Duchess of Alba, Spanish Noble With Record Titles, Dies at 88

By Charles Penty

Source: Europa Press/Europa Press via Getty Images

Spain’s Duchess of Alba is seen in San Lucar de Barrameda, Spain, Aug. 5. The duchess died today age 88.

Spain’s Duchess of Alba, the holder of more nobility titles than anyone in the world and one of Europe’s wealthiest aristocrats, has died. She was 88.
She died today at the Duenas Palace in Seville, Spain, a family spokesman confirmed by telephone. The duchess was admitted to Seville’s Quiron Sagrado Corazon hospital with pneumonia on Nov. 16, according to the hospital.
As the 18th holder of the Spanish dukedom that dates back to the 15th century, the duchess was 14 times a Spanish grandee, five times a duchess, once a countess-duchess, 18 times a marchioness, 18 times a countess and once a viscountess, according to the Guinness Book of Records, now known as Guinness World Records. While she was given “eight or nine” names by her parents, Cayetana was the one she preferred to use, according to her 2011 autobiography.
With her titles, estates and palaces in Madrid and Seville, the
duchess represented an ancestral Spain that survived the social upheavals of the last century. She was baptized at a font reserved for Spanish monarchs, and her godparents were King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia, a granddaughter of the U.K.’s Queen Victoria.
In December 2013, the newspaper El Mundo estimated the family’s wealth at about 3 billion euros ($3.8 billion).
The second woman to lead the Alba dynasty in 600 years, she courted modernity as a socialite who entertained movie stars such as Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn as well as former U.S. first lady Jacqueline Kennedy.

‘Immensely Popular’

“What she really loved most was bullfighters and flamenco dancers, and the Spanish people loved her as a result,” said Tom Burns Maranon, a Madrid-based writer whose grandfather, Gregorio Maranon, was a family friend. “She was immensely popular.”
In her later years, her personal life became a staple of Spanish gossip magazines and television shows, particularly after her third marriage, in 2011, to Alfonso Diez, a civil servant 24 years her junior. The couple marked the occasion by posing for a photo spread in Vanity Fair magazine.
The Alba inheritance includes a 1605 first edition of “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes; a sketch by Christopher Columbus of his boat, along with the roll of mariners that accompanied him on his first voyage; and the last will and testament of King Ferdinand the Catholic. Among its treasures, the House of Alba owns paintings by El Greco, Goya and Rubens, as well as bulls and missives from almost every pope since the 15th century, according to her book and the family foundation’s website.
Maria del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva was born on March 28, 1926, in the Liria Palace, the family’s residence in Madrid. She was the only daughter of the 17th Duke Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falco and Maria del Rosario Silva y Gurtubay.
In 1947, she married Luis Martinez de Irujo y Artazcoz. The couple had six children, all of whom carry aristocratic titles. Irujo died in 1972. In 1978, the duchess then married Jesus Aguirre y Ortiz de Zarate, a theologian. He died in 2001.