The Duchess of Alba, Maria del Rosario Cayetana Fitz-James Staurt, Spain's richest woman has died in Seville after a short illness aged 88 years. She is the world's most titled noble.
The eccentric Duchess Alba was the head of one of Spain's oldest noble families. She was also widely loved in Spain.
Earlier this week, she was treated for Pneumonia in the hospital but had to be taken back home. She is survived by six children and a husband Alfonso Diez, a civil servant who is 25 years younger than her. They got married in 2011. She overcame opposition to the marriage from her children by giving them their inheritance in advance.
Known for her frizzy hair and colourful dress sense, the duchess owned many estates, palaces, guest houses and treasures including paintings by great masters like Goya to Velazquez.
Simply referred to as Cayetana, she was not bothered by the daily analysis of her life by the Spanish press. She once told a Spanish magazine in 2011, ''If they forget you, you are nobody.''
She was a relative of Winston Churchill, she shared toys with the present Queen Elizabeth as a child.
Her title was Duchess of Alba de Tormes, but she had more than 40 other titles which made her the noble with the most officially recognised titles in the world according to the Guinness Book of Records.
She married her first husband Luis Martinez de Irujo Artacos in 1947. He died in 1972. She then married Jesuit Priest Jesus Aguirrey Ortiz de Zarate in 1978. He died in 2001.
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