In 1985 an elderly lady of nearly 80, living with her
sister in a modest home at 722 Cadima Ave. in Coral Gables, received an unexpected
invitation. The invitation, which came from King Juan Carlos of Spain, invited
her to a royal funeral at the El Escorial Monastery. The ceremony was for the
entombment of His Royal Highness Alfonso of Borbon, Prince of the Asturias, the
heir to the Spanish throne, and later styled the Count of Covadonga. What made the royal invitation unusual was
that Edelmira Sampedro-Robato, the lady in question, was not only that that she
had once been wed to Alfonso, or that in 1933 the prince had renounced his
rights to the abolished Spanish throne in 1933 to marry her, that the couple
had divorced in 1937 after a tempestuous marriage of four years, but that
Alfonso had, by 1985, been dead for nearly 40 years. If those reasons were not
enough for her surprise, Alfonso, shortly before his untimely death had
remarried, and divorced. Edelmira respectfully declined the invitation.
Edelmira was born in Sagua La Grande, Cuba, on March 5,
1906, daughter of a Cuban merchant and his wife, elite members of Havana society.
It was while visiting Lausanne in 1932 that Edelmira, 26, and Alfonso, 25,
first met, at a Lausanne sanatorium, where the Prince was being treated for
hemophilia. After the couple saw each other at a cinema one evening they
rapidly fell in love. This presented a problem to the royal family, but then
Alfonso had always been a bit of a dilemma. The eldest son and heir of Alfonso
XIII and his wife Victoria Eugenie (Ena) of Battenberg, he was only an infant
when it was discovered he suffered from hemophilia, an often-fatal disease
which prevents blood from clotting.
This discovery created a crack in his parents’ marriage, as
the disease, which only affects males, is inherited through the female line. In
this case, Alfonso’s affliction came from his being a great-grandson of Queen
Victoria of Great Britain. A mere bruise
could easily be fatal. He and his brother Gonzalo, also a hemophiliac, were
kept dressed in specially tailored jackets to prevent injuries. Gossip even had
it that the trees in the royal park were padded for their protection. As often
the case with hemophiliacs, this protection led to willful, reckless behavior.
With mounting political upheaval, the royal family fled
Madrid in 1931 and Alfonso XIII was deposed, with General Franco seizing power.
The royal family divided – Ena settling in Great Britain and Switzerland and
Alfonso XIII in Paris and Rome. There were many rumors that Franco was
considering Alfonso as his successor, but just as many contradictory ones that
the prince would renounce his rights. All the talk was soon academic when
Alfonso, who already had a reputation as a playboy, announced his intention to
wed Edelmira.
The royal family was aghast. From Paris, Alfonso XIII
took away Alfonso’s five cars, slashed his monthly allowance and forced him to
formally renounce his rights of succession, although he was granted the
courtesy title of Count of Covadonga.
Alfonso didn’t care. “I love her and I want to marry her. Let Juan [his
next eldest brother] have the throne”. Invitations to the nuptials from the
Count were returned “with regret” and none his family attended the wedding,
which took place at Ouchy, Lausanne, on June 21, 1933.
The union was doomed from the start. With Edelmira’s
consuming jealousy, Alfonso’s constant bouts with hemophilia and philandering,
the marriage was marked by frequent headline separations. In 1937 she accused
him of having an affair with another woman. In New York, Alfonso asked for an
annulment, while, retreating to Havana, Edelmira filed for divorce, which was
granted on May 3, 1937. Edelmira had been correct – Alfonso was having an
affair with Cuban fashion model Marta Esther Rocafort-Altuzarra, whom he
married in a lavish Havana ceremony less than a month after his divorce. The
couple would separate just two months later, in September 1937, and divorced in
New York the following January.
Moving to Coral Gables, Alfonso died following a minor
car accident on Biscayne Boulevard due to his hemophilia, on September 6, 1938.
At his parents’ instructions, he was entombed in a private ceremony at
Graceland Cemetery Mausoleum, on the border of Coral Gables. Neither of his former
wives or members of his family attended the ceremony.
In a change of attitude from her in-laws, Edelmira
retained the title Countess of Covadonga, and lived in Havana. For over 60
years she refused all interviews, and never remarried. By all accounts the
Spanish Royal family treated her with respect and accorded her the rights and
status of a royal widow. She would even be bequeathed some lovely jewelry in
Queen Ena’s will when she died in 1969.
Edelmira lived in Havana until the Cuban Revolution, when
she left her native country and settled with her sister in Coral Gables. A
respected member of the local Cuban community, she died in Coral Gables on May
23, 1994, and was buried at Woodlawn Park Cemetery, over 4,000 miles from the
final resting place of the charming prince who had been her husband.
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