Why Duchess Of Alba Has Left All Her Property To Her Six Children And Nothing To Her Husband

The six children of Spanish Duchess of Alba have inherited a palace each and thousands of acres of land. Her husband, Alfonso Diez, who was 24 years younger to her, gets nothing at all, though his wife was worth an estimated 2.2 billion pounds or 2.8 billion euros when she died.

After they had married in October 2011, 64-year-old Diez had signed a document agreeing to renounce everything from her wealth, as her children and relatives objected against her decision to marry a civil servant. She had said, "Alfonso doesn't want anything. All he wants is me," according to Daily Mail.

After her death at 88 years at her Seville residence, Duenas Palace, her eight grandchildren have also inherited a substantial chunk of her estate. The Duchess' fortune includes an "impressive property portfolio," with 50,000 pieces of artwork and 18,000 rare books. However, most of the palaces, castles and works of art belonging to the House of Alba are restricted in sale due to their historic importance for Spain. She wrote in her autobiography that they have "never had a lot of cash." That is because the assets are immovable.

"Together we have a wonderful time. She's always asking: What shall we do next? She's unstoppable," said husband Diez in an interview to Vanity Fair magazine (via Daily Mail) before they got married. "It often seems that I'm the older of the two."

After she died last week, her coffin was driven from her Seville palace past all her teary-eyed devotees to the Town Hall, where friends and family waited. After her body was unloaded, all the mourners followed and sat silently. Two days earlier, when she was in a hospital on Sunday, she had been showing some symptoms of recovery. Her sons, daughter and husband visited her. But finally she died.

The Duchess would surely be gratified if she knew how popular she was even after death. Her eccentric hairstyle and plastic surgery on her face made her feature frequently in Spanish gossip publications. "If they forget you, you are nobody," she once said. She would join the global jet-set when she met Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy when they visited Spain. She turned her Madrid palace over to French designer, Yves Saint Laurent, in order to host a Dior fashion show in 1959. She was frequently photographed at society weddings and bullfights, with a passion for flamenco, horses and painting. She was the star of a television series as well as a flamenco show that was based on her past, according to nationalpost.com.

As she was the head of the five-century-old House of Alba, there were certain privileges that she could enjoy. For instance, she did not have to "kneel before the pope," as well as the "right to ride on horseback into Seville Cathedral," according to The New York Times.

Born in 1926 in a neoclassical palace in Madrid, she shifted to London when her father was ambassador to Britain and she dined frequently with Winston Churchill, her relative. She played with Princess Margaret and the future queen Elizabeth. Her father was an "Anglophile and royalist," and initially supported the dictator Francisco Franco at the beginning of Spain's Civil War. However, the relations became sour as his dictatorship became clear. It became obvious that he would not support a king as the head of Spain. The Duchess too was a royalist, probably because she loved to live a flamboyant life in the public eye. Today, even after she dies, the Duchess has left behind a rich tranche of memories that are as colourful as the life she lived.