Rebel Princess: 8 Facts About Infanta Eulalia of Spain

Infante Eulalia of Spain, Duchess of Galliera

María Eulalia Francisca de Asís Margarita Roberta Isabel Francisca de Paula Cristina María de la Piedad was born in Madrid, Spain on February 12, 1864, the youngest of the five children of Queen Isabella II of Spain and Francis de Assisi de Borbón, Duke of Cadiz.

She spent her childhood in exile

The Glorious Revolution of 1868, which caused the deposition of Queen Isabella II, forced Eulalia’s family to leave Spain, thus, spending most of her childhood in exile. Her family transferred to and settled in Paris, France, where she received her education. Eulalia’s family was only able to return to their homeland after his brother was restored to the throne in 1874 as King Alfonso XII.

She grew weary of her royal rank

The sudden shift of events, however, did not impress Eulalia at all. Her memoirs state that her reinstitution as a Spanish royalty, which meant bidding goodbye to her convent school back in Paris to name one, made her cynical about her family’s exalted rank.

She begrudgingly married her cousin

Infante Alfonso, Duke of Galliera. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Infanta Eulalia married her first cousin, Infante Antonio de Orléans y Borbón, Duke di Galliera, on March 6, 1886. Together, they had two sons: Alfonso and Luis Fernando. According to royal historian Marlene Eilers Koenig, she disdained her husband "with the same violence" that her mother showed to her father. And also like Queen Isabelle II, "Eulalia cloaked her marital miseries with gaiety."

She shocked high society in the United States for her unconventional behavior

She attended the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893, much to the delight of New York's 400 and American press, all fighting to even just brush elbows with Infanta Eulalia, who they believed was a direct descendant of Christopher Columbus. She, nevertheless, shocked everyone in the United States by smoking, snubbing a social event just to go to the fair to eat sausages, and entering an impoverished Roman Catholic church rather than attending mass at a lavish cathedral.

She presented rich Americans to European nobility

The Spanish royalty even became more controversial during her visit of the United States when she played matchmaker for European nobles and social-climbing Americans. In exchange for her efforts, she was allegedly showered with gifts and favors.

She was an accomplished, if not reviled, author

Eulalia, an author of several books, yet again stirred the pot with the publication of her work, Au fil de la vie (The Thread of Life), in 1912. The book, which she wrote under the pseudonym Comtesse de Avila, tackled topics such as “about education, the independence of women, the equality of classes, socialism, religion, marriage, prejudices, and traditions”, causing the ire of his nephew, King Alphonso XIII who demanded that she suspend its publication until he had read it himself. Stubborn as she was, Infanta Eulalia disregarded his request. In her book Courts and Countries After The War, published in 1925, she infamously commented that there could never be peace between Germany and France. She also took a swipe at Italy, then led by Benito Mussolini, recounting that while crossing the country’s frontier, she heard the phrase "Il treno arriva all'orario (the train is arriving on time)", which was often connected to the Fascist regime during that time.

She lamented the Spanish Civil War

“We who have seen so many of our traditions crumble in the dust find our one solace in the knowledge that a new world is about to evolve,” Infanta Eulalia once said about the Spanish Civil War.

She reportedly lost her valuable jewelry collection

Eulalia once owned $5,000,000 in jewels, which she had inherited from her mother. In 1935, the "jewel box went astray in Madrid."

She died at her home in Irun, Spain on February 9, 1958 after suffering from a heart attack. She was 94 years old. Her remains were laid to rest in the Pantheon of the Princes in El Escorial.