The Death of Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart

The Duchess of Alba has died. She was a direct descendant of Mary Queen of Scots, whom I think she resembled, before the dreadful surgery, that is. From The Guardian:

The 18th Duchess of Alba, who has died aged 88, was one of Spain’s best-known public figures. Her frizzy hair (sometimes dyed red), waxen skin and querulous voice uttering forthright opinions made her instantly recognisable. Never camera-shy and a frequent participant in high-society events, she was a darling of the gossip magazines, television shows and, in her later years, satirists.

The duchess, known as Cayetana de Alba, was fabulously rich and Spain’s biggest private landowner. She had palaces throughout the country, including the Palacio de las Dueñas in Seville, her main residence, and the Palacio de Liria, where she was born, in Madrid. The castle to which she owed her title is in Alba de Tormes, Salamanca. She usually spent the summer at her house in Ibiza or another in Marbella.

The dukedom of Alba goes back to the 15th century, but Cayetana de Alba was only the third female member of the dynasty to be duchess in her own right. Her godparents were King Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenie, his English queen. She was a grandee of Spain 14 times over and possessed 46 noble titles, including Duchess of Berwick, a Jacobite title, as she was a descendant of James II (VII of Scotland) and his mistress Arabella Churchill. Her titles gave her several arcane privileges, such as not having to kneel before the pope and being permitted to ride a horse into Seville Cathedral.

Cayetana’s early life was not quite as easy as her background suggests. The 1931 declaration of the Spanish republic resulted in the expulsion of the royal family and social conflict as landless peasants fought to occupy aristocrats’ often uncultivated estates. She hardly saw her mother, María del Rosario de Silva, who was ill with tuberculosis and died when Cayetana was eight.

She had a peripatetic childhood travelling with her father, Jacobo, the 17th Duke, until he became Franco’s representative in London during the 1936-39 civil war and ambassador there from 1939 to 1945. In London, the future duchess received a broader education than she would have had in postwar Spain, and hobnobbed with her poor relations the Churchills. Her adored father introduced her into the world of painting and the arts in general; the huge Alba private collection includes paintings by El Greco, Velázquez, Titian, Rembrandt and Goya. (Read more.)

Pictures from funeral Mass, HERE.

At first wedding in 1947

With first husband

With first husband Luis de Irujo and their six children

With Queen Sofia and the family portait of Goya's Cayetana de Alba

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The Duchess of Alba

A descendant of James II, she carries on the name and lineage of the Royal Stuarts. From the Mail Online:

The Duchess, or María del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva, to give her the full name, is Spain's richest woman, has more recognised titles than any other noble in the world and is a distant relative of both Winston Churchill and Princess Diana.

As the head of the House of Alba, and the 18th Duchess, her property portfolio includes castles, palaces, country houses and land across Spain - with the most famous being the Liria Palace in Madrid, where she was born. As well as the eccentric Duchess, the palace is also thought to be home to 249 oil paintings by artists including Rembrandt, Goya, Van Dyck and Rubens, as well as the Alba Bible which dates back to 1430.

The Duchess is a descendant of King James II of England, through his illegitimate son James Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick whose mother was Arabella Churchill, the sister of the Duke of Marlborough. 

She is therefore distantly related to Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales, who were descendants of Arabella‘s daughter Henrietta Fitz-James. Her godmother was Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain and although her supreme title is Duchess of Alba, she has more than 44 other noble titles, and 150 hereditary ones. She is a duchess seven times over, a countess 19 times and a marquesa 23 times. Despite her privileged past, in her latest tome the Duchess said that her life 'had not been easy'. (Read entire article.)

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Revisiting the Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Huescar

 

The Stuart descendants in Spain, the Fitz-James Stuarts. The Duke resembles his ancestor James II. The Duke's late grandmother the Duchess of Alba resembled Mary Queen of Scots. From Tatler:

Fernando Fitz-James Stuart y Solís – son of the 19th Duke of Alba and grandson of the late Cayetana, 18th Duchess of Alba, at one time the world's richest woman – married the beautiful Sofia in a lavish ceremony at his family estate, the 18th-century Liria Palace in Madrid. In attendance was Queen Sofia of Spain, the mother of the reigning King Felipe VI, a who's who of Spanish aristocracy.

The mass started at midday in the gardens of the groom's estate, which holds the honour of being the largest private residence in Madrid. The groom, dressed in the uniform of the Royal Cavalry of Seville, entered on the arm of his mother, Matilde Solís-Beaumont, who wore a navy blue suit by Lorenzo Caprile. Meanwhile the bride wore a gown designed by her aunt, Teresa Palazuelo and was walked down the aisle by her brother, Jamie. ‘Teresa knew me very well and understood that I wanted something understated, in keeping with my personality and style,’ Sofia, now the Duchess of Huescar, said in an interview following her aunt's death. ‘She suggested several ideas, and we ultimately drew inspiration from the architectural lines of Balenciaga to create the dress.’ A simple yet dramatic cape acted as the sweeping train. (Read more.)

 

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What Does St. Paul Say About Veils?

 

Charlene, Princess of Monaco

 I have worn hats or veils in church my entire life, except for a few confused years in the late seventies and early eighties. I have repeatedly had women say to me: "I wish we still did that" or "I wish I was brave enough to do that" or "I would wear one but I don't want to appear holier-than-thou." To the first objection, my response is that no one ever came down from heaven and began ripping women's veils off; if you want to wear a veil or a hat at Mass, then wear one. To the second objection, I say that it requires courage to shed one's blood for the Gospel; it does not require courage to wear a scrap of lace on your head. To the third objection, I can merely shake my head and query: "Holier-than-thou?" In seventh grade, at a Catholic school, I remember going into Mass with a gaggle of twelve-year-old veiled damsels who spoke in such a way that would make Cheech and Chong blush. I grew up seeing femmes fatales such asGrace Kelly, Jackie Kennedy, the Duchess of Alba, and Marlene Dietrich wearing mantillas, which speedily disabused me of the notion that wearing a veil confers automatic holiness. Not to mention the variety of feisty and eccentric characters among my own family and friends, and in my parish, who wore an expansive collection of veils and hats over the years, featuring everything from threadbare polyester lace to Parisian couture. None were angels, except perhaps the little girls and the nuns. I remember when one of my aunts was an unmarried expectant mother, wearing a cute headscarf at Mass over her stylish bob. I loved how her scarf and dress matched and wanted the same look. (I was five.) My overall impression, which led to my own decision to veil, was that it is not a matter of conforming to what people might think, but a matter of devotion to God, according to the teachings of both Scripture and Tradition.

From Father Mike Johns at Word on Fire:

The practice of wearing a veil during Mass has seen a bit of a revival among Catholic women in recent times. Find a Catholic parish at random in which to attend Mass, and odds are that at least some of the women present will be wearing a veil. A quick internet search about veiling during Mass results in many articles and videos from both secular and religious outlets commenting on the practice. Some Catholic outlets even go so far as to recommend the use of the veil as a necessary outward sign of a wife’s submission to her husband.

St. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 11:3–16 are often at the center of such discussions. In this chapter of his letter, Paul is concerned to correct numerous liturgical abuses taking place among the Corinthians, and the subject of head coverings is at the top of his list. In the words of one Scripture scholar, “Women in Corinth, at least some of them, had stopped wearing head coverings in worship, and that bothered Paul.” In 1 Cor 11:3–16, Paul tackles this issue.

The Catholic Church, however, clearly teaches that the use of the veil is no longer obligatory for women. Under Pope St. Paul VI, the Church maintains that veils “no longer have a normative value” since in passages such as 1 Cor 11:3–16 Paul is addressing “disciplinary practices of minor importance.” In addition, the current Code of Canon Law has also lifted any obligation concerning the use of the veil for women in church. In classifying the use of the veil as a disciplinary practice of minor importance, the Church sees it as on par with other devotions, or perhaps even as a sacramental. That is, it can perhaps aid in the expression of Catholic piety but is not an essential component of faith.

At the same time, Paul’s arguments in 1 Cor 11:3–16 (and his letter as a whole) ought to be taken seriously. The letters of St. Paul are among the most beautiful and rewarding pages of the New Testament. This is especially true of the First Letter to the Corinthians, which has been called “Paul’s most practical and contemporary letter.” (Read more.)

 

More discussion from The Missive:

We receive Tradition as a holy gift, treasure it, and pass it on to those who come after us. We realize, in humility, that in the long run, Tradition will judge us and that it is really not for us to pass judgement on Tradition. Traditio sacra sacrorum tuitio. Sacred tradition is a safeguarding of sacred things, and more importantly, of being safeguarded by them. For those who are still being formed by Tradition – a formation that can indeed fill a lifetime – it may be hard to understand why it is so important for women to wear veils in church.

Let me begin with an experience that occurred to me some years ago now. Once, when I stopped for gas at a roadside convenience store, the attendant at the cash register saw me in my cassock and asked, completely at a loss, “What’s with…???” and motioned up and down with her hands to indicate that she was referring to my garb. She didn’t even know what to call it. At that time I was still a seminarian, and I explained to her that I was hoping to become a priest.

When we see a policeman or a soldier or a nurse, for example, we know who they are by the way they are dressed. And I hope that when you get ready to come to church, you dress with church in mind: you realize a distinctiveness in being in church. It is not like going anywhere else.

Proper attire for a woman, according to the Tradition given to us clearly by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 and confirmed by Pope St. Linus, who was the second pope, right after St. Peter, is to wear a veil or head covering while in church. I have noticed that men tend to be good in observing the rule that applies to them, namely, that they should not wear a hat in church. I hope that if you saw someone wearing a baseball cap or a fishing hat in church, you would realize that this is not appropriate and indicate in some way to him that he needs to take it off.

Now, you might be wondering why a priest wears a biretta in church and could wear one even during the sermon. Some Fraternity priests do. The answer is that the biretta is a sign of office; a much more striking sign of a higher office is the bishop’s mitre, which he does wear when he preaches.

Dear faithful who are ladies, what I hope you will find in wearing the veil is that you have a particularly strong awareness of where you are, that you are focused completely on Our Lord and not worried about external appearance. (Read more.)

Tea at Trianon has has several posts on headcoverings, including HERE and HERE. A fabulous post, HERE.

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Goya’s Maja

From Of Art and Wine:

This painting seems rather tame for our day, though the look in the model’s eye has a bit of “come hither” to it. Many art historians propose Manuel de Godoy, 18th century Spain’s Prime Minister for King Charles IV, as the man who commissioned this work of his then mistress, Pepita Tudó. Given the dates of the work and the face of the woman, though not exactly Pepita but passable, that assumption seems to fit. However, there has always been a bit of a problem sustaining that theory completely when comparing this later work with the original maja, The Naked Maja, done between 1797-1800. For a good view of The Naked Maja, I shall send you to the Museo del Prado web page on that painting museodelprado.es.

While the face is the same and again not completely identifiable, the body of the naked version is smaller. The pose is relatively the same, but of course, the frontal nudity plus the direct gaze of the model were indeed shocking for that time. Frontal nudity was for those loose-living Venetians (Titian’s Venus of Urbino, 1534) and even still caused pearl clutching in 1863 when Manet’s Olympia was shown. Here is where the controversy lies. The heads of the majas seem to have been refashioned. Some say it was because Godoy married another woman, so wanted to hide the face of his former mistress. However, since the naked version was painted earlier, perhaps in 1797 during Goya’s stay at the estate of the Duchess of Alba, it is also speculated that the duchess had the face changed to conceal her identity. Years later in 1815, the Spanish Inquisition wanted to get to the bottom of the source of these naughty commissions, so Goya was called before the Inquisitors to tell all. However, his reply is unknown. (Read more.)

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Goya and his Maja - Another Romantic Myth

The great Spanish artist Goya's affair with the Duchess of Alba is another urban legend, just like Marie-Antoinette and Count Fersen. There is no solid proof but people want to believe it anyway. The Maja paintings gave rise to the legend, among other things. Share

Bolero de Amor

Here is the famous dance scene from the 1958 film The Naked Maja. The Duchess of Alba (Ava Gardner) and the artist Goya (Anthony Franciosa) are shown dancing the bolero in a cafe. It is more romantic and communicates more about the relationship than any contemporary R-rated love scene. (Russian language voice overs.) Share