Eugénie de Montijo's real name was María Eugenia Ignacia Agustina Palafox de Guzmán Portocarrero y Kirkpatrick de Closbourn y Grevigné. She was born in Granada, Spain, in 1826, the second and last daughter of Cipriano Palafox de Guzmán Portocarrero, 18th Count of Montijo, 18th Count of Teba, 13th Marquis of la Algaba, 13th Duke of Peñaranda; and his wife, María Manuela Kirkpatrick de Closbourn y Grevigné, of Scottish, Spanish and French ancestry. Her elder sister, María Francisca, was born in 1825, and died in 1860 having married Jaime Luis Fitzjames, 15th Duke of Alba. While Maria Francisca's marriage produced three healthy children, Eugenia's only produced one son. She married Napoléon III in 1853 at Notre Dame, Paris; he was profoundly in love with this charming Spanish noble fresh out of her natal Spain. However, many people in France, including the Imperial Family, oposed the match, which helped to spread malicious rumours throughout Europe. However, Queen Victoria paid no attention to this evil gossip, and remained a devoyed friend for the rest of her life. Even during her marriage, Eugénie was accused of being a foreigner, a malicious conspiring force at court... Upon her only son's death in 1879, she told the British Queen "Il était toute ma vie". She is widely accused of being responsible for the fall of the monarchy in France as well as Napoleon III's meddling in Mexcican politics, which developed in Maximilian I's execution at Querétaro in 1867. Even after her husband's death in 1873 her behaviour was superb,a nd she dedicated her days to educating their son, who six years later died tragically in South Africa fighting the Zulus. There was no space at Camdem Place, Chislehurst, to burry her son and husband, so she moved their remains to Hampshire, not too far away from Windsor. Always a feminist, she was an ardent supporter of the suffragettes.
In 1920 she moved to Madrid, to the house of her nephew the Duke of Alba, in his Palace of Liria. On July 10th she fell ill, and gently died the following day in her native Spain. Her corpse was prepared in Spain and sent to England, where she was buried, at Farnborough, by her family, to what she sued to call (in English) "My English Home". The Queen had come home.
