HISTORICAL

Thirteenth Duches of Alba died in bizarre circunstances 23rd July 1802, after eating an ice cream made with ice from Fuencarral street ‘neveros’.

Félix del Campo y Quintano, coadjutor from San José parish, registered in book 6º, 59 sheet, that the duchess had made her will on 16th February 1797 in Sanlúcar de Barradema. In this will, apart from indicating her propieties and heirs, asked to be buried discreetly; this was made on 27th at night.

Duchess of Alba properties pillage

Queen María Luisa, when told of Duches of Alba decease and before the burial of the corpse, arranged a Royal Order to the Duchess’s place of death Mayor for him to made a list of the duchess’s properties in order to confiscate them, according to a Royal Council of Treasury demand. This order did not go on, but, according to Ezquerra, on 25th July the Queen asked José Navarro Vidal, duchess’s attorney, to see the dead duchess’s jewels. This was done with the Justice minister approval. María Luisa bought this outrageous jewels at a ridiculous price.

On 3rd August of the same year, the King Carlos IV bought La Moncloa Palace at a very economical price, while Madrid Town Hall did the same with Buenavista Palace. This building was donated to Godoy afterwards.

After this events, the Royal family and the loyal Godoy kept Duchess’s confidential papers, preventing them to be investigated. Royal family also kept some of the duchess’s properties, including a collection of paintings that after appeared when Godoy’s properties were confiscated some years after. At that moment, it was impossible to determine if that paintings belonged to the duchess’s pillage or came from other sources.

Was the Duchess poisoned?

Popular gossip, typical of spanish tradition, stated that the duchess’s death cause was a poisoning ordered by Queen María Luisa, wife of the King Carlos IV. Differences between the Queen and the duchess were well known among the citizens that met at the ‘mentidero’, the gossiping place, located at the San Felipe Neri church entrance stairs. Basing on this popular rumour uruguayan writer Antonio Larreta created his famous novel  ‘Voláverunt’.

This rumour was so strong that, on 17th April 1945 and after obtaining the oficial licenses, Don Luis Martínez de Irujo -that became current Duchess of Alba first husband-, organised the exhumation and autopsy of the Duchess corpse. This was carried out by the doctors in medicine Pérez de Pepinto, Blanco Soler y Pigal Pascual. The exhumation took place at the San Isidro church, in Madrid, with the assistance of the current Duchess, at that time a young woman of only nineteen years old.

Autopsy conclusions

When the coffin was opened, it was noticed that the corpse was partially momified, -a strange thing-, and that one foot had been dismember from the body, in order to allow it fitting in the coffin when the corpse was traslated in 1843 from the original burial place to the Sacramental church.

2nd May 1975, at the II National Writer Doctors Conference, that took place in Cáceres, doctor Hernández Gómez released the duchess’s forensic examination conclusions. They established that the Duchess of Alba cause of death was a meningoencephalitis of a tuberculosis origin. According to these results, the poisoning hypothesis was refused. The forensic examination also included the left kidney almost total destruction, and confirmed that the duchess suffered a pleurisy in 1792.

In the anatomical examination also appeared that the duchess suffered a serious scoliosis with the convexity on the right side that caused her right shoulder to be much more uplifted than the left one. In the last years of the duchess life, her physical appearance had got worse, making it impossible to her to be the model of Goya’s famous ‘Majas’.