Prince Jaime of Bourbon-Parma,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 late 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. The prince is the heir presumptive to the headship of the House of Bourbon-Parma. Since 2014 he is the Dutch ambassador to the Holy See.

Early Life

Prince Jaime was born in Nijmegen. He has twin sister, Princess Margarita, who was born one minute earlier. Besides his twin sister, the prince has one elder brother, Carlos, Duke of Parna 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 baptized by Cardinal Bernardus Johannes Alfrink with Prince Berhard of the Netherlands as his godfather.

In 1981 his parents decided to divorce. Together with his mother and his siblings he then moved to the Soestdijk Palace (Baarn), the then resident of the queen of the Netherlands. He lived at the palace for a number of years with his grandparents, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard, the Prince consort.

Education and Career

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

He now works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands. His first roles were as the prime secretary of the Netherlands Embassy in Baghdad, before becoming a political adviser 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 Natural Resources. On 7 February 2014, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ann announced that he would be appointed as ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Holy See. Prince Jaime was 15 July 2014 sworn in as ambassador by king Willem-Alexander. On 20 December 2014 he offered his credentials to pope Francis.

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, before finishing the series in the Democratic Republic of the 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.

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

Personal Life

On 12 August 2013, Prince Jame’s engagement to Viktoria Cservenyak was announced. Cservenyak (born 25 May 1982 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-born Dutch attorney and daughter of Dr. Tibor Cservenyak and his former wife, Dorottya Klara Bartos. On 3 October 2013, they married in a civil wedding ceremony in Wijk bij Duurstede, the Netherlands. Their religious wedding took place on 5 October 2013 at the Church of Our Lady in Apeldoorn.

On 21 February 2014 at 12:40 at the Our Lady Hospital in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Princess Viktoria gave birth to their first child:

-Her Royal Highness Princess Zita Clara of Bourbon-Parma. She weighted 3626 grams and was named after her great-great aunt, Empress Zita, and after her maternal great-grandmother, Klara Killermann. She had a double baptism with her cousin, Alaia-Maria Brenninkmeijer, on 4 October 2014 at Noordwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. Her godparents are King Willem-Alexander, Princess Margarita of Bourbon-Parma, Princess Maria-Teresa of Bourbon-Parma, Dorothea Riet-Bartos and Jacco Eltingh.

On 9 December 2015, it was announced that the couple are expecting their second child. In a later interview, Princess Viktoria stated that the gender of her child does not matter: “fortunately, we can not influence nature in the terms of gender “ after being told that there were no grandsons for the later Duke of Parma.

Titles, Styles and Honors

Honors

National Honors

-Ducal Family of Parma: Bailiff Knight of the Parmese Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George

-Ducal Family of Parma: Chancellor Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Louis for Civil Merit

-Netherlands: Medal of the King Willem-Alexander Investiture Order

Foreign Honors

-Malta: Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta

13 October 1972-2 September 1996: His Royal Highness Prince Jaime Bernardo of Bourbon-Parma

2 September 1996-present: His Royal Highness Prince Jaime Bernardo of Bourbon-Parma, The Count of Bardi

House: Bourbon-Parma

(https://infogalactic.com)

-Gran Cross in the Order of Pope Pius IX

(https://en.wikipedia.org)