[royalcello]

Yes, the paternity of the elder Infante Francisco was also in doubt. Aronson's book goes over much of the same material.

The original Carlist line died out in 1936. When this happened, some Carlists transferred their allegiance to the exiled King Alfonso XIII, and others backed the Bourbon-Parma family, who are unquestionably descended in the male line from Carlos III's younger brother Felipe (1720-1765) and therefore from Louis XIV. The current head of the Bourbon-Parma family is Prince Carlos Hugo, 63, formerly married to Princess Irene of the Netherlands. In the 1960s there was speculation that Franco might nominate him to the Spanish throne, but he settled on Alfonso XIII's grandson Juan Carlos instead.

Thanks for posting that picture.

[Guelph4ever]

Just another way of looking at this, from my admittedly emotional and unreasonable point of view, when I see the tricolor, like the fleur-de-lys, I don't see just a flag, but everything done under it. It was the flag of the Reign of Terror, of the regicide of the Royal Family and the near genocide of the Vendeeans.

To me, asking Chambord to reign under the tricolor would be like asking the Romanovs to accept the Soviet red banner after all the massacres, purges and oppression in that country. Now, I'm not bothered by the tricolor (it's never jumped down and attacked me), I simply cannot regard it as the 'true' emblem of France. Especially given the origins of the fleur-de-lys, I don't know if I could have ever accepted another, and I just don't think Chambord should be dismissed as a "damn fool" for not doing so either.

As I said at first, in the game of power-politics his choice makes no sense whatsoever, but I do think there are other factors that should be taken into consideration. Besides which, if France was sincere in desiring a monarchy, the powers-that-be could have established one without Chambord, though as I said, I think any such attempt would be doomed from the outset because of this very mindset and refusal to break with the revolution and face the facts of its horrific nature.