime proclaimed himself the senior legitimate male heir of the House of Capet, heir to the French throne, and head of the House of Bourbon. His older brother, Alfonso, who had also given up his rights to the throne, had died in 1938. After making his claim, Jaime took the title of “Duke of Anjou” and became, in the opinion of French legitimists, the de jure king of France as “Henri VI.”
On 6 December 1949, Jaime retracted his renunciation of the throne of Spain and took the title “Duke of Madrid.” He became the head of a Carlist branch of the Spanish succession, recognised as King Jaime IV of Spain by the legitimist group of Carlists. On 19 July 1969, Jaime definitively renounced the Spanish succession in favour of his nephew, the future King Juan Carlos I of Spain, at the request of his elder son, Alfonso de Borbón.
