Issue Princess Zita Name Prince Count | House House of Bourbon-Parma Children Princess Zita | |
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Born 13 October 1972 (age 51)
Nijmegen, Netherlands ( 1972-10-13 ) Spouse Viktoria Cservenyak (m. 2013) Father Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma Mother Princess Irene of the Netherlands Parents Princess Irene of the Netherlands, Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma Grandparents Juliana of the Netherlands Cousins Willem‑Alexander of the Netherlands, Prince Friso of Orange‑Nassau, Prince Constantijn of the Net Similar People Carlos - Duke of Parma, Princess Irene of the Netherlands, Princess Margarita of Bourbo, Carlos Hugo - Duke of P, Princess Carolina - Marchion | ||
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 the 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 and a Dutch nobleman with the title Prince de Bourbon de Parme. The title "Count of Bardi" is not recognized within the Dutch nobility. Since 2014 he has been the Dutch ambassador to the Holy See.
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Early life
Prince Jaime was born in Nijmegen. 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 Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Princess Madeleine of Bourbon-Parma as his godparents.
In 1981 his parents decided to divorce. Together with his mother and his siblings he then moved to the Soestdijk Palace (Baarn), the then residence 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 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. 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.
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.
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 Dr. 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. They have two daughters: Zita Clara (born on (2014-02-21)21 February 2014), who was named after her paternal great-great aunt Empress Zita of Austria and her maternal great grandmother Klára Killermann; and Gloria Irene (born on (2016-05-09)9 May 2016). On 9 November 2015, it was announced that the couple were expecting this second child. In a later interview, Princess Viktória stated that the gender of her 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.