In the middle of the Atlantic lies a small green island, known as Terceira, as the ‘third’ island to be discovered in the Azores archipelago by Portuguese navigators in the mid-15^th century. At over a thousand miles off the coast of the mainland, Terceira would not normally be thought of as a likely seat for a dukedom. And it wasn’t, really, but it did give its name to one, created in 1832, for one of the defenders of liberal government in Portugal, Antonio José de Sousa Manoel de Menezes Saverim de Noronha, 7^th Count of Vila Flor. He was given this title in honour of the attack he launched from the island of Terceira earlier that year to defend the rights of the Queen Maria II against her usurping uncle, and a proponent of royal absolutism, Dom Miguel, Duke of Beja. The Duke of Terceira would remain a prominent figure in Portuguese politics for the next two decades, with several terms as Prime Minister.

Picking one name out of the extremely complex surname of the Duke of Terceira, ‘Manoel’ links this Portuguese nobleman to a much more extensive dynastic network, with branches in both Portugal and Spain. All of them claimed descent in one way or another from a royal prince, the Infante Manuel, who lived in the middle of the 13^th century. By the early 19^th century, the Duke of Terceira was the head of the Portuguese branch of the House of Manuel (spelled Manoel in Portuguese, though not always); while the Count of Via Manuel was head of the family in Spain. Ultimately, the Spanish branch would also receive a dukedom, Arévalo del Rey, but not until 1903. A third dukedom appears briefly in this family’s story, that of Tancos, also in Portugal, which only lasts from 1790 to 1791. Reaching much further back to the earliest history of the Manuel dynasty, however, we see one of the most prominent and autonomous (though never officially proclaimed) of all Iberian dukedoms, that of Villena, and this name would remain attached to the dynasty, as Villena, or Vilhena in Portuguese, for the rest of its history.

In 1252, the Infante Manuel, the 7^th son of King Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon, was given the lordship of Villena as his apanage. It was a strategic territory, recently conquered by the King of Aragon from the Moors, but then taken from Aragon by the King of Castile. The lordship straddled the boundary between Castile and Aragon, and thus gave its lord both autonomy and also a useful position as a negotiator between the two often feuding Christian kingdoms. To secure his power in the region further, he was named Adelantado of the Kingdom of Murcia—the adelantados were powerful governors of newly conquered provinces, with nearly autonomous military and judiciary authority. Closer to the court of his brother King Alfonso X, Don Manuel was given the strategic castles of Peñafiel and Escalona, and served his brother as Alférez, or head of the household guard, then promoted to his Mayordomo mayor in 1279. He had his own household equal in stature to most princes—which seems appropriate for his very ‘imperial’ Greek name, ‘Emmanuel’, reflecting his maternal grandmother’s origins as a Byzantine princess (Irene Angelos, the daughter of Emperor Isaac II). He also married as a prince, first to a princess from Aragon (Constance) and then a princess from Savoy (Beatrice). His sons from both marriages took the name Manuel as a sort of surname, as would their descendants for the next 800 years. The eldest, Alfonso Manuel, died at 16, so the younger son, Juan Manuel, inherited the family properties, and assumed the title ‘Prince of Villena’. Though Villena was never formally more than a lordship, Juan was recognised as a prince in 1330 by the King of Aragon, and as a duke in 1336 by the King of Castile.

The castle at Villena was incredibly strategic, at the intersection of Castile, Aragon and the Muslim states to the south. A much earlier wooden fortress was replaced with a stone tower sometime in the 1170s, and remained the stronghold of the Manuels until the 1360s, then was given by the Crown of Castile to various younger princes and royal favourites (and was erected as a marquisate in 1366, then finally a dukedom in 1418), until it was integrated fully into the royal domain by the end of the 15^th century (the title ‘Marques de Villena’ was given out again, but not the castle). Despite losing its value as a border post by the 16^th century, Villena remained a royal military stronghold until the days of the Peninsular War at the start of the 19^th century.

The other major fortress of the Manuels, Peñafiel, had been a strategic castle long before the era of the Infante Manuel, with foundations built by the earliest counts of Castile as they expanded their reach southwards from their capital of Burgos in the 940s. Its name means ‘loyal rock’, from the Latin pinna fidelis, and this great fortress on a rock grew and grew, until it was one of the most recognisable of Old Castile’s famous castles. Prince Juan Manuel called himself ‘Duke of Peñafiel’ by the 1290s, but, as with Villena, there’s no documentation for such a creation. It was, however, created a dukedom more formally later for the Infante Ferdinand of Antequera, who later became King Ferdinand I of Aragon.

A bit further south, the castle at Escalona was located on the road between Toledo and Avila, southwest of Madrid, also on the (at that time) strategic southern frontier of Castile. It had been a Roman fortress, then a Muslim stronghold, and was particularly strategic in the expanding frontier of the 12^th century. The mighty castle we see today is the result of the expansion into a palace by the royal favourite Alvaro de Luna in the 1420s-30.

Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, was born at Escalona. And although like his father he served at court, as Mayordomo mayor for his cousins Ferdinand IV and Alfonso XI, he is best remembered as a writer (and bears the nickname ‘el Scritor’). He wrote numerous books, mostly guides for how to live and govern as a prince, but also how to write poetry or how to use weapons properly. Also like his father, he served as a useful diplomat between Castile and Aragon, until he began a long a bloody feud against Alfonso XI in the 1330s. He died in 1348, leaving his lands and titles to his son Fernando Manuel, who died only two years later, succeeded by an infant daughter, Beatrice, who some sources consider to be the 3^rd Duchess of Villena (or of Peñafiel). But she too died, in 1361, aged 13 or 14. All of the estates of the House of Manuel—Villena, Peñafiel and Escalona—were inherited by Fernando’s sister, Juana, who had married the Infante Enrique of Castile, soon to become King Enrique II. As noted above, Villena passed therefore to different hands, as did Peñafiel. Escalona was given to Juan Pacheco and created as a dukedom in 1472 (along with a marquisate of Villena). The House of Pacheco would remain one of the most powerful ducal families of Spain until the end of the 18^th century.

This was not the end of the House of Manuel! Juan Manuel de Villena had an illegitimate half-brother, Sancho, who was created Lord of Carrión, in Castile near the city of Palencia. This lordship was raised to the rank of a county for his son Juan Sanchez Manuel in 1371. Both Sancho and Juan served their manueline cousins in the administration if their lands in Murcia and in their armies further south. Alfonso, 2^nd Count of Carrión, died in about 1393, and his lands passed through his sister to the Padilla family. Meanwhile, another branch was forming across the border in Portugal. Juan Manuel had another illegitimate son, Enrique Manuel de Villena, who accompanied his half-sister, Constanza, to her marriage in 1340 to the Infante Pedro of Portugal. Enrique was only a child, and Constanza’s marriage did not last long (she died in 1349), but Enrique stayed in Portugal, and after Pedro became King of Portugal in 1357, he secured the young man’s loyalty with the title Count of Seia (in north-central Portugal), the lordship of Cascais and the office of alcaide (mayor) in Sintra, both much closer to the capital of Lisbon, plus many other castles in the Kingdom. The new Count of Seia was also married to a daughter of a prominent Portuguese noble house, Sousa (which we will encounter again below). But after King Pedro’s son King Ferdinando’s death in 1383, Henrique Manoel de Vilhena (adopting the Portuguese spelling) was one of the first to proclaim the late king’s daughter, Infanta Beatriz, as Queen of Portugal, meaning that her husband, King Juan I of Castile, could claim the Portuguese throne against João of Aviz. This support for Juan meant, however, that after this dynastic struggle which ended in the victory of the House of Aviz, Henrique was sent packing back to Castile, and his Portuguese lands were lost. Juan I compensated him, however, with the lordships of Montealegre, Belmonte and Meneses, located near the city of Palencia in western Castile. By the end of his life, Enrique was an advisor to the Infante Ferdinand of Castile in his regency (from 1406) and later as he established himself as king of Aragon (from 1412), and Mayordomo of his wife, Queen Leonor de Albuquerque (see her family, for another fascinating cross-Portuguese-Spanish ducal family).

Enrique Manuel de Villena started a new line through his two sons, Pedro and Enrique II, successively lords of Montealegre, Belmonte and Meneses. Pedro was the first to be buried in the Dominican convent of San Pablo in Peñafiel—retaining his family’s older link with that fortified town—where the ‘Capilla de los Manueles’ remained the family pantheon for generations. Enrique II’s son, Enrique III, was created Count of Montealegre by the King of Castile in 1406. The genealogies I’ve looked at become quite muddied at this point, and if Enrique I is still alive in 1412, then it doesn’t make sense (to me) for his grandson Enrique III to be created count in 1406—other sources show this as just one generation, not three. In any case, an important split occurred in the early years of the 15^th century, and one branch remained in Castile as lords of Belmonte (Belmonte de Campos) and another moved further west as lords of Cheles, on the frontier near Badajoz, and then hopped across the border back to Portugal. We will look at the Castilian lines first.

But first, there is another side line descended from the first House of Manuel to explore. In truth, they may not be related at all—another one of history’s grand genealogical fictions. João Manoel, Bishop of Ceuta and Primate of Africa (from 1443) then Bishop of Guarda, in eastern Portugal (from 1459), was for many years considered by royal historians and noble genealogists to be the son of King Duarte of Portugal (d. 1438) and his mistress, Joana Manoel de Vilhena (a grand-daughter of the Count of Seia), an idea that has now been fairly conclusively dismissed. Manoel in this case may simply have been the Bishop’s second name which became a patronymic for his illegitimate offspring. Nonetheless, these descendants formed another House of Manuel in Portugal—and tellingly, they assumed the very same coat of arms.

At first they were lords of Salvaterra de Magos in the fertile central belt of the river Tejo (or Tagus), northeast of Lisbon, then by the 16^th century they were also lords of Tancos, further upriver, and nearby Atalaia. Two marriages to heiresses in that century merged them with the powerful family of Ataide, and in 1583, they were created Count of Atalaia by King Philip II of Spain—since 1580, the new King Philip I of Portugal. The family did well under Habsburg rule in Portugal: the first count, Francisco Manuel de Ataide, was succeeded in 1624 by his brother Pedro, previously a soldier in India in the 1590s and Viceroy of the Algarve in 1621. Their other brother, João, was Bishop of Viseu from 1609, then of Coimbra in 1625, before rising to the top of the ecclesiastical hierarchy as Archbishop of Lisbon in 1632. He was even named Viceroy of Portugal by Philip IV of Spain (Philip III of Portugal) in March 1633, but died only a few months later.

Jumping ahead, the 5^th and 6^th counts of Atalaia, brothers Pedro and João Manoel de Ataide, were both successful Portuguese commanders in the War of Spanish Succession, supporting the cause of Archduke Charles of Austria against the forces of the Bourbons. Pedro continued to support Charles after the war, now Emperor Charles VI, as Viceroy of Sardinia, 1713-17, and general of cavalry in Austrian-ruled Naples. João became Governor of Portuguese Angola (also 1713-17), then returned to Lisbon to become governor of the Tower of Belem guarding the river Tejo at the gateway to the capital. He succeeded his brother as 6^th Count of Atalaia and later in life joined the royal Council of State and served as Master of the Household for Queen Mariana Vitoria in the 1750s. He was promoted in 1751 to the rank of Marquês of Tancos, and died in 1761, the last male of this line. His daughter, Constança became 2^nd Marquesa of Tancos, and as a widow was appointed Camareira-mor (First Lady in Waiting) to Queen Maria I, who honoured her with the lifetime title, Duchess of Tancos, in 1790. She died a year later and passed her other titles (the county of Atalaia and the marquisate of Tancos) to her daughter and her heirs in the House of Meneses, though they took the name and arms of Manuel. They lived in the Palácio de Tancos in Lisbon, a lovely pink building high up on the hillside of the Castle of São Jorge.

Of the branch of the Manuels that remained in Castile, the lords of Belmonte, Juan III rose to greater heights as one of the chief fiscal officers of Castile (the Contador mayor) and as ambassador to Henry VII of England and later to Pope Leo X. In the 1520s Belmonte was a councillor of state for King Carlos I (Emperor Charles V), and restored his family chapel in Peñafiel, where he is buried.

His son Lorenzo Manuel was Mayordomo mayor to Charles V, but was the last of his line, passing the estates of Belmonte and others near Palencia to his sister Aldoza. His cousin in a junior line, another Juan Manuel, Lord of Cheles, also served as a mayordomo in the household of the Emperor-King. This Juan had two sons: the elder, Francisco I, continued to guard the frontier of Extremadura from his castle at Cheles and was progenitor of the line of counts of Via Manuel; while the younger, Cristobal, became lord of Carapinha across the border in Portugal, and founder of the line of counts of Vila Flor. From the first came the Spanish dukes of Arévalo, and from the second the Portuguese dukes of Terceira.

Cristóbal Manuel de Villena, 1^st Count of Via-Manuel (or Villamanuel in the early days), was general of artillery in the wars against Portugal in the mid-17^th century and governor of Badajoz near the border. His nearby castle at Cheles guarded the Guadiana river as it crossed this frontier, so he was ideally placed for this post, and alongside his countship, created by Carlos II in 1689, he was created Viscount of the Villa de Cheles. This castle is today called the Palacio Señorial of the Counts of Via Manuel.

A series of counts named José followed in the 18^th century, the last of which made an advantageous marriage in 1790 to Maria del Pilar Melo de Portugal, from one of the most prominent noble houses in Portugal, though by this point they were also large landowners in Spain. She was, for instance, the 10^th Marquesa de Rafal, based in the Kingdom of Valencia near Alicante, and 7^th Countess of Granja de Rocamora, located in the same area (the Rocamora family had been one of the leading noble houses of this region in the Middle Ages). Her son Cristóbal, 6^th Count of Via Manuel, was killed by Carlists in 1834, leaving a grandson, José Casimiro, to inherit both lineages’ titles and estates, as 7^th Count of Via Manuel and 11^th Marques of Rafal. He too was murdered, in 1854, leaving a very young son, Enrique, who died in 1874, aged only 21.

This branch of the Manuel family thus came to an end in the male line, but, as with so many Iberian dynasties, the name was simply transferred through the female line along with the estates. Doña Maria Isabel Manuel de Villena married Arturo de Pardo, a deputy to the Cortes and later senator of the realm, and a Gentleman of the Chamber of King Alfonso XIII. At the time of their marriage in 1867, she was created 1^st Marquesa de Puebla de Rocamora, and she planned to separate the two estates (Via Manuel and Rafal) once more for her sons, Arturo and Alfonso. But she lived to the ripe old age of 80 and outlived the elder son (below). Several of her daughters inherited her longevity genes: Maria de Milagro lived until 101, while Josefa lived until 106! Second son Alfonso did inherit the marquisate of Rafal, which his descendants continue to hold today.

Some of the lovely estates of the Rocamora branch of the family in Valencia include the palace of the marqueses of Rafal and the palace of the counts of Granja, both in the small city of Orihuela in the Province of Alicante.

The elder son of Doña Maria Isabel, Arturo de Pardo y Manuel de Villena (1870-1907), was given his mother’s barony of El Monte Villena in advance of his succession while she lived, but obtained a much higher title due to his close friendship with the young king, Alfonso XIII; they shared a passion for horses, and Arturo became Master of the Royal Maestranza de Caballeria (a noble equestrian club) of Zaragoza. His mother pushed for years to have him recognised as the head of the ancient House of Manuel in Spain by means of the revival of an ancient dukedom from the 15^th century, Arévalo, based on a castle and estates north of Avila, which she claimed had belonged to the medieval manueline lords. This had been continually blocked by the House of Zuñiga, whose ancestors had genuinely held the old dukedom of that name, but the King was persuaded to grant it anyway, in 1903, with the addition of ‘del Rey’ to make it distinct.

The first Duke of Arévalo del Rey died before his mother, so his son, Carlos Pardo-Manuel de Villena, inherited his grandmother’s title as 10^th Count of Via Manuel, as well as his father’s title as 2^nd Duke of Arévalo. He was a Gentleman Grandee of the Chamber of Alfonso XIII and supported him in exile after his deposition in 1931. His eldest son took the title 11^th Count of Via Manuel in 1945, but not the ducal title, which went to his younger brother, Arturo. When he died childless in 2005, the ducal title passed to their sister, Maria Consuelo, who ceded it a year later to her son Juan Pablo de Lojendio y Pardo-Manuel de Villena (b. 1950), who is thus today the 5^th Duke of Arévalo del Rey. The surname Lojendio comes from his father, a respected diplomat representing Spain in Switzerland, Italy and later the Vatican, but most famously in Cuba where his daring to argue on television with the new dictator Fidel Castro in 1960 caused an international incident—he was given 24 hours to leave the country.

Finally, the line of Counts of Vila Flor, which leads us back to Portugal and back to Terceira. Sancho Manoel de Vilhena was a prominent military commander in the struggle against the Dutch in Brazil, 1638-40, then a general in the War of Restoration in Portugal though which the Braganza dynasty re-established Portuguese independence from Habsburg Spain. In gratitude, the Queen Regent, Luísa de Guzmão, named him 1^st Count of Vila Flor, a village on the eastern edge of Portugal, in 1659. He married the heiress Ana de Noronha, daughter of Gaspar de Faria Severim, a Secretary of State, thus adding these surnames to his inheritance, as we will see again below. The 1^st Count was also Alcaide-Mor (military governor) of Alegrete, an important defensive town close to Vila Flor, as well as a councillor of state, governor of the Tower of Belem, and so on. In 1677, he was named Viceroy of Brazil, but died before he took office.

Sancho’s eldest son Cristovão succeeded him as 2^nd Count of Vila Flor and Alcaide of Alegrete, while his younger son Antonio became much more famous as a naval commander in the Order of Malta (aka St. John of Jerusalem). In 1722, he was elected Grand Master of the Order, and he really left his mark on the small island of Malta in his 14 years of rule. For himself he built the Palazzo Vilhena in the old capital of Mdina in 1726 (today’s National Museum of Natural History), while for the Order he built a new fort to defend the port of Valetta (Fort Manoel), and new settlement nearby called Borgo Vilhena, now called Floriana (after his family’s title, Vila Flor). Still today the Manoel coat of arms can be seen all over Malta.

The 2^nd Count of Vila Flor died without a legitimate male heir in 1704, so the title, and the name Manoel de Vilhena, passed to his sister’s son, Martim de Sousa Meneses. Along more orthodox lines of genealogical reckoning, this means that the House of Manoel died out in this branch, and the title passed to the House of Sousa. But this being the Iberian peninsula, anything goes, and the 3^rd Count simply added the name Manoel to his other patronymics. Sousa is one of the very oldest, and most widely spread, noble names in Portugal, and as direct descendants in the male line (though illegitimate) from King Alfonso III (d. 1279), are considered by genealogy nerds to be one of the most junior branches of the House of Capet—the family that includes the Bourbons, the Valois, and the first royal house of Portugal, the Casa de Borgonha (Burgundy). The House of Sousa is fascinating in its own right, and will have a blog post of its own, focusing on the Duke of Palmela (another 19^th-century Portuguese dukedom). A different branch of the Sousa family, hereditary grand butlers (copeiro mor) of Portugal in the 16^th century, ultimately produced Martim de Sousa Meneses, and his son, Luis Manuel de Sousa e Meneses, 4^th Count of Vila Flor. Martim also had a daughter, Mariana, who, like the Duchess of Tancos above was also Camareira-Mor of Queen Maria I, and was created 1^st Marquesa de Vila Flor in the 1770s.

The 5^th and 6^th counts of Vila Flor were both involved in colonial government of Brazil, the first as governor of Pernambuco, the second as governor of Maranhão. The 6^th Count, Antonio de Sousa Manoel de Meneses Severim de Noronha, died in 1795, leaving his three-year-old son, Antonio José as 7^th Count of Vila Flor. This returns us to the Duke of Terceira.

Born in 1792, young Antonio learned his craft as a young officer in the Portuguese armies in the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19^th century, rising to the rank of colonel by 1815. Two years later he sailed to Brazil to join the royal Braganza court in exile there. He helped put down a rebellion in Pernambuco and was named governor of the province of Grão Pará (the Amazon basin). In 1821, King João VI decided finally to return to Portugal, and the Count of Vila Flor accompanied him, as one of his Gentlemen of the Chamber. Portugal was in the midst of a long struggle between the forces of constitutional liberalism and royal absolutism, the latter led by the King’s younger son, Dom Miguel. At first, Vila Flor supported this absolutist party and served as field marshal and aide-de-camp to Miguel. As further evidence of this early stance, wee see that he was sent to Spain in 1823 to greet the Duke of Angoulême, the nephew of the King of France who had been sent to Iberia with an army to restore absolute rule in both Spain and Portugal. But by 1824, Vila Flor was shifting in his political mind-set towards liberalism, especially after the murder of his father-in-law by the Miguelists. When the King died in 1826, his son Pedro IV—who had proclaimed himself emperor of an independent Brazil in 1822—issued a formal constitution, then abdicated in favour of his seven-year-old daughter, Maria. Civil war followed, now with Vila Flor supporting the regency of the young queen against the forces of her uncle Miguel. He was rewarded with the title Marquis of Vila Flor in 1827.

Dom Miguel took power in Portugal in 1828, forcing Vila Flor to join liberal exiles gathering in London (where the Queen lived). He soon joined two other leaders of this movement on the Island of Terceira in the Azores where they formed a regency government of their own, recognised by Queen Maria and her father Emperor Pedro, acting as regent from Brazil. Vila Flor was named Captain-General of the Azores, and gradually extended the government of the regency over the entire archipelago, fighting off a Miguelist fleet in the Battle of Praia in August 1829.

Their headquarters was in the ancient port town of Angra, on Terceira—since the mid-15^th century one of the key stopping points for Portuguese ships crossing the Atlantic on the return voyage from Brazil, laden with colonial bounty (and thus this port was heavily fortified). In March 1832, Dom Pedro arrived in Angra to take up the regency for his daughter himself, and from there, he and Vila Flor launched the invasion of the Portuguese mainland that summer, starting in Porto. Pedro took formal command of the army in November, and as a thank-you created the dukedom of Terceira for Vila Flor. The new Duke was sent to take over the Algarve, then in July 1833 took the city of Lisbon from the Miguelists. He defeated the remaining rebel army at Asseiceirain May 1834, and the civil war (the ‘war of the two brothers’, Pedro and Miguel) ended.

In September 1834, Queen Maria II formally took over the government for herself, and appointed the Duke of Terceira as her Minister of War. In the next decade he became leader of the more moderate wing of the Liberal party, and in April 1836, was asked to form a government when the more leftist group fell from power. This would be his first stint as President of the Council of Ministers (aka Prime Minister), but his government was seen as too heavy handed, and after an uprising in September, was dismissed, replaced once more by the more left-wing liberals. In the summer of 1837, Terceira joined an uprising against these liberals with some of his former military companions, the ‘Revolt of the Marshals’, and they formed a provisional regency government of their own, aiming to restore the original constitution of 1826. This failed and they were exiled—but he was almost immediately recalled when war threatened with Spain over border disputes. In 1842, the old constitution was restored, and Terceira was once again asked by the Queen to be Prime Minister (and again, Minister of War), which he did, for four years, one of the few periods of stability in this monarch’s troubled reign. After his resignation in 1846, he worked as a now senior politician in the Chamber of Peers (the upper house of Parliament), until he was asked to form yet another government after a short civil war in 1851. This was evidently a transitional government and indeed lasted only 6 days.

By the mid-1850s, the Duke of Terceira had left active military service, but continued to be a strong presence in Parliament, still as a liberal, but now more as a patriarch of the Kingdom, one of the few unifying figures who could stand above politics. Maria II died in 1853, and Terceira acted as a father-figure to her son, the teen-aged King Pedro V. As a trusted senior statesman, he was sent to Germany to receive the King’s bride, Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, in 1858. And in March 1859 he was once again called on to form a government (and appointed Minister of War and Foreign Affairs)—he died in office a year later.

The Duke of Terceira lived at the (Old) Palace of Vila Flor, in Alfama, the fashionable district of Lisbon on the far side of the old Castle of São Jorge, along the banks of the River Tagus, also called the Palace of São João da Praça (today a hotel); or at the Palace of Arroios in the district of that name in Lisbon, northeast of the old city centre. Also known as the Palace of the Lords of Pancos, the residence in Arroios was sold by the family in the early 20^th century, and was demolished in the 1950s. The Duke also had a house a bit further out on this side of the city, the Palace of the Copeiros-Mores—the hereditary title (Grand Butler) of his de Sousa forebears—which was also called the Palace of Braço de Prata. Started in the 1590s, it was mostly constructed in the later 17^th century, then was occupied in the 18^th century by cousins, before it was reclaimed for the Duke of Terceira himself, then sold by his heirs in 1862 to the Portuguese railway company.

The heirs of the Duke of Terceira are a bit hard to trace at first, and since the fall of the Portuguese monarchy in 1910, there’s no legal body that confirms who does or does hold what title. In 1860, the heir to the titles and lands was considered to be a distant cousin Cristovão Manoel de Vilhena Saldanha, Senhor de Zibreira, who had been an Aide-de-Camp of King Miguel in the Liberal Wars of the 1820s-30s. Through his mother, Cristovão was the descendant of the 2^nd Count of Vila Flor, from whom his line inherited the lordship of Zibreira, in the central river valley of the Tagus. Her mother in turn had been a daughter of the famousMarquis de Pombal, First Minister of Portugal in the 18^th century. Cristovão’s father, however, was José Sebastião de Saldanha, 1^st Conde de Alpedrinha, brother of Duke of Saldanha, one of the main political collaborators of the Duke of Terceira. Thus despite these grand connections on both sides, this family did not claim the title Duke of Terceira or Count of Vila Flor, but the claims did nevertheless pass through a daughter, Maria Benedita, to her son Tomás de Almeida Manuel de Vilhena who was given licence to use the title Count of Vila Flor by King Manuel II, who reigned briefly from 1908 to 1910. Vila Flor would later serve informally as head of Manuel’s government in exile, basing his operations from the (new) Palace of Vila Flor on the slopes of the Castle of São Jorge in Lisbon (while the monarch himself established his ‘court’ in Twickenham, west London).

This new Palace of Vila Flor, purchased in 1907, had initially been known as the Palácio da Costa do Castelo (the palace on the hillside of the Castle), built in the 17^th century by courtiers of the royal household, the Cirne family. Located on a narrow street just around the corner from the Palace of Tancos (above), it passed through various ownership before it was bought by Vila Flor. The Count met with significant political and literary figures in this residence—he was himself a journalist and writer, as well as a politician, serving as governor of the districts of Braga and Madeira, and later as a senator in the 1920s—as did his son and grand-daughter, maintaining a sort of intellectual salon here well into the 1980s.

The Count’s paternal surname, Almeida, came from another old noble family, whose head was the Marquis of Livradio (created 1753). Tomás de Almeida added the name of his mother’s family, Manuel de Vilhena, and assumed the role of head of this clan in Portugal. Like many aristocrats in the 20^th century, he was passionately interested in genealogy and heraldry, and became first president of the Portuguese Institute of Heraldry before he died in 1932.

His son, the 9^th Count of Vila Flor, Francisco Maria de Almeida, was a professor of agronomics (the economics of agriculture), as well as a fencing champion. When he died in 1987, his titles and claims to headship of the House of Manuel de Vilhena passed to his daughter Luísa. She revived some of the other family titles, notably that of Count of Alpedrinha (created 1854, for the brother of the Duke of Saldanha, above) and Lord of Pancas, a much older title from a family that owned many properties all over the eastern edges of Lisbon, notably in the district of Marvila. Dona Luísa also revived use of the title Duke of Terceira. When she died in 1998, these titles and the various dynastic names (and those of her husband, Jaime Dias de Freitas, Count of Azarujinha, created 1890, and an extraordinary neo-gothic country residence near Évora), passed to her son Francisco Xavier Dias de Freitas, 5^th Count of Azarujinha and 3^rd Duke of Terceira, who died in 2007.

The current 4^th Duke of Terceira is his son, Lourenço Manoel de Vilhena de Freitas (b. 1973), who is a professor of law at the University of Lisbon. He has worked as an advisor for the Portuguese government, and as a prominent member of the Portuguese Council of Nobility, also bears the titles from the various other families he represents: 12^th Count of Vila Flor (Manoel de Vilhena), 4^th Count of Alpedrinha (Saldanha), and 6^th Count of Azarujinha (Dias de Freitas); while his young son and heir goes by the courtesy title ‘Master of Pancas’.

The Duke of Terceira name lives on today on the island of that name in the Azores in the lush botanical gardens located in the heart of the ancient port city of Angra de Heroísmo—the ‘Heroic’ tag added by Queen Maria II to honour the city from which her reign was launched back in 1832. At the top of the hill above the gardens is a monument commemorating the Queen’s father, Pedro IV, who championed the cause of constitutional liberalism in Portugal.

Once upon a time there was a Spanish outpost built in the far northern reaches of New Spain, in the Rio Grande Valley of the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico. Its founders named it after the Viceroy based in far-off Mexico City, the 10^th Duke of Alburquerque. Some years later, the increasingly Anglophone settlers in the area dropped the first ‘r’. Today’s city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has little memory of its connection to a small town and castle the dry barren lands of Extremadura, the frontier province between Spain and Portugal.

This proximity to the border makes the history of the name Alburquerque (Albuquerque in Portuguese) a bit more interesting, as it lent its name to a number of noble families linked via female lines who spread out all over the world and included famous empire builders in India and Brazil. The most famous to bear the name, Afonso de Albuquerque, established Portuguese naval supremacy in the Indian Ocean and was named Duke of Goa in 1515. The castle of Alburquerque, in Castile, however, belonged by that time to the family of La Cueva, founded by one of the most interesting figures in Spanish history of the 15^th century, Beltrán de La Cueva, who allegedly fathered the Infanta Juana—called ‘la Beltraneja’ after her supposed father—who challenged the rights to the Castilian throne of the Infanta Isabella, more famous as half of the duo Ferdinand and Isabella. Perhaps as a ‘reward’ for providing King Enrique IV an heir, Beltrán was created 1^st Duke of Alburquerque in 1464. These two families, Albuquerque and La Cueva, Portuguese and Castilian, were not closely related, but it is interesting to consider their histories together, in particular their legacies in India, Brazil and Mexico in the era of incredibly powerful colonial governors.

The castle of Alburquerque was founded by Castilian kings after the region was retaken from the Moors in the early 13^th century, not far from the town of Badajoz. It controlled this new frontier area south of the river Tagus (Tejo) that became known as Extremadura (the ‘extreme’ south-western edge of royal control at this time. Its name likely comes from albus quercus (white oak), signifying cork oak grown in this region. Its first lord was Alfonso Téllez de Meneses, a Castilian warrior with origins near Palencia. His new lordship in this area of reconquest was granted by the King of Portugal, however (not Castile), Sancho I, as part of the arrangement of marrying the King’s illegitimate daughter, Teresa Sanches, in about 1213. Alfonso’s elder son founded the House of Teles de Meneses (one of the most powerful Portuguese noble lines in Middle Ages), while his second marriage produced João Afonso, who was active at both the court of Afonso III of Portugal and Alfonso X of Castile—a good example of the fluidity of these borders in this time period. The castle high on a rock above the settlement was built mostly by the 4^th Lord, another João Afonso Teles de Meneses in the 1270s and then completed by his son-in-law Afonso Sanches de Portugal. João Afonso was also the Mordomo mor (head of the royal household) of King Diniz, and one of his chief advisors and diplomats. Connections with royalty abounded: the 4^th Lord of Albuquerque’s wife was another Teresa Sanchez, illegitimate daughter of King Sancho IV of Castile; and later in the century, a cousin, Leonor Teles, was the mistress then queen-consort of King Ferdinand of Portugal.

With Afonso Sanches de Portugal taking control of the castle of Alburquerque, the lordship passed to a branch of the royal line itself. He was the illegitimate son of King Diniz, and elder half-brother of King Afonso IV. He was not only the firstborn son, however, he was also the favoured son of King Diniz, who created him Count of Albuquerque and arranged his marriage to the heiress of that lordship (Teresa Martins de Albuquerque) in 1304, and also successor to her father’s court office of Mordomo mor. When Afonso IV became king in 1325, he exiled his brother, and a few years later he was murdered. But the line continued, now in service of the kings of Castile: the 2^nd Count of Alburquerque (Juan Alfonso ‘the Good’) was chief military officer of Alfonso XI, then Chancellor of the Kingdom of Castile and a favourite of his successor, King Pedro, from 1350. He only enjoyed this favour and this high office for a few years before Pedro ‘the Cruel’ turned on him and probably had him murdered. These were rough times to be a royal favourite!

But the line continued: the 3^rd Count, a natural son (though described as legitimate in some sources), Martin, was appointed Governor of Murcia, but was also murdered by King Pedro; his brother Fernando Alfonso, the 4^th Count, seems to have gone back into Portuguese service, and was appointed Grand Master of the Order of Santiago in Portugal. And at some point about now (the 1360s; I’m unclear on this), the County of Albuquerque is formally transferred back to the domains of the kings of Castile, not Portugal. The last of the original Portuguese house of Albuquerque died leaving only two natural daughters. The second of these, Teresa, married a Portuguese nobleman, Vasco Martins da Cunha, in about 1370, and transmitted her family name (not his) to their descendants—see below.

Meanwhile, the castle and estates at Albuquerque, now a Castilian fief, were given to yet another illegitimate royal line. Don Sancho Alfonso de Castilla was one of several illegitimate sons of King Alfonso XI. He was created Count of Alburquerque sometime between 1366 and 1373, and also served as chief military officer (Alferez mayor) of his half-brother Enrique II, founder of the royal house of Trastámara, in 1370. Not losing Portuguese connections, however, the Count married Beatriz de Portugal, daughter of King Pedro I (not the same guy as Pedro the Cruel). Perhaps Alburquerque was her dowry. The 2^nd Count of Alburquerque died as a child, and the lands and title passed to his sister, Leonor de Alburquerque who, in 1394, married King Enrique’s second grandson, Fernando de Antequera, who, sort of against his will, was elected King of Aragon in 1412.

Initially, the County of Alburquerque was given to Leonor’s younger sons, Enrique and Pedro of Aragon, but in 1445, King Juan II of Castile (not their own brother King Juan II of Aragon…I know, this is really confusing!) took the estates away from this line and granted it to his favourite, Alvaro de Luna, Constable of Castile, who largely rebuilt the castle to its present appearance (so today it is called the ‘Castillo de Luna’). Like most favourites we’ve encountered so far, Luna fell from favour fast and hard and was executed in 1453, and the next king, Enrique IV, gave Alburquerque to his own favourite, Beltrán de la Cueva, as we’ve seen above. The castle would remain in the possession of this family for the next few centuries (though, interestingly, it would briefly return to Portuguese rule by conquest during the War of Spanish Succession). It has been administered as a Spanish national monument since early 20^th century. So we need to turn to the family La Cueva, but first we can look at the last of the Portuguese lords who used ‘Albuquerque’ as a surname, not a title.

As we saw above, Teresa de Albuquerque married Vasco Martins da Cunha. Her daughters and grand-daughters mostly kept the name Albuquerque (while the sons continued their father’s patronymic line). So although by ‘purist’ genealogical reckonings, the family names changed first to Vaz de Melo then Gonçalves de Gomide, the next in this line of descent was known as Gonçalo de Albuquerque (d. c1462), Lord of Vila Verde dos Francos, a village in the hills north of Lisbon. His second son became the Grand Admiral of the Indian Ocean, ‘the Caesar of the East’, Afonso de Albuquerque.

Young Afonso had been raised as a companion of the young Portuguese prince João, son of King Afonso V, who became King João II in 1481 and named his friend as his Master of the Horse and Chief Equerry. João II was one of the great builders of the Portuguese empire overseas, and this was continued by his cousin, King Manuel I, who, in 1506, appointed Albuquerque to command a fleet in the Indian Ocean (some say this appointment was to get his cousin’s former favourite, and thus a political rival, out of the country). Within a year, Albuquerque had conquered Muscat and Hormuz—the Muslim states guarding access to the Persian Gulf—then two years later defeated a combined Ottoman and Mamluk (Egyptian) fleet at the Battle of Diu. This was one of the turning points of world history that ended Ottoman domination of the Indian Ocean and turned it into virtually a Portuguese lake. In 1509 Albuquerque was appointed 2^nd Viceroy of Portuguese India, and in 1510, conquered the city of Goa and moved the capital of the ‘Estado da India’ here (initially established a bit further south in Cochin on the Malabar coast). It would remain the capital of Portuguese India until 1961.

The city of Goa had been founded in the fifteenth century as a port on the banks of the Mandovi river by the sultans of Bijapur. It was built to replace Govapuri, which lay a few kilometres to the south and had been used as a port by earlier Hindu kings. Afonso de Albuquerque secured the loyalty of many of the majority Hindu population by removing the oppressive taxes of their previous Islamic rulers. Goa became the chief naval base for the Portuguese empire of the east, and from here, Albuquerque launched exploratory and military missions to Malacca and the Spice Islands. He established diplomatic ties with China, with Ethiopia and with the Persian Empire. Finally, in 1515, he was created Duke of Goa, the first non-royal dukedom in Portugal (though since it is not actually in the Kingdom, some sources do not count it), but he died shortly after.

Afonso de Albuquerque left an illegitimate son, Braz, born before his father departed for the Indian Ocean, and was later renamed Afonso by royal command to honour his late father. The 2^nd Duke of Goa was appointed Overseer of the Royal Treasury for King João III, and served as President of the Lisbon City Council, in 1569. He built the Casa dos Bicos in Lisbon, and the Palacio da Bacalhoa in Azeitão, considered to be two of the finest Renaissance buildings in Portugal. When he died in 1581, the ducal title became extinct—though it was curiously resurrected by a descendant (through his daughter) many centuries later.

In 1886, João Afonso da Costa de Sousa de Macedo, 2^nd Conde de Mesquitela, King of Arms of the Royal Household (senior herald), and 12^th Armeiro mor (Chief Armourer) of Portugal, was created Duke of Albuquerque by King Luis I. His father the first Count had been recognised as the lineal heir to the family name Alburquerque, bearer of the arms of that house (and those of Costa, Sousa and Macedo), and in particular owner of the farm and residence at Bacalhoa. One of the curious Sousa de Macedo titles he held was Baron of Mullingar, in the peerage of Ireland, a title granted by King Charles II to Antonio de Sousa, a former Portuguese ambassador to England, in 1661. This new Duke of Albuquerque was a successful diplomat, and had been asked to be Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1870, and promised a dukedom at that time, but he turned both offers down. Finally accepting the ducal title in 1886, he died soon after in 1890. The title was considered to have been created for his lifetime only, but his brother and heir sometimes claimed the title Duke of Albuquerque, and so did some of his heirs in the 20^th century.

Back in the 16^th century, there remained others who used the name Albuquerque, and spread it across the Portuguese empire. Some were descendants of Braz’s sister, who married into the House of Manoel (another illegitimate line of the House of Portugal) and were colonial administrators in India well into the late 17^th century. Another fascinating figure is a cousin, Brites de Albuquerque, who followed her husband, Duarte Coelho, west across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1534 when he was appointed 1^st Captain of Pernambuco, one of the divisions of the new colony of Brazil. Pernambuco, also known as ‘New Lusitania’, soon became one of the most lucrative Portuguese colonies in the Americas due to the production of sugar. Coelho founded a colonial capital, Olinda, and a port (today’s city of Recife), but had to travel back to Portugal several times to get financial backing from Portuguese merchants. On one of these trips, in 1554, he died, and his wife Brites simply took over running the colony, known as the ‘Captaincy’. This was a proprietary appointment, so Brites (known in Brazilian history as ‘Captoa’—the Lady Captain), maintained it for her sons until they came of age, and even after, as they returned to Portugal to serve in its wars in the 1570s. Altogether, she governed Pernambuco—quite effectively by all accounts—for over thirty years, until her death in 1584. She is considered to be the first female ruler of a European colony in the Americas. Her grandsons continued to be proprietary Captains of Pernambuco: Matias de Albuquerque (who took his grandmother’s surname, not Coelho) unsuccessfully defended the colony against the Dutch in 1634, and was briefly imprisoned back in Lisbon. When Portugal proclaimed its independence from Spain in 1640 under João IV, he was released and rallied to the cause; he defeated the Spanish at the Battle of Montijo, 1644, and was rewarded with a new title, Count of Alegrete. His brother Duarte, however, seems to have stayed loyal to Philip IV of Spain, and was created Marques de Basto and Vizconde de Pernambuco, though the colony remained in Dutch hands (not fully expelled until 1654). He died in 1658, in Spain, the last of his line.

Other interesting members of this branch of the family include Brites de Albuquerque’s brother, Jeronimo, who married a local indigenous princess, Muira-Ubi, a daughter of one of the Tabajara kings, who apparently saved his life, Pocahontas style, though like the story of Pocahontas, this is probably a romanticised version of the truth. She converted to Christianity and took the name Maria do Espirito Santo Arcoverde, but in true gallant colonialist style, he left her to marry a ‘proper’ Portuguese noblewoman, Felipa de Melo, in 1562. Apparently, Jeronimo de Albuquerque is remembered as the ‘father of Brazil’ since he left so many descendants with his surname. Another member of this branch of the family was Matias de Albuquerque, Captain of Hormuz, and Viceroy of Portuguese India, 1591-97.

By this point, the actual town and castle of Alburquerque in Extremadura was owned by the House of La Cueva, who had been propelled to the highest ranks of the nobility in just one generation due to royal favour. The family originally were minor nobles and royal officials in the town of Úbeda, near Jaén in Andalusia. Diego Fernández de la Cueva (d. 1473) held several administrative offices here and in other towns in the southeast, and became both a banker and a confidant of the king, Enrique IV. Towards the end of his career, he was rewarded with the title Viscount of Huelma (a nearby town). Before this, his family was honoured by the King’s request that his second son, Beltrán, serve as a page in the royal household. The King and Beltrán became very close, and the favourite was loaded down with gifts. The two friends were so close that some later historians accused them of homosexuality. These historians were supporters of the regime of Enrique’s half-sister, Queen Isabella, and you know what they say about history being written by the winners. The story goes that the King, so far unable to produce an heir, asked his friend to do the job: in 1462, Queen Juana of Portugal gave birth to a girl, the Infanta Juana. Beltrán was that same year married off to Mencia de Mendoza y Luna, the daughter of one of the richest men in the Kingdom, the Duke del Infantado, and niece of the powerful Cardinal Mendoza. This was certainly big step up for the relatively unknown Casa de la Cueva, and it is easy to see how this might be seen as ‘payment’ for services rendered. Beltrán was appointed head of the royal household, and some have called him an early example of a valido, or chief royal favourite.

Beltrán de la Cueva was also raised in rank one higher than his father, and created Count of Ledesma, a town and medieval castle in the west of Castile, near Salamanca. This wasn’t too far from the Portuguese border, nor was the town of Alburquerque, further to the south, given to Beltrán as a dukedom in 1464. At the same time he was given the important fortified towns of Roa and Cuéllar, both in Castile, not too far from the old court city of Valladolid. The new Duke of Alburquerque set about rebuilding and expanding all of these properties, but it was Cuéllar in particular that became the family’s main residence for the next two centuries.

The Castle at Cuéllar, a walled town in the Province of Segovia, was built in the 13^th century. It was built as a royal castle, then given to the same earlier royal favourite we’ve seen before, Alvaro de Luna, then was confiscated and given by Juan II to his daughter, the Infanta Isabella, in 1453. When Enrique IV took it from his half-sister to give to his favourite, Beltrán, this really irked her. Nevertheless, she confirmed the gift to the La Cueva family in 1475. The castle’s structure, and the gardens behind it, were expanded into a palace fit for a duke in the 16^th century, and became known as the Palace of the Dukes of Alburquerque. In the 17^th century, most great aristocrats relocated their permanent residences in Madrid to be closer to the court, but Cuéllar remained the family’s favoured summer residence. It was gradually abandoned in the 19^th century, after being occupied by French and then British troops during the Peninsular War. In the 20^th century it was used as a political prison and a sanatorium, but more recently it happily opened to the public as a museum.

In 1467, the 1^st Duke of Alburquerque fought for Enrique IV against rebels supporting a coup attempt by the King’s younger half-brother, the Infant Alfonso. Again he was rewarded, with another title, Count of Huelma, 1474. But the next year, the King died, and, against expectations, Alburquerque rallied to the cause of Isabella to succeed him—against the claims of his own reputed daughter, Juana (now called ‘la Beltraneja’, the little Beltrán). The new Queen of Castile thus confirmed his possession of Alburquerque, Ledesma and Huelma, and following the War of Castilian Succession (1475-79), he served her (and her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon), for the next decade, notably in the campaigns to conquer the Kingdom of Granada. He died the year that city was taken, 1492, and was buried in the Franciscan convent in the town of Cuéllar. This church became the sepulchre for the family for several generations, and though the buildings were destroyed in later wars, several of its sculpted treasures are now on display in the museum of the Hispanic Society in New York City. One of these clearly displays the coat of arms of the La Cueva family, now raised to the level of the grandees of Spain: on the left side of the altar, their arms bear a distinctive wyvern (a two legged winged dragon; in some it is golden, but in other versions it is green; and in some it is emerging from a rock or mountainside); the 1^st Duke’s arms also bore small versions of the arms of the Mendozas (his wife’s family) in the border around the edges.

Other family members were also put into prominent positions, notably the Duke’s younger brothers, Gutierre (Bishop of Palencia, 1461), and Diego (Governor of Cartegena, 1460). In 1476, Beltrán married as his second wife, a daughter of the 1^st Duke of Alba—thus really securing his family’s place at the top of the aristocratic hierarchy—and at the same time his son married his new step-mother’s sister. Best make these new marital links firm! A third marriage was made in 1482 to the widowed Duchess of Escalona, his first wife’s cousin, Maria de Velasco y Mendoza, daughter of the former Grand Chamberlain of Enrique IV—when she was widowed for a second time, Queen Isabella created her Duchess of Roa, 1492, just for herself, and although the castle and lordship of Roa passed to her sons (see below), this dukedom did not (and some recent historians have argued that there never was an actual duchy of Roa, it was just a title of honour given to a widow who was already of ducal rank).

The 2^nd Duke of Alburquerque, Francisco, is not known for very much, but did serve the first Habsburg king, Carlos I (aka, Emperor Charles V) in his various campaigns, and in 1520 was amongst the first to be promoted to the new rank of ‘Grandee of Spain’. He continued to develop the various castles given to his father, including the Castle of Colmenar, which was renamed Mombeltrán (Monte Beltrán), near the city of Avila in western Castile. Here he fashioned a gallery, a newish architectural feature coming to Spain from Italian Renaissance influence—a place to promenade and hang family portraits.

The 2^nd Duke had nine children, who all (boys and girls) served in the household or the armies of the Charles V in some capacity or another. The two eldest, the 3^rd Duke (after 1526), Beltrán, and Luis in particular, fought both at home and abroad (Luis especially, at the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1526; he also held a court position as Captain of the Guard). The 3^rd Duke had impressed Charles V in his early campaigns against the French in Navarre (the French were trying to liberate that Kingdom, recently conquered by the Spanish), so he was named Captain-General of the Spanish Army defending the northern frontiers, 1522, and later Viceroy and Captain-General of Aragon. He also led some diplomatic missions abroad, where he met King Henry VIII, and the English king, also impressed with his leadership skills, invited him to London, fitted him out with a large household, and appointed him Generalissimo of the English Armies in 1544 in the campaigns to try to capture Boulogne. Later in life the Duke would be Viceroy of Navarre, 1552-60. Meanwhile, the 3^rd Duke’s brother, Bartolomé, became a prelate, and an influential priest in Rome, friend to Loyola and patron of the first Jesuit church in Rome in 1544. That year he became a cardinal. He remained in Rome for the rest of his career, except for a brief stint as Viceroy of Naples, from October to June, 1558/59.

In the next generation, the 3^rd Duke’s eldest son was already in military service in the lifetime of his father, and was created Marques of Cuéllar in his own right in 1530. He fought in campaigns in North Africa, then succeeded his father in 1560, but was only 4^th Duke for three years, and was succeeded by his brother Gabriel, who was also a soldier, notably leading the defence of the North African city of Oran against the Ottomans in 1556. As 5^th Duke of Alburquerque, he was Viceroy of Navarre in 1560, then Governor of Milan—a key position in the Spanish Monarchy—from 1564 until his death in 1571. He left behind this amazing portrait, by Moroni, from about 1560.

But the 5^th Duke also left behind a daughter, Maria, who tried to claim the family lands and titles. After a family scuffle, the courts awarded these to her first cousin, Beltrán III de la Cueva, who in proper early modern aristocratic style, married his other cousin, the daughter of the 4^th Duke, so there wouldn’t be any other rival claims to the ducal title, castles and estates. He too, as 6^th Duke, would be Viceroy of Aragon, 1599 to 1602. And so too did his son the 7^th Duke hold the most senior government positions in the Spanish Monarchy: Viceroy of Catalonia, 1615-19; Viceroy of Sicily, 1627-32; President of the Council of Italy, 1630, and so on. In Catalonia in particular he was known as a rigorous administrator, though perhaps too rigorous, suppressing disorder, but also significant freedoms.

Four more sons followed as the 17^th century matured (three of them with the colourful and Christmassy names of Gaspar, Melchor and Baltasar). The eldest, Francisco, became the 8^th Duke of Alburquerque in 1637, while the second and third sons forged careers in the army and navy, respectively. The 4^th son, Baltasar, Count of Castellar by marriage, was much later in life appointed Viceroy of Peru (1674-78)—he spent much of his time in South America sending expeditions south along the Pacific coast to secure it from English and Dutch incursions. He also put down an indigenous revolt led by a self-proclaimed Inca prince. But this was not the first time the La Cueva family became involved in the affairs of the New World. One female cousin (perhaps two) had accompanied her husband as governor to the Yucatan in Mexico. The 8^th Duke of Albuquerque himself became Viceroy of New Spain, 1653-60. His time in government was marked by a serious attempt to defend the eastern coasts of Mexico during war with England, and more of an effort to increase trade with the Philippines and Asia. He pushed for the completion of the Cathedral in Mexico City. When he returned to Spain, he was named Ambassador Extraordinary to the Imperial Court in Vienna, accompanying the Infanta Margarita Teresa to her marriage to Emperor Leopold in 1666. He then went south, and was Viceroy of Sicily, 1668-70, and finally Mayordomo mayor (head of the household) of King Carlos II, 1674-76. He had only a daughter, who, once again, married her uncle, Melchor de la Cueva, who succeeded as 9^th Duke, but only for 10 years, dying in 1686.

The real heir of the 8^th Duke and previous Viceroy of New Spain in the La Cueva family, was his nephew, Francisco, 10^th Duke of Alburquerque. His early years were spent in the navy, as Captain-General of Granada and the coasts of Andalusia. When Carlos II left the Spanish Monarchy to the French prince, Philip of Anjou, in 1700, the Duke was an immediate supporter of the new Bourbon regime, and was rewarded by an appointment to his uncle’s old post as Viceroy of New Spain in 1702. He repressed any lingering loyalty to the Habsburg Dynasty in Mexico and raised lots of money to send back to Spain in support of the Bourbon cause in the War of Spanish Succession. He also brought a new Bourbon magnificence (in contrast to more sombre Habsburg style) to the viceregal court in Mexico City. Alburquerque also strengthened the navy and coastal defences (once again against English attacks), and continued to expand Spain’s colonial reach northwards into North America—he supported Jesuit missions to California, and in 1706 approved a new settlement, which was named after him, in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico (ie Albuquerque, New Mexico). The Viceroy also established another new northern outpost, named for his family’s spiritual home back in Spain, San Francisco de Cuéllar, in 1709 (today known as Chihuahua). But of course not everything can be painted as rosy successful history; his regime also brutally suppressed a rebellion by the Pima Indians in this area of northern Mexico. He was recalled to Spain in 1711 and served at court as Gentleman of the Chamber of King Philip V until his death in 1724.

The 11th Duke of Alburquerque stayed much closer to the royal court in Madrid. In 1742, he was appointed Caballerizo mayor (first equerry) of Prince Ferdinand, and stayed in this role once the prince became King Ferdinand VI in 1746. The Duke died in 1757, leaving behind only a daughter, whose husband tried to claim the ducal succession after her death in 1762 for their son (but he too died young, in 1779); and a sister, the Marquesa de los Balbases, whose heirs ultimately inherited the dukedom, but not yet.

As noted above, by the 17^th century, most of the Spanish grandees made their permanent base in Madrid to be closer to the court. Several of these dukes of Alburquerque lived in the Royal Palace, the Alcázar of Madrid, as their offices required constant attendance on the king or the queen. There is a suggestion that there was an old residence from the 16^th century on the Calle Mayor, at the intersection of Calle de Bailén, which would put it at about the location of the Palace of the Duke of Uceda, built in 1613, which was later converted into the buildings of the Council of State (which it still is). In 1645, the 8^th Duke acquired by marriage (I think) a new residence near the Royal Monastery of La Encarnación, a few streets northeast of the royal palace. He had married the heiress of Lope Diez de Armendáriz, 1^st Marques de Cadreita (1617), born in Peru and later another Viceroy of New Spain (1635-40), whose estates were in Navarre. The 8^th Duchess (Juana) served as a lady-in-waiting in the households of queens Isabel, Maria Luisa and Maria Ana, so needed a residence close to the court.

The La Cueva family also possessed a house in Hortaleza, at the time a ‘garden village’ on the outskirts of Madrid (now one of the city’s districts), where the 10^th Duke died. The 11^th Duke was born in the house near La Encarnación, but spent much of his time in Hortaleza, in a garden residence known as the ‘Palacio de Buenavista’.

After the death of the 11^th Duke in 1757, the inheritance was split up. The Ducal title, being a male-preference title, passed to the next male heir, the Count of Siruela. The County of Siruela, in Extremadura, was created in 1470, and passed by marriage to a younger son (the son of the Duchess of Roa, above) in the early 16^th century. The Counts of Siruela (using the compound surname Velasco de la Cueva) were a mid-level court family in the succeeding centuries. The 12^th Duke of Alburquerque was a Spanish field marshal and died only a few years after he had successfully claimed the title. His son, Miguel, not only inherited the main La Cueva titles (Alburquerque, Cuéllar, Ledesma and Huelma), but also the Marquisate of La Mina (1681), with lands near Seville, created in 1681 for his Guzmán-Dávalos ancestors. He was a courtier, Captain of the Royal Guards Halberdiers and Gentleman of the Chamber of Carlos III and Carlos IV. In 1792-95, as tensions were heating up along the northern border with Revolutionary France, Alburquerque was appointed to an important role as Captain-General of Aragon. He acquired a new palace in Madrid in about 1765, on the Calle de Santa Isabel, a new construction built in the gardens in the old convent of that name (near today’s Atocha Station); then expanded and remodelled it in the 1790s. By the 19^th century, it had passed out of the family and was possessed by the Duke of Fernán-Núñez, by which name the palace is known today.

The 13^th Duke died in 1803, and was succeeded by his son, José Maria, a soldier who had been rapidly promoted in the 1790s, a brigadier by age 19. In 1808, as Spanish patriots began to fight back against Napoleonic occupation, the 14^th Duke of Alburquerque was appointed Commander of the Army of Castile, then promoted to field marshal then lieutenant-general by 1810, at the head of the Army of Extremadura. He secured the city of Cadiz as a base for the Regency Government (nominally supporting the exiled King Ferdinand VII, but really trying to create its own liberal constitution for a renewed Spain), and was named governor of that city, then Captain-General of Andalusia and President of the Junta of Cadiz (the temporary ruling royalist government). But he soon clashed with others on the Junta, and was sent to London as its ambassador—this was a useful posting as he had made lots of close associations with British army officers helping to liberate Spain, including the Duke of Wellington. But he died soon after, still in London, where he was given a funeral with honours in Westminster Abbey.

With the death of the 14^th Duke of Alburquerque in 1811, without a legitimate male heir, the succession was once again contested, for nearly 20 years. His sister was able to claim the successions to Siruela and La Mina, but not Alburquerque. There had been other lines of the House of La Cueva. The senior line (from all the way back in the 15^th century, the elder brother of the first Beltrán), were created Marques of Bedmar in 1614, but went extinct in the male line in 1723; the last of these was a significant figure in the Spanish Monarchy: Isidro, 5^th Marques de Bedmar, Supreme Commander of the Army in the Spanish Netherlands from 1697, and interim Governor-General of the Low Countries, 1701-04 (a position usually reserved for nobles or princes of much higher rank), and finally Viceroy of Sicily, 1705-07, and Minister of War, 1709. A cadet branch in the 16^th century were created Marques of La Adrada (1570), but was extinct by the end of the century. The Line of Bedmar did have its own cadet branch, the counts of Guadiana (who maintained a palace back in the old dynastic hometown of Úbeda), and they continued into the 19^th century, so their claims were amongst those that muddied the waters in the Alburquerque succession. It took the courts until 1830 to make a full settlement, but already in 1811 Manuel Miguel Osorio Spinola de la Cueva was calling himself the 15^th Duke of Alburquerque. He died before the ruling, so sometimes the numbering systems are off from this point. Manuel Miguel, of the House of Osorio, was already an interesting mixture of two noble lines, from his maternal grandparents, Ana Catalina de la Cueva, sister of the 11^th Duke, and her husband Ambrosio Spinola, 5^th Marques de los Balbases and 5^th Duke of Sesto; but also from his father, the 14^th Marques de Alcañices (Osorio). What’s more, he married the heiress of the Duke of Algete (cr. 1728), so this title (and its estates, just north of Madrid) passed to his son as well when he finally formally succeeded as 15^th Duke of Alburquerque in 1830.

The dukes of Alburquerque in the 19^th century were thus a conglomerate of Spanish (and Italian) houses. The Osorios were an old noble family from León. Their main titles were the marquisate of Astorga and the county of Altamira, but they also inherited the duchy of Medina de los Torres (so they will get a separate blog post). Their arms, two red wolves on gold, were now paired with those of La Cueva. The senior line of the Osorios had inherited in 1741 the marquisate of Alcañices (in Zamora Province, created 1533 for the Enríquez de Almansa). The house of Spinola was originally from Genoa, but had settled in Spain after the creation of their marquisate of Los Balbases, 1621, in Burgos Province—they also retained significant lands granted to them by the King of Spain in the Kingdom of Naples, notably the Duchy of Sesto, 1612 (northwest of the city of Naples). With these added dynastic lines came significant new properties in and around Madrid. While the house in Hortaleza passed out of the family, as did the palace in Madrid near Atocha, an impressive new residence was gained:  the Palacio del Marques de Alcañices (or Palacio de Sesto). This was located in a prominent place on a corner where the Calle de Alcalá intersects the Paseo del Prado, two of the grand boulevards developed on the eastern edge of the old city in the reign of Carlos III. The palace was built sometime in the late 17^th century, and purchased by the Osorios in the late 18^th century; they would later sell it in 1882, and the building would be demolished to make way for the Bank of Spain.

The 15^th Duke of Alburquerque, also Duke of Sesto and Duke of Algete, was a major horse breeder, and firmly established his family as part of the Spanish ‘horsey set’, which they still are today. He was also a courtier, as Mayordomo mayor for Prince-Consort Francisco de Asis (husband of Queen Isabel II), and then Ayo (governor) for their son Prince Alfonso after his birth in 1857. The Duke died in 1866, leaving this role to his son, known already as the Duke of Sesto (he was also called ‘Pepe Osorio’ or ‘Pepe Alcañices’), one of the most interesting characters in royalist circles of 19^th-century Spain.

José Osorio y Silva, 16^th Duke of Alburquerque, had already started to establish his political name as Duke of Sesto, when he was Alcalde (mayor) of Madrid, 1857-64. After his father’s death he took over the fatherly role to the Prince of Asturias, as his Mayordomo and Gentleman of the Chamber—he would become one of Alfonso’s closest advisors when he later became king, and appropriately, Director of the Royal Stud Farm and the King’s Montero Mayor (Master of the Hunt). Across his long life he would be director of a number of horse-related government offices or public societies, for example, he was President of the National Society for the Promotion of Horse Breeding (founded by his father), from 1886 to his death in 1909.

But it is as a chief supporter of the Bourbons that Alburquerque made his mark. Isabel II was forced to give up the throne in 1868, and went into exile in France. The Duke of Alburquerque purchased a palace for her in Paris, renamed the Palacio Castilla (later better known as the very grand Hotel Majestic), and lent the royal family the use of his house at the fashionable seaside town of Deauville. In 1870 he persuaded the Queen to formally abdicate the throne in favour of young Alfonso (whose education he’d been put in charge of), in hopes for a better chance at a restoration. The Duke spent millions in his efforts on behalf of the Bourbons, and was active in rallying the nobility of Spain to the Borbonista cause. His wife too was active in this regard: Princess Sofia Troubetskoy, formerly married to the Duc de Morny (half-brother of Napoleon III)—and rumoured to be the love-child of Tsar Nicholas I—was one of the most beautiful, cosmopolitan and fashionable women in Madrid. In 1871, she led the ‘Rebellion of the Mantillas’, a movement which aimed at alienating the newly imposed King Amedeo of Savoy and his wife in Madrid society. Their home on the Calle de Alcalá became the main gathering place for ‘Alfonsistas’. The Duchess was also reputedly the first to bring Christmas trees to Spain…

After a brief republic, Alfonso XII was indeed restored in December 1874, and the Duke of Alburquerque was appointed Jefe Superior of the Royal Palace, basically head of the royal establishment. After Alfonso XII’s early death in 1885, he tried to retire, or at least to retreat to running only the Royal Stud Farm, but was convinced to stay on as mayordomo for the young royal princesses, and was then appointed Gentleman of the Chamber to the new king, Alfonso XIII, born in the Spring of 1886. But he increasingly clashed with the Queen Mother, Maria Christina of Austria, who accused him of stealing money from the royal treasury—once again in this story we see the pretty poor extent of royal gratitude towards favourites! So he donated more of his personal wealth to her, including the Duchy of Sesto and other lands in Italy (1889). He retired from court—though continued to have a role in public affairs, as Spanish representative to various international expos, like that in Paris of 1900. He had sold the Palace on the Calle de Alcalá, and died in a palace a bit to the north, on the Paseo de Recoletos, a grand building located across that broad avenue from the National Library of Spain. Built for the Duke of Sesto in 1865, it would remain the family residence until sold to the General Council of Lawyers in the 1990s.

The 16^th Duke of Alburquerque and 9^th Duke of Sesto left his titles by a will to his great-nephew, Miguel Osorio. He was appointed one of the ‘Gentilhombres Grandes de España’, the more exclusive rank of Gentleman of the Chamber, reserved for only the highest ranking noblemen and those closest to the King. He was briefly elected deputy to the Cortes for Alcañices in the 1920s, but otherwise kept a fairly low profile. His son, the 18^th Duke, another Beltrán, was head of the household of the Count of Barcelona (the exiled head of the royal family) from 1954 to that prince’s death in 1993 (himself dying a year later). His fame came from not from his service to the Bourbons, but from the other great family passion: equestrianism. He was considered one of the best horsemen in Europe, competing in two Olympics (Helsinki 1952 and Rome 1960), and later at several Grand National events in England. Later Alburquerque was a trainer, and, like his predecessors, President of the Society for the Promotion of Horse Breeding in Spain (1985-88). In his obituary he was referred to as ‘the last Spanish cavalier’.

The 20^th-century dukes continued to live in the Palacio del Duque de Alburquerque on Paseo de Recoletos. But today’s Duke, the 19^th (Juan Miguel, born 1958) lives mostly at his farm El Soto de Mozanaque, where he—unsurprisingly—tends horses. This farm, in Algete, about 30 km northeast of Madrid, was built by the 1^st Duke of Algete as a hunting lodge in the early 18^th century. The 19^th Duke of Alburquerque has restored it and opened it up for use for weddings and other events.

(images from Wikimedia Commons)