She was the 21st Duchess of Medina Sidonia, Spain’s most ancient dukedom whose origins go back to 1297. She was a princess, a marquess and a three-fold Spanish grandee. But from childhood, Luisa Isabel Alvarez de Toledo y Maura kicked against the conventions of her lineage.
Her mother died when she was 10, and she lived with her grandmother – Julia Herrera, who later cared for the duchess's own children. At 18 she married Jose Leoncio Gonzalez de Gregorio y Marti. Her father died that year, 1955, and…
