Her Royal Highness the INFANTA DOÑA ALICIA, Dowager Duchess of Calabria (b. Vienna, November 1917, d. Madrid, March 2017) passed away this morning in her house in Madrid months away from her 100th birthday. 

Her Royal Highness was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1917, the daughter of Elias, Duke of Parma and Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria. In 1936 she married the Infante Alfonso, Duke of Calabria, eldest son of Alfonso’s XIII sister, and half-brother to the Countess of Barcelona, King Juan Carlos’ mother. Besides being the oldest Spanish royal and the doyenne of the Infantas, she was the last living Infanta whose title had been granted by Alfonso XIII, King Felipe’s great-grandfather. 

The Infanta moved with her husband to Spain in 1941, where she lived between her country estate and Madrid, and where she raised her two daughters, Princesses Teresa and Inés, and her only son, the infante Don Carlos, Duke of Calabria, who passed away in 2015. Her Royal Highness is survived by numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

As an Infanta of Spain Doña Alicia took part in many important events of the Royal Family, including the wedding of King Felipe and Queen Letizia or the abdication ceremony of her nephew King Juan Carlos. The Infanta will be buried, at her request, in Glashütten, Austria, with her parents and siblings, even though being an Infanta she could have been buried at the Pantheon of Infantes of El Escorial, where her husband and son are interred. Following King Felipe’s orders her coffin is covered by a Spanish flag and guarded by the Royal Guard.