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World's most titled aristocrat dies

November 20, 2014

Spaniards are mourning the loss of the Duchess of Alba, one of the country's richest women. The eccentric aristocrat had the world record for the most titles held.

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Portrait of the Duchess of Alba
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. M. Vidal

The duchess, full name Maria del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, passed away on Thursday at the age of 88. According to a family spokesperson, she died at her Duenas Palace in the southern Spanish city of Seville surrounded by family members following a short illness.

While her principle title was Duchess of Alba de Tormes, a complex series of marriages by her ancestors meant that she held more than 40 other titles, which according to Guinness World Records made her the noble with the most officially recognized titles in the world.

"She was born in high society yet knew how to walk among the people like nobody else," Fermin Urbiola, who knew the duchess personally and wrote several books on European royals, told the AFP news agency.

The duchess was a relative of Winston Churchill and played with English royals when she lived in London during her childhood.

Relatives of Spain's Duchess of Alba Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart y Silva sit surrounding her coffin in the town hall of the Andalusian capital of Seville November 20, 2014.
The duchess' coffin was brought to the town hall in SevilleImage: Reuters/M. del Pozo

Outspoken and unconventional

Cayetana, as she was known in Spain, featured regularly in the Spanish celebrity press and was easily recognizable due to her outspoken nature, distinctive hair and colorful dress sense.

She made international headlines in 2011 when, at the age of 85, she married a man a quarter-century her junior and danced flamenco at their wedding.

Her marriage to Alfonso Diez was objected to by her children, but before the nuptuals Diez renounced any claim to the duchess' vast wealth. A few months before the ceremony, the duchess divided up most of her estate amongst her heirs.

The Duchess of Alba has previously been twice-widowed. Her 1947 wedding to Luis Martinez de Irujo y Artacoz was described as one of the costliest in Spain. Following the 1972 death of her first husband, she married a former Jesuit priest, Jesus Aguirre, in 1978. He died in 2001.

The Duchess of Alba had properties across mainland Spain and on some of its islands and it was said she could travel the length of the country without stepping off her land.

She was named a Favored Daughter of the Andalusia region in 2006, raising the ire of a group of local farm workers who felt she did not deserve the honor.

She is survived by her six children.

se/bw (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)