Princess Maria Carolina Christina of Bourbon-Parma, Marchioness of Sala (born 23 June 1974), is the fourth and youngest child of

Princess Irene of the Netherlands Princess Irene of the Netherlands (Irene Emma Elisabeth; born 5 August 1939) is the second child of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard. In 1964, she converted to Catholicism and married the then- Prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon- ...

and Carlos Hugo, Duke of Parma. She is a member of the

House of Bourbon-Parma The House of Bourbon-Parma ( it, Casa di Borbone di Parma) is a cadet branch of the Spanish royal family, whose members once ruled as King of Etruria and as Duke of Parma and Piacenza, Guastalla, and Lucca. The House descended from the Fren ...

as well an extended member of the

Dutch royal family The monarchy of the Netherlands is a constitutional monarchy. As such, the role and position of the monarch are governed by the Constitution of the Netherlands. Consequently, a large portion of it is devoted to the monarch. Roughly a third of ...

. Per a 1996 royal decree issued by Queen Beatrix, she is entitled to the style and title '' Her Royal Highness'' Princess Maria Carolina de Bourbon de Parme in The Netherlands as a member of the extended royal family.

Early life

Princess Carolina was born at 23 June 1974 in Nijmegen. She has two older brothers, Prince Carlos, the head of the

, and Prince Jaime. She also has one older sister, Princess Margarita. She was baptised at the Castle of Lignières in France with

Prince Claus of the Netherlands Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Jonkheer van Amsberg (born Klaus-Georg Wilhelm Otto Friedrich Gerd von Amsberg; 6 September 1926 – 6 October 2002) was Prince consort of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until his death in 2002 as the husband ...

Princess Christina of the Netherlands Princess Christina of the Netherlands (Maria Christina; 18 February 1947 – 16 August 2019) was the youngest of four daughters of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld. Early life Princess Christina, who wa ...

and

Princess Marie des Neiges of Bourbon-Parma Princess Marie des Neiges Madeleine Françoise of Bourbon-Parma, Countess of Castillo de la Mota (Spanish: ''María de las Nieves de Borbón-Parma'', French: ''Marie des Neiges de Bourbon-Parme''; born 29 April 1937) is a French aristocrat, orn ...

as her godparents. In 1981, when she was six, her parents decided to divorce. She moved together with her mother and her brothers and sister to

Soest, Netherlands Soest () is a municipality and a town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. It is about west of Amersfoort. Population centres The town of Soest The oldest documents mentioning Soest (then written as ''Zoys'') date from ...

, nearby the then residence of her grandparents the former Queen of the Netherlands

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands Juliana (; Juliana Louise Emma Marie Wilhelmina; 30 April 1909 – 20 March 2004) was Queen of the Netherlands from 1948 until her abdication in 1980. Juliana was the only child of Queen Wilhelmina and Prince Henry of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. S ...

and

Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld , house = Lippe , father = Prince Bernhard of Lippe , mother = Armgard von Cramm , birth_date = , birth_name = Count Bernhard of Biesterfeld , birth_place = Jena, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany , death_date = ...

. Later on they lived for a while in a villa at

Wijk bij Duurstede Wijk bij Duurstede () is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands. Population centres * Cothen * Langbroek *Wijk bij Duurstede Topography ''Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Wijk bij Duurstede, 2013.'' City The city ...

Education and career

Princess Carolina studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, and also has an M.Sc. in Forced Migration from the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. She has had a career at the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

. For this organisation she was stationed at the UN headquarters in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, as well as problematic areas such as Eritrea, the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

, and in Acheh (

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

) after the

2004 Indian Ocean tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

. She is currently employed at the United Nations in

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

, in the Organisation for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Marriage

On 9 January 2012, it was announced Carolina would marry Albert Alphons Ludgerus Brenninkmeijer, (born 16 May 1974), a member of the wealthy

Brenninkmeijer family Brenninkmeijer (german: Brenninkmeyer) is a Roman Catholic Dutch/German/Swiss family of manufacturers, which own an international chain of clothing stores. Originally the family came from Tecklenburger Land (Westphalia), selling linen in Fri ...

. The

civil marriage A civil marriage is a marriage performed, recorded, and recognized by a government official. Such a marriage may be performed by a religious body and recognized by the state, or it may be entirely secular. History Every country maintaining a pop ...

took place on 21 April 2012 at

. The church wedding took place at the

San Miniato al Monte San Miniato al Monte (St. Minias on the Mountain) is a basilica in Florence, central Italy, standing atop one of the highest points in the city. It has been described as one of the finest Romanesque structures in Tuscany and one of the most scenic ...

on 16 June 2012 in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

, Italy. The couple have two children, a daughter and a son: * Alaïa-Maria Irene Cécile Brenninkmeijer, born 20 May 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland. She had a double christening with her cousin Princess Zita Clara of Bourbon-Parma on 4 October 2014 at Noordwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. Her godparents are Princess Margarita of Bourbon-Parma,

Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands (''Constantijn Christof Frederik Aschwin''; born 11 October 1969) is the third and youngest son of the former Dutch queen, Beatrix, and her husband, Claus von Amsberg, and is the younger brother of the rei ...

, Philippe Brenninkmeijer and Silvia Brenninkmeijer-Arboli. * Xavier Albert Alphons Brenninkmeijer, born 16 December 2015 in Zurich, Switzerland.

Other activities

The princess has been seen regularly at important events of the royal house of the Netherlands. In 2001 she was one of the maids of honor at the wedding of Prince Constantijn and Petra Laurentien Brinkhorst; and during the baptism of their daughter,

Countess Eloise of Orange-Nassau Countess Eloise of Oranje-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg (Eloise Beatrix Sophie Laurence; born 8 June 2002), in the media often styled as simply Eloise van Oranje, is the first child and daughter of Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien o ...

, she was the godmother of the child. She was a witness at the church wedding of her cousin

Prince Floris of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven Prince Floris Frederik Martijn of Orange-Nassau, van Vollenhoven (born 10 April 1975) is the fourth and youngest son of Princess Margriet of the Netherlands and Pieter van Vollenhoven. Prince Floris has three older brothers: Prince Maurits, Pr ...

, and in 2010, was named as the godmother of Floris' second child, Eliane.

Titles, styles and honours

Already a ducal princess from birth, her father bestowed the substantive title ''Marchesa di Sala'' (

Marchioness A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman w ...

of Sala) upon her on 2 September 1996. In 1996 she was incorporated into the

Dutch nobility The Dutch nobility is a small elite social class constisting of individuals or families recognized as noble, and with or without a title of nobility in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The existence of nobility was established in the Constitution ...

by her aunt

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her husban ...

, with the highest title of nobility ''Prinses de Bourbon de Parme'' (Princess of Bourbon-Parma) and styled ''Hare Koninklijke Hoogheid'' ('' Her Royal Highness''). She does not belong to the House of Orange-Nassau or the limited

Dutch royal house In the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the monarchy is a constitutional office and is controlled by the Constitution of the Netherlands. A distinction is made between members of the royal family and members of the royal house. Membership According t ...

, but as a granddaughter of Queen Juliana and first cousin of the present

King Willem-Alexander Willem-Alexander (; Willem-Alexander Claus George Ferdinand; born ) is King of the Netherlands, having acceded to the throne following his mother's abdication in 2013. Willem-Alexander was born in Utrecht as the oldest child of Princess Beatr ...

, she is officially a member of the more extended

. ;Honours * Ducal Family of Parma: Knight of the Parmese Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George * Ducal Family of Parma: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Louis for Civil Merit * : Recipient of the King Willem-Alexander Investiture Medal

Ancestry

References

External links

Official website of the House of Bourbon-ParmaSecond official website of the House of Bourbon-Parma

Biography of Her Royal Highness Princess Maria Carolina
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carolina, Marchioness Of Sala 1974 births People from Nijmegen Harvard University alumni Princesses of Bourbon-Parma Dutch princesses Italian nobility Spanish nobility Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford University of Amsterdam alumni