The spanish descendants of Michael William Balfe
Michael William Balfe
Michael W. Balfe ‘was born on 15 May 1808.at 10 Pitt Street Dublin, Ireland.
He was the son of William Balfe (musician and dance teacher) and Catherine Ryan.
We found the marriage of his parents in 1807 in a parrish of the Church of Ireland in Dublin.
M. W. Balfe was a great musician since childhood. In Dublin he took violin and music lessons with James Barton and William Rooke . After his father death in 1823 he moved to Great Britain where he became the great composer that we all know about.
There are many websites dedicated to M.W. Balfe . We are just trying to show that part of his descendants were spanish citizens.
More information about Balfe’s life and work can be found in this external reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_William_Balfe
Balfe's wife and children
William Balfe married Lina Roser (1808–1888) in Lugano, Switzerland. The couple met in Bergamo, Italy.
Lina was a Hungarian-born opera singer of Austrian parentage. In fact, Lina was the daughter of Franz de Paula Roser, great austrian composer.
More info about Frnz Roser can be found in this external link.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_de_Paula_Roser
Lina’s mother was Anna Maierhoffer. Anna was the daughter of the austrian architect Andreas Maierhoffer who lived and worked in Budapest . The Balfe couple had two sons and two daughters. Their younger son, Edward, died in infancy. Their elder son, Michael William Jr., died in 1915. Their daughters were Louisa (1832–1869) and Victoire (1837- 1871) who married a spanish nobleman .
Victoria Balfe, Duchess of Frias, Balfe’s second daughter
VICTORIA BALFE
(Also known as Victoire Crampton and Victoire Fernández de Velasco, duchess of Frías)
( Paris 1 September 1837 – Madrid 2 January 1871)
She was the daughter of Michael William Balfe and his wife, Magdalena (Lina) Roser.
She was trained by her father as a singer and also studied piano at the Paris Conservatoire and in London.
She became a famous opera singer .
More information can be found in this external ereference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Balfe
First marriage to Lord Crompton (British ambassador ) 30 years older, between 1860 and 1863. Lord Crompton was a friend of his father’s and it’s said that in the past he had lent a lot of money to Balfe .
Second marriage to Bernardino Fernandez de Velasco , Duke of Frias from 1864 to her death in 1871. Spanish law permits the wife to keep her maiden name after her marriage so Victoria’s name in Spain was Victoria Balfe y Roser.
The Duke and Duchess of Frías
Bernardino was born in Paris, where his father was the Spanish ambassador. Then he moved to Madrid with his family as his father was appointed Prime Minister of Spain.
He spent most of his youth between Paris and Biarritz where his family had a villa. He met Victoire Crompton in 1860- (while she was the British ambassador’s wife in Madrid)
There is no information about the couple between 1860 and 1863. In that date Victoria divorced from Lord Crompton. Our imagination is able to fly and create a novel or recreate one of the love stories described in Netflix series «the Bridgertons» . The opera singer and the nobleman’s love story.
After Victoire divorced from Lord Crompton, the Duke Bernardino and Victoire got married in 1864. That marriage with a protestant divorced woman was not accepted by the conservative Queen Elisabeth the Second of Spain.
The couple had to move to France. Mencia , their first daughter, was also born in Paris. The couple was able to come back to Spain in 1866 after the queen’s forgiveness.
In 1868 the spanish queen had to leave the country because of a Revolution called «la Gloriosa» in which Bernardino was said to be involved . A new king was appointed , his name was Amadeo I of Savoie.
Bernardino continued his carreer as a politician in 1870. He died in 1888 from Pneumonia being Madrid Governor.
The Duke and Duchess of Frias had three children: Mencia (1864-1940) Marquese of Fuensalida, a girl who could not be the Duchess of Frias because of the inner law of the dukedom . Bernardino (1866-1916) , the 16th Duke of Frías and Guillermo the 17th Duke of Frias (1868-1936):
Mencia Fernandez de Velasco was married but did not have descendants. Bernardino married Lady Cecilia Boleyn Knowles and had one daughter, Victoria. His daughter could not be the Duchess of Frias due to the inner law of Frias Dukedom. No women were allowed to use this title. Victoria had no descendants as far as we know.
As the result of this inner law, when Bernardino died in 1916, his younger brother Guillermo, Count of Oropesa, became the 17th Duke of Frias.
Guillermo Fernandez de Velasco (also known as Willie Oropesa) married Carolina Sforza Cesarini and had two children ,José, Fernandez de Velasco y Sforza ,18th Duke of Frias (1910-1986) and Carolina. Guillermo is suspected to be the father of an illegitimate daughter in 1890. Read about that story in the next blog entry.
Willie Oropesa legitimate children had no descendants.
As far as we know the line of legitimate descendants of W.M. Balfe in Spain ends with Jose Fernandez de Velasco y Sforza’s death in 1986. Since 1986 the Dukedom of Frias remains in hands of another noble Spanish family.
Bernardino and Guillermo were born in Madrid. We managed to find Bernardino’s birth certificate (text in Spanish) reporting his mother’s name and place of birth (Paris) and his grandparents’ William Michael Balfe , from Dublin and Lina Roser, from Budapest .
Check other Blog entries in English about Luis Buñuel’s genealogy
