The elderly and eccentric aristocrat had been ill for a week and died on Thursday surrounded by her husband and six children

The Duchess of Alba in the Seville palace where she died. :: R.D.

María de Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart de Silva, the eighteenth Duchess of Alba, has died at the age of 88.

Last Friday the Duchess was taken ill with gastroenteritis which was followed by a bout of pneumonia and led to her being taken to hospital in Seville.

On Tuesday, when it became clear she was not responding to treatment, Cayetana was sent home, to the Palacio de Dueñas, at the express wishes of her family. She died there on Thursday, surrounded by her third husband Alfonso Díez and her six children.

The Duchess of Alba, who was born on March 28th 1926, was considered Europe’s most aristocratic woman and held over 40 titles. She was directly descended from King James II of England and rumour has it that protocol meant that she did not to kneel in front of the Pope and that even Queen Elizabeth II was obliged to curtsy before her.

Colourful

Cayetana, as she preferred to be called, though she had over a dozen first names, was best known for her colourful life, her flamboyant dress sense and her numerous eccentric public statements.

She was married three times, firstly to a Duke, Don Pedro Luis Martínez de Irujo y Artacoz, in a lavish ceremony in Seville cathedral which was then considered the most expensive wedding in the world. When he died she scandalized Spanish society by marrying a defrocked and illegitimate Jesuit priest, Jesús Aguirre, with whom, she once revealed, she made love every day.

More recently the Duchess continued to shock those around her by marrying her third husband, a m inor civil servant named Alfonso Diez who was 24 years younger than her, in 2011. In reaction to pressure from her children, Cayetana handed over her wealth to her family in advance of her death.

The Duchess of Alba leaves a fortune estimated at between 600 million and 3.5 billion euros which includes an incredible art collection with paintings by Goya, Velázquez and Titian.

It is said that she could cross the whole of Spain without having to stray once from her own land.