Royal Guests and Relatives celebrated the Wedding of Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia married Doña Emmanuelle de Dampierre at the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius in Rome on this day in 1935, 90 years ago, followed by an Audience with Pope Pius XI at the Vatican.

Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, second son of King Alfonso XIII of Spain and Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, married Doña Emmanuelle de Dampierre, daughter of the 2nd Duque de San Lorenzo Nuovo, Vicomte de Dampierre and Donna Vittoria Ruspoli, at the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius in Rome.

After a private audience with Pope Pius, who gave the couple a “rosary and a prayer book,” the newlyweds were the guests of honour at a “brilliant breakfast reception at an aristocratic palace in Rome.”

Doña Emanuela recalled in her memoirs:

“my wedding dress was of white and silver lamé, with a long train; I wore a wide, flowing tulle veil held up by a diamond tiara. It had been made by the Italian designers Sorelle Botti, my favorites for their sober yet elegant style”.

Her bridal tiara, representing flowers and leaves studded with diamonds, was one of the wedding gifts she received from her father-in-law, King Alfonso XIII. The piece also came from the jewellery collection of his late mother, Queen Maria Cristina. In the inventory and share of her jewels, it is described as “a tiara with fifteen flowers adorned with diamonds” and is valued in 11,000 pesetas.

King Alfonso also gave Doña Emanuela a Sapphire Necklace, diamond riviere, a white pearl necklace, a rock crystal, sapphire and diamond brooch, and a black pearl necklace.

Royal Guests and Relatives in attendance included King Alfonso XIII of Spain (who walked the bride down the aisle), Queen Amélie of Portugal, Crown Prince Umberto and Crown Princess Marie José of Italy, Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia, the Count of Paris, and Prince Christopher and Princess Françoise of Greece. Neither Queen Victoria Eugenie nor the groom’s eldest brother, Alfonso, Count of Covadonga attended the wedding, which was the second of three Spanish Royal Weddings in Rome that year.

The couple had two sons and divorced in 1947. Infante Jaime, who was born deaf, had renounced his claim to the Spanish Throne in 1933, though he later became the Legitimist pretender to the French throne.

Queen Maria Cristina’s Floral Tiara

Queen Maria Cristina’s Sapphire Necklace

Franco Emerald Tiara

Cartier Stomacher

  Fleur-de-Lys Tiara