| The Duke of Alba | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | GE LH GCVO |
| Office: | Foreign Minister of Spain |
| Primeminister: | Miguel Primo de Rivera |
| Term Start: | 30 January 1930 |
| Term End: | 18 February 1931 |
| Predecessor: | Miguel Primo de Rivera |
| Successor: | Álvaro de Figueroa |
| Office2: | Seat of the Real Academia Española |
| Term Start2: | 14 March 1943 |
| Term End2: | 24 September 1953 |
| Successor2: | Pedro Laín Entralgo |
| Birth Date: | 17 October 1878 |
| Birth Place: | Madrid, Spain |
| Death Place: | Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Birthname: | Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó |
| Nationality: | Spanish |
| Spouse: | María del Rosario de Silva, Duchess of Alba |
| Children: | Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, 18th Duchess of Alba |
| Residence: | Liria Palace |
| Honorific Prefix: | The Most Excellent |
Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó, 17th Duke of Alba, 10th Duke of Berwick, GE, LH, GCVO (17 October 1878 – 24 September 1953)[1] was a Spanish peer, diplomat, politician, art collector and Olympic medalist. He was one of the most important aristocrats of his time and held, among other titles, the dukedoms of Alba de Tormes and Berwick, the Countship of Lemos, Lerín, Montijo and the Marquessate of Carpio. He was granted the Order of the Golden Fleece of Spain in 1926.[2]
A close friend and relative of the British royal family, he was one of the leading guests at the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II in 1947.[3]
The Duke was born on 17 October 1878 in Palace of Liria in Madrid, the first son of Carlos María Fitz-James Stuart, 16th Duke of Alba and María del Rosario Falcó, 21st Countess of Siruela. Don Jacobo was baptised only a few days after with the name "Santiago", a variant of Jacobo. His godparents were his paternal grandfather, Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 15th Duke of Alba and his maternal grandmother María del Pilar Ossorio y Gutiérrez de los Ríos, 3rd Duchess of Fernán Núñez.[4]
On 7 October 1920 he married Maria del Rosario de Silva, 9th Marchioness of San Vicente del Barco (Madrid, 4 April 1900 – Madrid, 11 January 1934), lady of the bedchamber to Queen Victoria Eugenie and sole heiress to the enormous fortune and long list of titles of the house of Híjar as the only child of Alfonso de Silva, 16th Duke of Híjar and her mother María del Rosario Gurtubay, at the Spanish Embassy in London. The two had a single daughter, Cayetana, who inherited all of the family's titles and fortune.
He carried out his first studies under private tutors, but was later sent to England to study at Beaumont College, followed by Eton. After returning to Spain, he continued with his higher education enrolling in the Universidad Central de Madrid, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in law.
He served as Lord of the Bedchamber to the young King Alfonso XIII, who had acceded on his birth. In May 1902, royal visitors came to Madrid for the festivities to mark the King's birthday and enthronement. The Duke received the Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) from the Duke of Connaught, who was present for the festivities.[5]
Between 2 February 1930 and 18 February 1931, Alba was Foreign Minister of Spain. During the Spanish Civil War, the Communists occupied his residence, the Palace of Liria, which his daughter later restored, and they murdered his younger brother Hernando Carlos María Teresa Fitz-James Stuart y Falcó (1882-1936).
Alba became General Franco's official representative in London and opened the new building at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, in June 1936, alongside Alban Goodier S.J., the former Archbishop of Bombay, and the Earl of Oxford.[6] He was still the ambassador there in 1939, when Neville Chamberlain's cabinet formally gave to Franco's Nationalists diplomatic recognition.
The master Soviet spy Kim Philby wrote in his memoir My Silent War that the Spanish diplomatic bag during the Second World War was regularly accessed, "and from it [we] learnt that Alba periodically sent to Madrid despatches on the British political scene of quite exceptional quality. As we had no doubt that the Spanish Foreign Ministry would make them available to the German allies, these despatches represented a really serious leakage. Yet there was nothing that could be done. There was no evidence that the Duke had obtained his information improperly. He simply moved with people in the know and reported what they said, with shrewd commentaries of his own." In fact, King George VI was warned of this possibility in October 1943, as his Private Secretary Sir Alan Lascelles reported in his diary, and advised not to say anything that he did not want to reach the enemy.[7]
After the war, Alba's relations with Franco markedly cooled, the result of Alba supporting a prompt monarchist restoration much more than Franco. Alba was a leading guest at the 1947 wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.[8]
He won a silver medal in polo at the 1920 Summer Olympics.[9] [10]
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