The solitary King:
Jaime III
(1908-1931)
Don Jaime was born on 27 June 1870 in Tour de Peilz in Vevey, (Switzerland) and was baptized by don José Maria Serra, Bishop of Danlia. Don Carlos, his father placed the Cross of Victory on his chest , according to the tradition of the Princes of the Asturias. In 1874 he was introduced to the Carlist army at the Court of Estella wearing the uniform of commander of the Guide Batallion. At the end of the war he lived in Paris and was put in the care of General don León Martinez de Fortún who saw to his primary education which he completed in the Jesuit college on the rue Vaugirard In Britain he continued his education with the Jesuits at Windsor. In 1886 his health suffered from the typhus which had ravaged Italy. Later he attended the military academy in Vienna and was commissioned. In the fall of 1893, following in the footsteps of his father, he visited Asia and later crossed Spain from north to south. In 1896 he joined the Russian Imperial Army, serving as ensign in the 24th Dragoon regiment and later in the Hussar Guards of Grodno which was stationed in Warsaw. Don Jaime planned to marry Matilda of Bavaria but her father’s opposition soon put an end to these plans to the point that he was unable to become interested in another woman. It was learned subsequently that Don Jaime had made known his opposition to his father’s second nuptials with Doña Berta de Rohan who had managed to keep father and son apart. As a Russian officer he fought in China and took part in the taking of Peking and later in the Russo-Japanese war. His valor in combat was recognized and he was decorated by the allied governments. The Tsar named him honorary colonel of his imperial guard.
On 18 June 1909 he reached Varese where his illustrious father King Don Carlos VII had passed away and took on the charges and responsibilities as the new king. He addressed a manifesto to the Spanish people on 4 November of the same year and received the homage of the Carlist population of Lourdes, France. When the first World War erupted, Don Jaime found himself at the castle in Frohsdorf which he had to leave because of his known francophile sentiments, not well understood by decided germanophile followers. After the war Don Jaime continued his travels in an effort to forget his unfortunate love affair, which he reconciled with clandestine entries into Spain on which the authorities cast a blind eye.
After the fall of the liberal monarchy, he met several times with the deposed Alfonso XIII who treated him at all times as King of Spain and Head of the Family. The union of both factions was accomplished on the basis of a pact of strong liberal inclination which incomprehensibly Don Jaime accepted and which can only be attributed to his extreme ill health. A few days after having received the Holy Sacraments , Don Jaime turned over his soul to God. He was succeeded by his uncle the Infante Don Alfonso.