Prince Alfonso Maximiliano Victorio Eugenio Alejandro María Pablo de la Santísima Trinidad y Todos los Santos zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (28 May 1924 – 21 December 2003) was a Spanish businessman known for his promotion of the Spanish resorts of

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the r ...

and the ''

Costa del Sol The Costa del Sol (literally "Coast of the Sun" or "Sun Coast") is a region in the south of Spain in the autonomous community of Andalusia, comprising the coastal towns and communities along the coastline of the Province of Málaga and the easte ...

''. He also founded the

Marbella Club Hotel The Marbella Club Hotel is a hotel in Marbella, Spain. The hotel is located on the southern Spanish Costa del Sol, on the " Golden Mile" near Old Town Marbella and Puerto Banús. The Marbella Club Hotel was built in 1954 by Prince Alfonso of ...

Background

He was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

as the eldest son of Prince Maximilian Egon zu

Hohenlohe-Langenburg Hohenlohe-Langenburg () was a German county and later principality in the Holy Roman Empire. It was located in the current northeastern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, around Langenburg. Since the medieval times this small state was ruled by the Hous ...

(1897–1968) and his wife, María de la Piedad de Yturbe y von Scholtz-Hermensdorff, Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas (1892–1990). She was known as ''Piedita'' and was the daughter of Manuel Adrián de Yturbe y del Villar (Mexican ambassador to St. Petersburg, Vienna, Paris and Madrid) and María de la Trinidad von Scholtz-Hermensdorff y Caravaca, Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas. On his father's side, Hohenlohe came from a family which traced its history to the 12th century''Genealogisches Handbuch des Adels, Fürstliche Häuser'' XV, C.A. Starke Verlag, 1997, pp.227–239. and whose members were reigning

Princes of the Holy Roman Empire Prince of the Holy Roman Empire ( la, princeps imperii, german: Reichsfürst, cf. ''Fürst'') was a title attributed to a hereditary ruler, nobleman or prelate recognised as such by the Holy Roman Emperor. Definition Originally, possessors o ...

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

until

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's invasion. He descended from a younger, Catholic branch that had inherited property in Bohemia during the 19th century. His mother Piedad was Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas and granddaughter of Francisco-María de Yturbe, Mexican Minister of Finance, of

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

origin. King Alfonso XIII of Spain was his godfather at a christening in the royal palace. Alfonso had five siblings – Maria Francesca (known as ''Pimpinella'', his eldest sister, Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas), Christian, Elisabeth, Max Emanuel and Beatrice (known as ''Teñu''). The hereditary wealth of the Hohenlohe family was depleted in the 20th century. His mother lost estates in the

Mexican Revolution The Mexican Revolution ( es, Revolución Mexicana) was an extended sequence of armed regional conflicts in Mexico from approximately 1910 to 1920. It has been called "the defining event of modern Mexican history". It resulted in the destruction ...

, and after the fall of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

, property in Germany and Czechoslovakia disappeared behind the

iron curtain The Iron Curtain was the political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of World War II in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991. The term symbolizes the efforts by the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its s ...

Early life

Alfonso was educated by private tutors in Bohemia and Spain, learning fluent German, Spanish, French and English. His father owned Rothenhaus Castle (today Červený Hrádek Castle in

Jirkov Jirkov (; german: Görkau) is a town in Chomutov District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants. Jirkov creates a conurbation with Chomutov. Administrative parts Town parts and villages of Březenec ...

, Czech Republic) where he tried to prevent the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Hitler in 1938 through diplomatic negotiations with the British government. In August 1938, the British mediator in the dispute between Germany and Czechoslovakia over the

Sudetenland The Sudetenland ( , ; Czech and sk, Sudety) is the historical German name for the northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by Sudeten Germans. These German speakers had predominated in the ...

Lord Runciman Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford, (19 November 1870 – 14 November 1949) was a prominent Liberal and later National Liberal politician in the United Kingdom. His 1938 diplomatic mission to Czechoslovakia was key to the e ...

, met the leader of the

Sudeten German Party The Sudeten German Party (german: Sudetendeutsche Partei, SdP, cs, Sudetoněmecká strana) was created by Konrad Henlein under the name ''Sudetendeutsche Heimatfront'' ("Front of the Sudeten German Homeland") on 1 October 1933, some months afte ...

(SdP),

Konrad Henlein Konrad Ernst Eduard Henlein (6 May 1898 – 10 May 1945) was a leading Sudeten German politician in Czechoslovakia. Upon the German occupation in October 1938 he joined the Nazi Party as well as the '' SS'' and was appointed ''Gauleiter'' of the ...

, at Rothenhaus Castle − to no avail. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Max Egon of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, without having an official function, tried several times in vain to prevent a further escalation of the war in Europe, to contribute to an agreement with Great Britain in the summer of 1940 and from 1942 he repeatedly conspired with diplomats of the

Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

with the aim of removing Hitler from power. After

, Prince Max Egon was expropriated by the communist government of the

Czechoslovak Socialist Republic The Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, ČSSR, formerly known from 1948 to 1960 as the Czechoslovak Republic or Fourth Czechoslovak Republic, was the official name of Czechoslovakia from 1960 to 29 March 1990, when it was renamed the Czechoslovak ...

. Alfonso then moved with his parents to Spain. There he discovered the idyllic fishing village Marbella on a trip and decided to buy land there in 1947. He sold plots to various rich and powerful friends, including the

Rothschild Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by sign ...

and Thyssen families and

Ferdinand von Bismarck Ferdinand Herbord Ivar, Prince of Bismarck (German language, German: ''Ferdinand Herbord Ivar Fürst von Bismarck''; 22 November 1930 – 23 July 2019) was a German lawyer and landowner from the family of statesman Otto von Bismarck. He was the he ...

. In 1954 he created the Marbella Club, the ''Costa del Sols first luxury hotel, attracting many celebrities of the time to the former fishing village. On 3 August 1954, he survived a plane crash in

Preston, Connecticut Preston is a New England town, town in New London County, Connecticut, New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 4,788 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town includes the villages of Long Society, Preston Ci ...

. The family fortune was replenished by Alfonso's marriage in 1955 to the 15-year-old Austrian-Italian

Princess Ira von Fürstenberg Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

, a

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

heiress. The bride's youth evoked some scandal in high society, but the couple had obtained a

papal dispensation In the jurisprudence of the canon law of the Catholic Church, a dispensation is the exemption from the immediate obligation of law in certain cases.The Law of Christ Vol. I, pg. 284 Its object is to modify the hardship often arising from the ...

for the marriage and 400 guests attended a 16-day wedding party. Five years later, the marriage was dissolved by divorce in Mexico City after Ira left him to marry notorious 1950s playboy Francisco "Baby" Pignatari, another papal dispensation being obtained, this time for an

annulment Annulment is a legal procedure within Law, secular and Religious law, religious legal systems for declaring a marriage Void (law), null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually ex post facto law, retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is c ...

, from the Church in 1969.

Later life

Marbella - Milla de Oro, Marbella Club Hotel 1

After the divorce, the prince had much-publicised relationships with actresses

Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' attention in 1946 with her perform ...

and

Kim Novak Marilyn Pauline "Kim" Novak (born February 13, 1933) is an American retired film and television actress and painter. Novak began her career in 1954 after signing with Columbia Pictures and quickly became one of Hollywood's top box office stars, ...

. In 1973, he married actress

Jocelyn Lane Jocelyn "Jackie" Lane (born 16 May 1937) is a former actress and model of the 1950s and 1960s. She was married to Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. Early life Lane was born as Jocelyn Olga Bolton in Vienna, Austria in 1937. She is the y ...

. This too was a stormy partnership, and ended in divorce in 1985. In the 1990s, the property speculator Jesus Gil y Gil became mayor of Marbella, and the town entered a construction boom. The prince pulled out, selling his shares in the Marbella Club due to the area's increasing association with Arab arms traffickers and

Russian mafia Russian organized crime or Russian mafia (, ), otherwise known as Bratva (), is a collective of various organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union. The initialism OPG is Organized Criminal (''prestupnaya'' in Russian) Gr ...

, whose conspicuous consumption was peppered with violence. He moved to the town of

Ronda Ronda () is a town in the Spanish province of Málaga. It is located about west of the city of Málaga, within the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its population is about 35,000. Ronda is known for its cliff-side location and a deep chasm ...

and successfully turned his efforts to wine-making, with new wife Marilys Haynes. His last wife died on 2 November 2000, apparently taking her own life, the same year he learned he had prostate cancer.

Marriages and issue

* He married his first wife HSH Princess Ira zu Fürstenberg on 17 September 1955 (civil) and 21 September 1955 (religious) in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

; and the couple were divorced in 1960, annulled in 1969. They had two sons: Prince Christoph "Kiko" von Hohenlohe (1956–2006) and

Prince Hubertus of Hohenlohe-Langenburg Hubertus Rudolph zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg (born 2 February 1959; ), commonly known as Hubertus von Hohenlohe, is a Mexican alpine skier, photographer, and businessman. He was previously a pop singer using the names Andy Himalaya and Royal Disaster. ...

(1959–). * He married his second wife

on 3 May 1973, in

, with whom he had a daughter Princess Arriana Theresa (b. 1975). * He married Marilys Healing (1941–2000) on 15 February 1991, in

Vaduz Vaduz ( or , High Alemannic pronunciation: [])Hans Stricker, Toni Banzer, Herbert Hilbe: ''Liechtensteiner Namenbuch. Die Orts- und Flurnamen des Fürstentums Liechtenstein.'' Band 2: ''Die Namen der Gemeinden Triesenberg, Vaduz, Schaan.'' Hrsg. ...

. * With former model Heidi Balzer he also has extramarital daughter, Désirée, Countess d'Ursel (b. 1980).

Death

He died in Marbella on 21 December 2003.

Ancestry

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfonso Of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Prince Princes of Hohenlohe-Langenburg House of Hohenlohe-Langenburg 1924 births 2003 deaths Spanish people of German descent Businesspeople from Madrid