Infanta Elena will represent her brother King Felipe VI at Friday’s funeral service for the 18th Duchess of Alba, the flamoyant Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva. The duchess, the world’s most titled noble according to the Guinness Book of Records (seven times duchess for instance) passed away in her Seville palace on Thursday, aged 88. Her son Carlos will be the 19th Duke of Alba.
Apart from being a ‘Grande de España’ the thrice married Duchess was almost a cult figure in Spain, where she continued to grab the head lines in both serious newspapers as the gossip and glossy women’s magazines. Her third marriage, four years ago with a 24 year younger civil servant, contributed much to that, as did her six children’s opposition to the marriage.
The ‘great lady’, who urban myths claim could walk from the north of Spain to the south and still say on her own land and who was by right allowed to enter the cathedral of Seville on horseback, was briefly mentioned as future queen of Scots, for independent Scotland as descendant of the illegimate son of Scotlands last Stuart king, James II.
Cayetano was a anything but convential. She knew how to live and did it – from topless sunbathing, plastic surgery (with disastrous results), love of art, football, bull fighting and tennis, to doing things her way. Her last wish was to be spend her last hours in her sumptuous palace Casa de Dueñas in Seville, where she passed away Thursday. © RB
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