Prince Gaetano of Parma

Prince Gaetano of Bourbon-Parma (11 June 1905 – 9 March 1958) was the youngest son of Robert I, the last reigning Duke of Parma and of his second wife Maria Antonia of Portugal. A prince of the House of Bourbon-Parma, he was educated in Austria, France, and Luxembourg. Prince Gaetan fought in the Spanish Civil War where he was wounded six times. In 1940, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, took part in the Normandy landings and made the campaign of France. He died at age 52 in a car accident near Cannes. He left a daughter from his marriage to Princess Margarete of Thurn und Taxis. Early life Prince Gaetan of Bourbon-Parma was the youngest child of the last Duke of Parma, Robert I (1848–1907) and his second wife Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal (1862–1959), daughter of King Miguel of Portugal. Gaetan was the youngest of Duke Robert's twenty-four children. His father had married twice having twelve children in each marriage. Gaetan was born at the Villa Pianore near Lucca, Tuscany. He was baptized as Gaetano Maria Giuseppe Pio. His godfather was Pope Pius X. Gaetan was only two years old at the death of his father. He was sent to study at Stella Matutina, a Catholic school for boys run by Jesuits priest in Feldkirch, near the Swiss border. At the fall of the Hapsburg dynasty he moved with his brother, Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma to Paris. He finished his education in France and Luxembourg, where his brother Prince Felix of Bourbon-Parma was the husband of the reigning Grand duchess. He accompanied his brother Sixtus in his expeditions to Africa. Marriage On 29 April 1931 in Paris, France, Prince Gaetan married HSH Princess Margarete of Thurn and Taxis (1909–2006), daughter of Prince Alexander of Thurn and Taxis, Duke of Castel Duino and Princess Marie Louise of Ligne. They were parents of an only daughter: