Duke of Medina Sidonia () is a

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes Life peer, non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted Imperial, royal and noble ranks, noble ranks. Peerages include: A ...

grandee Grandee (; , ) is an official royal and noble ranks, 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 ha ...

title of

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

in Medina-Sidonia, holding the oldest

extant Extant or Least-concern species, least concern 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 * Exta ...

dukedom in the kingdom, first awarded by King

John I of Castile John I (; 24 August 1358 – 9 October 1390) was King of Castile and List of Leonese monarchs, León from 1379 until 1390. He was the son of Henry II of Castile, Henry II and of his wife Juana Manuel of Castile. John ascended to the throne in 137 ...

in 1380. His father,

Henry II of Castile Henry II (13 January 1334 – 29 May 1379), called Henry of Trastámara or the Fratricidal (''el Fratricida''), was the first List of Castilian monarchs, King of Castile and List of Leonese monarchs, León from the House of Trastámara. He became ...

(c.1334-1379), had an illegitimate son named Enrique de Castilla y de Sousa with Juana de Sousa, but after being made a Duke by his half-brother in 1380, he died in 1404, without a successor. The title then returned to the Crown. The title of Duke of Medina Sidonia was awarded a second time on February 1445 by King

John II of Castile John II of Castile (; 6 March 1405 – 20 July 1454) was King of Castile and León from 1406 to 1454. He succeeded his older sister, Maria of Castile, Queen of Aragon, as Prince of Asturias in 1405. Regency John was the son of King Henry ...

to Juan Alonso de Guzmán, 3rd Count of Niebla (1410-1468). 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 term magnate, 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 ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

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''. The original Visigothic name ''Alfonso'' suffered the phonetic change of the phoneme /f/ into the mute /h/ in the Early Middle Ages (around 9th Century), w ...

, commanded the

Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...

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 language, Spanish: ''Casa de Medina Sidonia'') is a Spanish Nobility, noble house originating from the crown of Castile, whose name comes from the Duke of Medina Sidonia, a hereditary Imperial, royal and nobl ...

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 Middle Ages, medieval period. Guzmán is the progenitor of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia, the oldes ...

(1265-1309).

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

Counts of Niebla, 1369–1445

Dukes of Medina Sidonia, 1445–present

See also

References

External links