One of Spain’s most eccentric, blue-blooded and rebellious aristocrats, Doña Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, Duchess of Medina-Sidonia, died on March 7 leaving behind a scandal almost as big as the political scrapes that bedevilled her life spent championing the poor and defying Franco.
The three children of the 71-year-old Red Duchess as she was known, are grappling with the revelation that she had married her lesbian lover on her deathbed – and made out her will in her favour.
Her relationship with Liliana Maria Dahlmann, her 50-something private secretary who had worked with her for two decades, had been kept secret until their marriage – a civil ceremony – conducted by a council official just hours before her death.
Instead of the descendants of one of Spain’s oldest families, one of whose ancestors commanded the ill-fated Spanish Armada, inhabiting the ducal palace and taking control of the priceless collection of art and archives, the place has been taken over by Dahlmann.
The Duchess’ second son, civil engineer Don Gabriel Gregorio y Álvarez de Toledo, 50, who is reported to have last spoken to his mother a quarter of a century ago, said:
“My mother was a nightmare. She tried to deprive her three children of their inheritance.”
As to Ms Dahlmann herself, Don Gabriel said: “My mother tried to help Señorita Dahlmann when she came to Spain from Germany years ago and the two became lovers. My mother was part of a group of radical lesbians.
“When I heard she had married her secretary on her deathbed I thought it was typical of her.”
As widow, Ms Dahlmann can stay on at the huge palace, which is near Cádiz, for the rest of her life.
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