Duke of Medina Sidonia ( es, Duque de Medina Sidonia) is a

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks. Peerages include: Australia * Australian peers Belgium * Be ...

grandee Grandee (; es, Grande de España, ) is an official aristocratic title conferred on some Spanish nobility. Holders of this dignity enjoyed similar privileges to those of the peerage of France during the , though in neither country did they ...

title of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

Medina-Sidonia Medina Sidonia is a city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, southern Spain. Considered by some to be the oldest city in Europe, it is used as a military defence location because of its elevation. ...

, holding the oldest

extant Extant is the opposite of the word extinct. It may refer to: * Extant hereditary titles * Extant literature, surviving literature, such as ''Beowulf'', the oldest extant manuscript written in English * Extant taxon, a taxon which is not extinct, ...

dukedom Dukedom may refer to: * The title and office of a duke * Duchy, the territory ruled by a duke * Dukedom, Kentucky and Tennessee, United States * ''Dukedom'' (game), a land management game See also * Lists of dukedoms Lists of dukedoms include: ...

in the kingdom, first awarded by King John II of Castile in 1380.DE MEDINA, Pedro (b. 1503), ''Crónica de los Duques de Medina Sidonia por el Maestro Pedro de Medina''.
Manuscrito de 1561 en el Archivo de la Casa Ducal de Medinasidonia, leg. 1316. Colección de Documentos Inéditos para la Historia de España no. XXXIX, 1932. Page 206. They were once the most prominent

magnate The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

family of the

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...

n region, the best-known of whom, Don

Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Sotomayor, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia Alonso is a Spanish name of Germanic origin that is a Castilian variant of ''Adalfuns''. Geographical distribution As of 2014, 36.6% of all known bearers of the surname ''Alonso'' were residents of Spain (frequency 1:222), 26.1% of Mexico (1:83 ...

, commanded the

Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an ar ...

at the end of the 16th century. The defeat at the hands of weather and the English in 1588 brought disgrace to this family. The

House of Medina Sidonia The House of Medina Sidonia (Spanish: ''Casa de Medina Sidonia'') is a Spanish noble house originating from the crown of Castile, whose name comes from the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a hereditary noble title that John II of Castile granted to ...

traces its descent from

Alonso Pérez de Guzmán Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (1256–1309), known as ''Guzmán el Bueno'' ("Guzmán the Good"), was a Spanish nobleman and hero of Spain during the medieval period, the founder of the line from which the dukes of Medina Sidonia descend. Biography ...

Counts of Niebla, 1369–1445

Dukes of Medina Sidonia, 1445–present

References

External links

Libro d'Oro della Nobilita Mediterranea

House of Medina Sidonia Foundation
(in Spanish)

* ttp://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft338nb1x6&brand=ucpress A Silent Minority: Deaf Education in Spain, 1550–1835
Library of Congress: Index to the Enciclopedia Heráldica Hispano-Americana of Alberto and Arturo García Carraffa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Medina Sidonia, Duke of Dukedoms of Spain Grandees of Spain Noble titles created in 1445