were held to be excluded because of French nationality. Since the cruzadistas believed that there were no more male members of the House of Bourbon eligible to succeed to the Spanish throne, they held that the Carlist claim should pass at the death of Alfonso Carlos to the sons of his closest female relative, Blanca de Borbón y Borbón-Parma. This was a minority view in the Carlist movement, and one which was condemned by Alfonso Carlos himself. As long as Alfonso Carlos lived, Blanca and her sons, including Karl, were hesitant to press their claims. When Alfonso Carlos died in 1936, Karl at first supported the regent of the Carlist Communion, Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma, who had been appointed by Alfonso Carlos. In the confused circumstances of the Spanish Civil War Karl did not make any immediate claim to the throne. Carlist claimant On 29 June 1943 Karl issued a manifesto in which he claimed to be the legitimate successor to the Spanish throne. At the time, he had three older brothers still living, but none of these had shown an interest in claiming the throne for himself. In 1947 Karl's older brothers Leopold and Franz Josef formally renounced their rights in New York City. In 1948 his other brother Anton verbally renounced his rights in Barcelona. (Both Anton and Franz Josef would take up the claim after Karl died, and Anton's son Dominic is the current claimant.) Karl was recognised by his supporters as Carlos VIII; his movement is therefore called Carloctavismo or Octavismo. He used the title Duke of Madrid as his grandfather had done. Karl received the support of some of the most conservative Carlist leaders. He also received a certain level of support from some of General Franco's officials in the Movimiento Nacional; the followers of the Carlist regent Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma claimed that the Francoist support was merely an attempt to divide Carlists. Karl moved to Andorra and then returned to Barcelona. Between 1944 and 1951 he gave out fourteen titles of nobility; he also named members to the Order of Proscribed Legitimacy and the Order of Saint Mary of the Lily of Navarre. He established a new order of merit named in honour of Saint Charles Borromeo. In 1952 he awarded the collar of this order to General Franco and the grand cross of the order to Federico Cardinal Tedeschini, papal legate to