See study by S. Karsen (1971).
(born April 17, 1902, Mexico City, Mex.—died May 13, 1974, Mexico City) Mexican poet, novelist, educator, and statesman. He held various diplomatic and government posts, including minister of public education (1943–46) and foreign minister (1946–48). His verse, which early on revealed the influence of Modernismo, often returned to the themes of loneliness, a search for identity, and a longing for death. Cripta (1937) is considered to include his most important poems. His poetry was collected in Obra poética (1967). Of six novels published between 1927 and 1937, Sombras (1937) is considered his best. Afflicted by cancer, he took his own life.
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(born April 17, 1902, Mexico City, Mex.—died May 13, 1974, Mexico City) Mexican poet, novelist, educator, and statesman. He held various diplomatic and government posts, including minister of public education (1943–46) and foreign minister (1946–48). His verse, which early on revealed the influence of Modernismo, often returned to the themes of loneliness, a search for identity, and a longing for death. Cripta (1937) is considered to include his most important poems. His poetry was collected in Obra poética (1967). Of six novels published between 1927 and 1937, Sombras (1937) is considered his best. Afflicted by cancer, he took his own life.
Learn more about Torres Bodet, Jaime with a free trial on Britannica.com.
Jaime was educated by the Jesuits first at the Collège de Vaugirard in Paris and then at Beaumont College in Old Windsor. He then attended the Theresian Military Academy at Wiener Neustadt.
In 1896 Jaime received a commission in the Russian Army. He rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Guards Regiment of the Grodno Hussars. In 1900 and 1901 he took part in the Boxer Expedition, fighting in the Battle of Beitang. In 1904 and 1905 he took part in the Russo-Japanese War fighting in the Battle of Liaoyang and the Battle of Vafangon.
Jaime retired from the Russian Army. Henceforward he lived mostly at Schloss Frohsdorf in Lanzenkirchen in Austria and at his apartment in the Avenue Hoche in Paris. He visited Spain secretly on a number of occasions. He also owned the Villa dei Borbone at Tenuta Reale near Viareggio in Italy which he had inherited from his mother.
For part of World War I Jaime lived under house-arrest at Schloss Frohsdorf in Austria.
On April 16, 1923, by a decree to his Delegate-General in Spain, the Marques de Villores, Jaime created the Order of Prohibited Legitimacy (Orden de la Legitimidad Proscrita) to honour those who suffered imprisonment in Spain or were exiled for their loyalty to the Carlist cause.
In April 1931 the constitutional king of Spain Alfonso XIII was forced to leave the country and the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. Jaime issued a manifesto calling upon all monarchists to rally to the legitimist cause. Several months later, on September 23, Jaime received Alfonso in audience at his apartment in Paris. Two days later Alfonso and his wife Ena received Jaime at the Hotel Savoy d'Avon near Fontainebleau. Jaime conferred the collar of the Order of the Holy Spirit upon Alfonso. These meetings marked a certain rapprochement between the two claimants to the Spanish throne.
A week after his meetings with Alfonso, Jaime died in Paris. As he had never married and had no issue, he was succeeded in his claims by his uncle Alfonso Carlos, Duke of San Jaime. He was buried at the Villa dei Borbone at Tenuta Reale.
He was known as the Red pretender, due to his very leftist views, which brought him to the more liberal side compared with his Spanish rival Alfonso XIII, whose Isabellist tradition should have been less conservative than the Carlist one.
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