The House of Alba has its origins in 1429, when John II of Castile named Gutierre Álvarez de Toledo, Archbishop of Seville and Toledo, ''Señor de Alba de Tormes. His nephew and successor, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Sarmiento became ''Earl of Alba de Tormes'' in 1459 and the son of Fernando, García, became the I Duke of Alba in 1469.
Don Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo, II Duke of Alba, signed the capitulation of Granada in 1492 and he faught for Charles V in Flanders and Italy.
His grandson, Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, III Duke of Alba, was viceroy of Naples and the expelled the French from Italy in the battle of Pavia (1556). He was Governor of the Netherlands between 1567 and 1573. His brutal methods in his prosecution of protestants gained him an awful reputation and the city of Utrecht rebelled against him.
His son, Fadrique, IV Duke of Alba, won the cities of Malines (1572) and Haarlem (1573). He ran to the exile in Oran in 1576 because of his scandalous love affairs. In 1579 he was put in prison by order of Philip II in Tordesillas, where Joan the Mad had been imprisoned between 1509 and 1555. After Fadrique the family related to the Silva family through their female members.
Don Fernando de Silva Álvarez de Toledo, XII Duke of Alba, was the Spanish ambassador in France between 1746 and 1749 and he would be a person of notorious importance in the movement against the Enlightenment that took place in Spain during Charles III's reign.
His daughter, Doña María del Pilar Cayetana de Silva Álvarez de Toledo, XIII Duchess of Alba, is a very famous character of Spanish History because of her intimate relations with Francisco de Goya. Although married when she was 13, Cayetana died childless in 1802, when she was forty.
After Cayetana’s death the alba Duchy passed to the grandson of her cousin, Carlos Fitzjames Stuart y de Silva (1794-1835) a descendant of King James II of England. I am now writing down the genealogy that links the XIV Duke of Alba and King James:
1. James II Stuart (1633-1701). Had an adulterous affair with Arabella Churchill (1648-1730), sister to the Duke of Marlborough from which:
2. James Fitzjames Stuart (1670-1734), Duke of Berwick. Married firstly Honora de Burgh (1674-1698) in 1695. His second wife was Anne Bulkeley (1681-1751), with whom he married in 1700. From his first wife he had:
3. James Francis Fitzjames Stuart (1696-1736), Duke of Berwick. Married Catalina Ventura Colón de Portugal y Ayala (1690-1739) in 1716. They had:
4. Jacobo Francisco Fitzjames Stuart y Colón de Portugal (1718-1785), Duke of Berwick. He married María Teresa de Silva y Álvarez de Toledo (1716-1790), sister of the XII Duke of Alba, in 1738. They had:
5. Carlos Fernando Pascual Januario Fitzjames Stuart y de Silva (1752-1787), Duke of Berwick. He married Caroline Augusta Maria of Stolberg-Gedern (1755-1828) in 1771. Caroline was the younger sister of Louisa, wife of Bonnie Prince Charlie (Charles Edward Stuart). They had:
6. Jacobo Felipe Carlos Pascual Cayetano Fitzjames Stuart y de Stolberg-Gedern (1773-1794), Duke of Berwick. He married María Teresa Fernández de Silva y Palafox (1772-1818) in 1790. They had:
7. Carlos Miguel Fitzjames Stuart y Fernández de Silva (1794-1835), Duke of Alba and 14th Duke of Alba since 1802. He married Maria Rosalia de Ventimiglia (1798-1868) in 1817. They had:
8. Jacobo Luis Francisco Pablo Rafael Fitzjames Stuart y de Ventimiglia (1821-1881), 15th Duke of Alba and Duke of Berwick. He married María Francisca de Sales de Guzmán Palafox y Kirkpatrick of Closeburn (1825-1860), sister of Empress Eugenia of France, in 1844. They had:
9. Carlos María Isabel Fitzjames Stuart y de Guzmán Palafox (1849-1901), 16th Duke of Alba. He married María del Rosario Falcó y Osorio (1854-1904) in 1877. They had:
10. Jacobo María del Pilar Carlos Manuel Fitzjames Stuart y Falcó (1878-1953), 17th Duke of Alba. He married María del Rosario de Silva y Guturbay (1900-1934) in 1920. They had:
11. Cayetana (María del Rosario Cayetana) Fitzjames Stuart y de Silva (1926-), 18th and current Duchess of Alba. She married firstly Pedro Luis Martínez de Irujo y Artazcoz (1919-1972) in 1948. Her second husband was Jesús Aguirre y Ortiz de Zárate (1934-2001), with whom she married in 1978 and with whom she had no children. With her first husband she had:
12. Carlos Fitzjames Stuart y Martínez de Irujo (1949-), who married Matilde de Solís y Martínez-Campos (1963-) in 1988. They are divorced, although they have two sons: Fernando (1990-) and Carlos (1991-).
You can see more information on the Fitzjames Stuart family in
http://pages.prodigy.net/ptheroff/gotha/berwick.html. If you want more about the Alba Dukes, you can click here:
http://genealogia.sapo.pt/pessoas/pes_show.php?id=41076 I hope to have helped you!!
Gonzalo.
