Prince Carlos goes multilingual at wedding ceremony

BRUSSELS – Prince Carlos Xavier, the son of Dutch princess Irene and her former and now late husband prince Carlos Hugo de Bourbon-Parma, tied the knot with Annemarie Gualthérie van Weezel this past summer in a civil ceremony in Wijk bij Duurstede with the nuptials at a church ceremony to follow. After a delay of several months, due to the ill health and subsequent death of the groom’s father, the ceremony took place recently in Brussels. Although the bride is a commoner, she is the daughter of a Dutch diplomat and politician, and the union was granted titular recognition by prince Carlos Hugo, which suggests that any children will also enjoy full hereditary rights in the House of Bourbon-Parma. Prince Carlos Hugo headed the Carlist political movement in Spain, which claimed the Spanish throne but lost. The groom mingled five languages during the church ceremony: Dutch, French, English, Spanish and Italian. The bride, a journalist, stuck to Dutch. The ceremony was conducted by Mgr. R. P. Bär, Bishop emeritus of Rotterdam.