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The Dukes of Medina Sidonia are Grandees of Spain, holding the oldest dukedom extant in the Kingdom, first awarded by King John II of Castile in 1455. They were once the most prominent magnate family of the Andalusian region, the most well-known of which, Don Alonso de Guzmán El Bueno, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, commanded the Spanish Armada at the end of the 16th century.
Counts of Niebla
The branch of the Guzmán family to which the dukes of Medina Sidonia descended was founded by Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (1256-1309), named "El Bueno" ("The Good"). In 1296 he defended the town of Tarifa, a key point in controlling the sea traffic through the Strait of Gibraltar on behalf of Ferdinand IV of Castile, and when the besiegers threatened to murder one of his sons whom they held as a prisoner if he did not surrender, he allowed the boy to be killed.
He was rewarded by large grants of crown land, and lent large amounts of money to the young King Ferdinand IV, sheltered by his mother, Dowager Queen Regent of Castile, María de Molina, to get Papal recognition from Rome on the rights of her son.
1st Count de Niebla
The Counts of Niebla, existed from no later than 8 June 1369 by the second marriage of Juan Alonso de Guzman y Cabrera, also named Juan Alonso de Guzman y Osorio (1342-1396), who was married twice, first to Juana Enriquez (d. 1376), and then Beatriz de Castilla y Ponce de Leon (d. 1409), an illegitimate daughter of Henry II of Castile.
2nd Count de Niebla
Their son Enrique Pérez de Guzmán y de Castilla (c.1376–1436), was the 2nd Count of Niebla. On 24 November 1391 he married Teresa de Orozco, daughter of Lorenzo Suarez de Figueroa, Master of the Military Order of Santiago, and of Maria de Orozco. He was married again on 5 March 1405, to Violante Martinez de Aragón, the illegitimate daughter of King Martin I of Sicily (1374-1409), and his mistress Agathe de Pesce. However this marriage was annulled, and in 1428 he married Isabel de Mosquera. The duke was drowned while besieging Gibraltar, then under the control of the Spanish Moors.
3rd Count de Niebla
From the first marriage was born the 3rd Count de Niebla, Juan Alonso de Guzmán y Suárez de Figueroa-Orozco (c.1405–1468), who was awarded the title of Duke of Medina Sidonia by King John II of Castile on February 1445.
This was apparently not the first time however that the title of Duke of Medina Sidonia was awarded. King Henry II of Castile (c.1334-1379), had an illegitimate son named Enrique de Castilla y de Sousa with a Juana de Sousa, but after being made a Duke by his father, he died in 1404, without a successor. The title then returned to the Crown under King Henry III of Castile, until it was awarded again in 1445 by Henry III's son, King John II of Castile, to the Guzmán family.
The addition of "El Bueno" to the family name of Guzmán was used much later than the ends of the 13th century by several members of the house, proud of their Nordic background by then, which included many statesmen, generals and colonial viceroys.
Dukes of Medina Sidonia
2nd Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Enrique Pérez de Guzmán y Meneses (d.1492), became the 2nd Duke in 1468. Born out of wedlock his birth was later legitimized by the "Reyes Católicos" Ferdinand and Isabella, and consequently the right to inherit the title. He participated in the Conquest of the Emirate of Granada. He was granted in 1478 the title of Marquis of Gibraltar.
3rd Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Juan Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán y Afán de Ribera (1464-1507), inherited the title in 1492, aged 28. His mother is known as Leonor de Mendoza y Ribera, although he was known by using as his second name "Afan de Ribera". In 1502, as Gibraltar was transferred to the Crown, the Marquisate of Gibraltar disappeared.
This could be because his mother was a Mendoza and it was not unknown for women and ecclesiastics to use the name of their mother, in spite of her father being an "Afan de Ribera".
He married twice, being the father of the 4th, 5th and 6th Duke.
4th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Enrique Pérez de Guzman y Fernández de Velasco (d. 1512), duke from 1507. No issue by his wife María Téllez Girón.
5th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán y de Guzmán-Zúñiga (d.1549), duke from 1512, the half brother of the 4th Duke. Declared "impotent and stupid" ("mentecato", in XVI Century Spanish language) by King Charles I of Spain in 1518, his wife Ana de Aragón, was the daughter of Alonso of Aragón, Archbishop of Zaragoza, the illegitimate son of Ferdinand II of Aragon. After the 5th duke's death, his widow married his brother Juan Alfonso, the 6th Duke.
6th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Juan Alfonso Perez de Guzman y de Guzmán_Zúñiga (1503-1559). He was the father, with Ana de Aragón, of Juan Claros de Guzman y Aragón, or Juan Carlos Pérez de Guzmán y Aragón (d. 1556), who married Leonor de Zúñiga y Sotomayor. However as Don Juan Carlos, predeceased his father in 1556, the title passed to his eldest son.
7th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Alonso Pérez de Guzmán El Bueno y Zúñiga-Sotomayor (1549-1615), the grandson of the 6th duke, who inherited the title in 1559, aged 10. He was also 9th Count of Niebla, and served as Admiral of the ill-fated Spanish Armada in 1588.
In 1596, during a war between Spain and England, the sea-faring city of Cádiz was attacked by British Admiral Charles Howard, with the troops of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex and the support of the Protestant Dutch faction in the Low Countries, while in 1606 several ships of a Spanish Fleet were also lost near Gibraltar in a fight with the Dutch Navy.
He was, however, amongst other things made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1581, and served as a Governor in Lombardy, Italy. He married Ana de Silva y Mendoza, a daughter of the Princess of Eboli.
8th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Juan Manuel Pérez de Guzman y Silva (1579-1636), who became duke in 1615, aged 36. He married in 1598, aged 19, Juana de Sandoval, daughter of the Duke of Lerma, a favourite of Philip III of Spain. He was promoted to Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1615, 34 years after his father.
In 1625 he commanded, from Jerez de la Frontera, the military operations neutralizing the attack on Cadiz by a Dutch-English Fleet, commanded by Sir Edward Cecil.
His eldest daughter Luisa de Guzman (1613-1666), became queen-consort of Portugal when her husband John II, 8th Duke of Braganza became John IV, the first King of Portugal of the House of Braganza in 1640. In order to encourage her husband when the Portuguese nobility offered him the crown of Portugal, Luisa is known for her phrase: "better Queen for one day, than Duchess all my life".
9th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Gaspar Alfonso Pérez de Guzman y Sandoval (1602–1664), became Duke in 1636. In 1622, aged 20, he married his 15-year-old aunt Ana María de Guzmán (1607-1637), having four children by her, of which only the youngest, Gaspar Juan, survived to inherit the title.
In 1639 the 9th Duke was married for a second time to Seville noblewoman Juana Fernández de Córdoba, but only after signing documents giving the considerable amount of 20,000 Ducados to Margarita Marañon, on condition she become a nun near his palace in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, later in a Dominican convent. It is said she was the mother of his illegitimate daughter, Luisa.
In 1640, his sister became the new Queen of Portugal, as the wife of the former Duke of Braganza, now John IV of Portugal. In 1641 the 9th Duke led the Andalusian rebellion against Spanish rule. Though both Portugal and Catalonia had strong cultural identities, an historical record of independence, and popular support, Andalusia did not, and the rebellion failed. The duke had the support of his brother-in-law, John IV of Portugal, but the promised naval aid from France and the Netherlands did not arrive. The king of Spain forgave his treason, but the previous prestige of his house was only regained by his successor.
10th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Gaspar Juan Pérez de Guzman y Guzmán (1630-1667), who held the title for only three years until his death 1667. He died without issue, and the title passed to his younger half brother.
11th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Juan Claros Pérez de Guzmán y Fernández de Córdoba (1642-1713), after becoming duke in 1667, in around 1670 he married Antonia Teresa Pimentel (b.1646). She was the daughter of the 8th Duke of Benavente and already twice widowed. Her first husband Andrea Fabrizio Pigntelli d´Aragona, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, 5th Prince of Noia and 7th Duke of Monteleone was killed in battle in 1677. Her second was Jaime Francico Víctor Fernández de Híjar, 5th Duke of Híjar.
The duke also married for a second time to a Mariana Núñez Felipez de Guzmán y Velez, the 3rd Duchess of Medina de las Torres, whose father, Ramiro, had been Viceroy of Naples.
12th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Manuel Pérez de Guzman y Pimentel (1671-1721), became duke in 1713, aged 42. He was married in 1687, aged 16, to the 7-year-old Luisa Maria de Silva Mendoza, but the marriage was consummated only in 1695, when she was around 15, by traditional standards of the time. She was a daughter of Gregorio Maria Domingo, the 5th Duke of Pastrana, 5th Duke of Estremera and 9th Duke of el Infantado. They had 10 children.
The duke was awarded the title of a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, and served as Captain General of Catalonia between 1690 and 1693.
13th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Domingo José Claros Pérez de Guzmán y de Silva (1691-1739). He inherited the title in 1721, and the following year married Josefa Fenicula López Pacheco y Moscoso-Osorio, a daughter of Mercurio Antonio López Pacheco y Portugal, 9th Marqués de Villena, 9th Duke of Escalona, Grandee of Spain, Captain General of the Spanish Royal Army, and Director of the Royal Spanish Academy, which he had founded in 1713. The Duke became a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1724 .
One of his sisters, Juana, gained much wealth and power in 1713 by marrying Fadrique Vicente Álvarez de Toledo, the 9th Marquis of Villafranca del Bierzo, Grandee of Spain, Duke of Fernandina, Duke of Montalto, and Prince of Montalbano and Paternò.
14th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Pedro de Alcántara Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Lopez-Pacheco (1724-1779), became duke in 1739, aged 15. He was married on 22 October 1743, aged around 19, to Mariana de Silva y Álvarez de Toledo, whose mother was known as María Teresa Álvarez de Toledo y Haro, was 11th Duchess of Alba de Tormes on her own right. He was became a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1753, aged 29. No issue, and title passed to his cousin.
15th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don José María Alvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga (1756-1798), inherited the title in 1779, aged 23.
On 15 June 1771, aged 15, he married the famous María del Pilar Teresa Cayetana de Silva Alvarez de Toledo, 13th Duchess of Alba (1762-1802), also Duchess of Huéscar, Duchess of Galisteo and Duchess of Montoro as well many other lesser titles, who was a favourite model of painter Francisco de Goya.
Before dying he held no less than four Dukedoms and two or three Princedoms, while his wife, held another four major titles in her own right, both of them having many other lesser titles.
There was no issue and the title passed to his younger brother.
16th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Francisco de Borja Alvarez de Toledo y Gonzaga (1763-1821), he inherited the title from his older brother in 1796. He was married in Madrid, on 28 January 1798, to María Tomasa de Palafox y Portocarrero (1780-1835), the daughter of Felipe Antonio de Palafox Croy, 6th Marquis of Ariza, and Maria Francisca de Sales de Guzmán, Grandee of Spain and Condesa de Montijo, (1763-1821). They had six children, two girls and four boys, the eldest boy, Francisco, dying aged 16.
17th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Pedro de Alcantara Alvarez de Toledo y Palafox (1803-1867). He inherited the title in 1821, aged 18. He also held two other Dukedoms and two Princedoms as wells as many other lesser titles, Spanish and Italian, including four Grandees of Spain. He married María Joaquina de Silva y Téllez-Girón (1802-1876), whose father, Jose Gabriel de Silva Bazan y Waldstein, was twice a Grandee of Spain, Director of the Royal Spanish Academy and a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The eight children from this marriage were mainly educated in Italy, two girls marrying into the famous Princely and/or Ducal families of the Colonna and the Ruspoli.
18th Duke of Medina Sidonia
- Don José Joaquin Alvarez de Toledo y de Silva (1826-1905), became duke in 1867, aged 41. In 1846 in Austria he married his cousin Rosalía Caro y Alvarez de Toledo (1828-1903). He was invested a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1890.
19th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don José Joaquin Alvarez de Toledo y Caro (1865-1915), duke from 1905. In Madrid in 1893 he married his cousin Rosalía Caro y Caro.
20th Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Joaquin Alvarez de Toledo y Caro (1894-1955), inherited the title in 1915, aged 21. He married in Biarritz, France, María del Carmen Maura, a daughter of Gabriel Maura Gamazo, 1st Duke of Maura, the son of Antonio Maura, a Prime Minister of the Spanish Crown.
21st Duchess of Medina Sidonia
Doña Luisa Isabel Alvarez de Toledo y Maura (1936-2008), Duchess from 1955, aged 19. She was named by the Spanish Press and Newspapers the "Red Duchess" from around 1967. She divorced her husband, remaining single for many years doing historical research in her palace of Sanlúcar de Barrameda and getting married a few days before her death to another woman, her German Secretary of many years, Lilianne Dahlmann.
22nd Duke of Medina Sidonia
Don Leoncio Alonso González de Gregorio y Alvarez de Toledo (1956-)
References
External links
- Dukes of Medina Sidonia
- Libro d'Oro della Nobilita Mediterranea (Italian)
- Grandes de Espana (Spanish)
- House of Medina Sidonia Foundation
- List of Arabic and Spanish names for Iberian cities and places
- Casa de Medina-Sidonia (Spanish)
- A Silent Minority: Deaf Education in Spain, 1550–1835
- Library of Congress: Index to the Enciclopedia Heráldica Hispano-Americana of Alberto and Arturo García Carraffa
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