Prince Jaime, Count of Bardi

Prince Jaime Bernardo of Bourbon-Parma, Count of Bardi (born 13 October 1972) is the second son and third child of Princess Irene of the Netherlands and Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma. He is a member of the Royal and Ducal House of Bourbon-Parma, and also an extended member of the Dutch Royal Family. From 2014 to 2018 he was the Dutch ambassador to the Holy See. He currently is the Senior Advisor Private Sector Partnerships at UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency.

Prince Jaime
Count of Bardi
Prince Jaime at the World Economic Forum on India in 2012
Born	13 October 1972 Nijmegen, Netherlands
Spouse	Viktória Cservenyák ​ (m. 2013)​
Issue	Princess Zita Princess Gloria
House	Bourbon-Parma
Father	Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma
Mother	Princess Irene of the Netherlands

Early life

Prince Jaime was born in Nijmegen, Netherlands. He has a twin sister, Princess Margarita, who was born one minute earlier. Besides his twin sister, the prince has one elder brother, Carlos, Duke of Parma, and one younger sister, Princess Carolina. Prince Jaime was born six weeks prematurely and stayed with his sister in an incubator at the hospital. Jaime was baptised by Cardinal Bernardus Johannes Alfrink, with his grandfather Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld and Princess Madeleine of Bourbon-Parma as his godparents.

In 1981 his parents decided to divorce. Together with his mother and his siblings he moved to the Soestdijk Palace (Baarn), then residence of his grandparents, Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard, where he lived for several years.

Education and career

Prince Jaime studied international relations at Brown University in the United States. After finishing this study he subsequently obtained a M.A. degree in International Economics and Conflict Management at Johns Hopkins University. During this study he performed an internship at the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Red Cross.

He now works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. His first role was as the prime secretary of the Netherlands Embassy in Baghdad, before becoming a political advisor to the peace mission in Pol-e Khomri in the Baghlan Province in the northern part of Afghanistan. Until the summer of 2007 the prince worked on secondment in the cabinet of the European Commissioner Neelie Kroes. He was back in The Hague at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he has the position of Special Envoy for Natural Resources. On 7 February 2014, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that he would be appointed as ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Holy See.[1] Prince Jaime was, on 15 July 2014, sworn in as ambassador by King Willem-Alexander. On 20 December 2014 he offered his credentials to Pope Francis.[2] He now is seconded to UNHCR, the United Nations Agency for Refugees, as Senior Advisor Private Sector Partnerships.

Other activities

Prince Jaime has also worked as an interviewer for the documentary series Africa, War is Business. In the documentary he investigated and explained how a country that is very rich in raw materials can be dominated by poverty and conflict. In the series he visited Sierra Leone and its diamond fields, Liberia to see how an export embargo on its hardwood is carried out, and the DR Congo, where he goes on a night patrol in the war-torn east of the country, an area rich in gold and cobalt. In the documentary possible solutions are displayed from the perspective of the international community.[3]

The prince performs representative tasks for the Ducal House of Bourbon-Parma. He is regularly present at royal marriages, baptismal ceremonies, and funerals.

Personal life

On 12 August 2013, Prince Jaime's engagement to Viktória Cservenyák was announced. Cservenyák (born 25 May 1982 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-born Dutch attorney and daughter of Tibor Cservenyák and his former wife, Dorottya Klára Bartos. On 3 October 2013, they married in a civil wedding ceremony in Wijk bij Duurstede. Their religious wedding took place on 5 October 2013, at the Church of Our Lady in Apeldoorn.[4]

They have two daughters: Zita Clara (born on 21 February 2014), who was named after her paternal great-great aunt Empress Zita of Austria and her maternal great grandmother Klára Killermann.[5] On 9 November 2015, it was announced that the couple were expecting a second child; daughter Gloria Irene was born on 9 May 2016. In a 2015 interview, Princess Viktória stated that the gender of her future child did not matter ("fortunately, we can not influence nature in the terms of gender"), after being told that there were no grandsons for the late Duke of Parma[6] (in April 2016, Jaime's elder brother Carlos, Duke of Parma finally had a son, named Carlos Enrique).[7]

Titles, styles and honours

Titles

• 13 October 1972 – 2 September 1996: His Royal Highness Prince Jaime of Bourbon-Parma
• 2 September 1996 – present: His Royal Highness Prince Jaime, Count of Bardi[8]
  • Officially in the Netherlands: 15 May 1996 – present: His Royal Highness Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme

Honours

Dynastic honours

• Ducal Family of Parma:
  • Bailiff Knight of the Parmese Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George
  • Chancellor Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Louis for Civil Merit

Foreign honours

• SMOM: Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• Grand Cross in the Order of Pope Pius IX

Ancestry

Ancestors of Prince Jaime, Count of Bardi

8. Robert I, Duke of Parma 4. Xavier, Duke of Parma 9. Infanta Maria Antonia of Portugal 2. Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma 10. Georges de Bourbon, Count of Lignières 5. Madeleine de Bourbon-Busset 11. Marie Jeanne de Kerret de Quillien 1. Prince Jaime, Count of Bardi 12. Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld 6. Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld 13. Armgard of Sierstorpff-Cramm 3. Princess Irene of the Netherlands 14. Duke Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin 7. Juliana of the Netherlands 15. Wilhelmina of the Netherlands

Notes

Already a ducal prince from birth, his father bestowed the substantive title Conte di Bardi (Count of Bardi) upon him on 2 September 1996.[8] In 1996 he was incorporated into the Dutch nobility by Queen Beatrix, with the highest noble title Prins de Bourbon de Parme (Prince of Bourbon-Parma),[9] and styled Zijne Koninklijke Hoogheid (His Royal Highness). His other titles hold no ground within the Dutch nobility. He does not belong to the House of Orange-Nassau or the limited Dutch royal house, but as a grandson of Queen Juliana and cousin of the present King Willem-Alexander, he is an official member of the more extended Dutch royal family.[10]

References

1. (in Dutch) Kabinet geeft vorm aan modernisering diplomatie met benoeming van 20 nieuwe ambassasdeurs Website Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 7 February 2014
2. NOS 20 December 2014
3. "Africa: War is Business – The complete series". Fatal Transactions. 5 September 2006. Archived from the original on 30 July 2012. Retrieved 21 July 2008.
4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 October 2013. Retrieved 5 October 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. 10 mei 2016 (22 February 1999). "Babynieuws! Dochter voor prins Jaime en prinses Viktória". Vorsten.nl. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
6. "Prinses Viktória: geslacht baby maakt niet uit | Entertainment". Telegraaf.nl. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
7. Gazzetta di Parma (25 September 2016). "In Duomo il battesimo del Principe Carlo Enrico – Gazzetta di Parma". Gazzettadiparma.it. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
8. Almanach de Gotha (182nd ed.). Almanach de Gotha. 1998. p. 55. ISBN 0-9532142-0-6.
9. "The 14th list of nobility determined by royal decree on 9 June 2004 (Stb.307)" (PDF). Website of the High Council of Nobility in the Netherlands
10. "Members of the Dutch Royal House and the royal family". Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Postbus 51 – Website of the Dutch Government Information Service (in Dutch)

External links

• Official website of the House of Bourbon-Parma