h press.Nonetheless
satin wedding dresses , a website specializing in such matters claimed to have discovered evidence of a facelift, brow lift, rhinoplasties, lip injections, fat injections in her face and multiple injections of Botox.She overdid it, obviously, a family friend was quoted as saying.billion); her landholdings were said to be so vast she could cross Spain from north to south without setting foot on anyone else s property.According to the Guinness Book of Records, she had more titles than anyone else on the planet, being a duchess seven times over, a countess 22 times and a marquesa 24 times.Yet the Duchess always insisted she was not rich: I have a lot of artworks, but I can t eat them, can I?Apart from thousands of paintings by Goya, Velazquez, Titian and others lining the walls of her numerous palaces, her collection included a first edition of Don Quixote and Christopher Columbus s first map of America.As head of the five centuries-old House of Alba, the Duchess s privileges included not having to kneel before the Pope and the right to ride a horse into Seville cathedral.But she made little use of these historic perks, preferring the delights of a high-rolling lifestyle that began in England where her father, the 17th Duke of Alba, was Spanish ambassador during the Second World War.Maria del Rosario Cayetana Paloma Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Fernanda Teresa Francisca de Paula Lourdes Antonia Josefa Fausta Rita Castor Dorotea Santa Esperanza Fitz-James Stuart y de Silva Falco y Gurtubay was born in her family s neo-classical Palacio de Liria in Madrid on March 28 1926, the only child of Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Falco, 17th Duke of Alba, and Maria del Rosario de Silva y Gurtubay, Ninth Marquesa of San Vicente del Barco.Her godmother was Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain.On her father s side, Cayetana was descended from James II of England through his illegitimate son James Fitz-James, Duke of Berwick
satin mermaid wedding dress , born of a relationship with Arabella Churchill, only sister of the Duke of Marlborough.This made her a distant relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Diana, Princess of Wales.Cayetana did not have a happy childhood.Her mother died when she was eight and three years later her father.a fervent monarchist, took her to London, where he had been appointed ambassador for the Spanish Nationalist government.He was still ambassador in 1940 when the British government recognized Francisco Franco s regime, and the pair remained in London during the Second World War.In 1945, however, the Duke resigned his post, declaring the Franco regime was harmful to the best interests of Spain.During the Spanish Civil War, the Albas Liria Palace had been occupied by the communists, and for that reason it was almost completely destroyed by German bombers in 1936.The Duke had taken the precaution of storing its priceless collection of paintings in the basements of the Prado and the Bank of Spain, but about half the palace s literary collection was destroyed and many other items were looted.On his return to Spain he set about rebuilding the palace according to the original plans, work carried on after his death by Cayetana.It was largely thanks to her persistence the palace remained a private residence.Cayetana was considered a beauty in her youth and was reputed to have had a lively love life.million in today s terms and was described at the time as the most expensive wedding in the world.The ceremony was so grand there was concern it would overshadow the nuptials of Britain s future Queen, held a month later in austerity Britain.After the ceremony, the couple travelled through cheering crowds to the Albas palace, Las Duenas, in a carriage pulled by mules.Cayetana succeeded as Duchess of Alba on her father s death in 1953, and she and her first husband had five sons and a daughter.However, the father of her fourth son, Fernando, was widely rumoured to have been the Sevillian flamenco dancer Antonio el Bailarin, who acknowledged his parentage in posthumously published memoirs.Her first husband died in 1972.Six years later, the Duchess shocked Spanish society by marrying Jesus Aguirre y Ortiz de Zarate, an unfrocked Jesuit priest and freethinking intellectual 11 years her junior who had been her confessor.It was not so much his dubious religious credentials that were considered scandalous, however
Cheap Designer Evening Dresses , as the fact he was illegitimate.Yet their marriage was happy.Aguirre s death, in 2001, it was generally assumed that the Duchess, now in her mid-70s, would live her twilight years alone.But a few years later she was reported to be dating Alfonso Diez Carabantes, a minor civil servant in Spain s department of social security and a man 24 years her junior.On several occasions, the Duchess s children, apparently fearful of being separated from some of their inheritance by a man portrayed by detractors as a gold-digger, were said to have blocked the couple s plans to tie the knot.The Duchess was resentful of their interference, noting, pointedly, they had all been divorced so they had no right to give her moral lectures.and her groom renounced any possible claim to her wealth.After the wedding in Seville, the bride entertained onlookers by kicking off her shoes and hiking up her dress to perform a flamenco dance outside her palace.Franck Gervais, 32, of Cantley, Que.north of Gatineau with impersonating a public officer, misleading use of a badge or uniform, and two other charges in connection with Gervais's activities at the War Memorial on Remembrance Day.arrested, charged and released on an undertaking to appear in court on Dec.He also faces two lesser charges.The investigation continues, police said.Gervais, who had been laying low since a firestorm erupted over his activities earlier this week, contacted the police to say he would appear at the Elgin Street headquarters before 4 p.Gervais, who was interviewed wearing a bogus uniform of a Royal Canadian Regiment sergeant with a host of medals and decorations during the Nov.Remembrance .