Infanta Elena of Spain is the eldest daughter of King Juan Carlos I of Spain and Sofía of Greece and Denmark.
On 23 November 1994, her engagement to Spanish nobleman Jaime de Marichalar was announced. He gave her an engagement ring made with diamonds from a tiara belonging to his mother.
Shortly before the wedding, Elena’s father made her a Duchess in her own right. The Royal Decree stated, “In attention to the circumstances that occur in My very dear daughter Her Royal Highness Doña Elena de Borbón, Infanta of Spain, on the occasion of her marriage and as proof of My deep affection and love, I have seen fit to grant her, for life, the power to use the title of Duchess of Lugo. This is what I provide by this Royal Decree. JUAN CARLOS R., Royal Decree n.º 323 of 3 March 1995.”1
On 18 March 1995, Elena and Jaime were married in Seville Cathedral. It was the first Spanish royal wedding since the wedding of King Alfonso XIII and Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg in 1906.
The bride and her father arrived at the cathedral together as Spain’s national anthem was played on the organ.
Elena wore an “ivory silk organza dress with a heavily embroidered bodice.”2 Her tiara was the Marichalar Meander Tiara, which was a wedding gift from her future husband.
Among the foreign royal guests were then Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Paola of Belgium, Prince Rainier II of Monaco, and the then Prince of Wales, who reportedly left early as he had to attend Prince Harry’s school play.3
The streets of Seville were packed with around 100,000 people, and millions more watched the wedding on TV. Elena and Jaime were greeted by the crowds as they left the cathedral in a horse-drawn carriage.
Elena went to a nearby church to leave her bouquet of flowers on the tomb of her great-grandparents, Princess Louise of Orléans and Prince Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.4
Upon marriage, Jaime became known as the Duke of Lugo.
The couple went on to have a son and a daughter together before they were divorced in 2010. Jaime is no longer known as Duke of Lugo.
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