Dukes of Medina Sidonia
(Or Medinasidonia) Castilian noble lineage that starts from Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, the Good (1256-1309).In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, his descendants extended their manorial domains through western Andalusia, around Sanlúcar de Barrameda and obtained the County of Niebla, as well as the position of major advance of the Andalusian border.
It stands out among them Juan Alonso de Guzmán (1410-68), to whom Juan II granted the title of Duke of Medina Sidonia, who would henceforth carry his descendants: Enrique de Guzmán el Bueno y Meneses (?-1492) participated in the wars of the Catholic Monarchs against the Kingdom of Granada, standing out in the taking of Alhama and Malaga.He was succeeded by his son Juan Alonso de Guzmán el Bueno (?-1559), who participated in several expeditions against North Africa.
His grandson Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (?-1619) was appointed by Felipe II to command the Invincible Armada, destined to invade England (1588); his incompetence in that position could have contributed to the failure of the expedition.However, the king continued to trust him as captain general of the Andalusian coast and added the appointment of captain general of the Ocean Sea (1595), which is why he was in command of the Plaza de Cádiz when it was sacked by the English fleet (1596).
His son Manuel Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (?-1636) was also captain general of the Ocean Sea and captain general of the galleys.He directed the naval campaigns against the pirates of the Mediterranean.His marriage to a daughter of the Duke of Lerma made him rise in the governing bodies of the monarchy, thanks to the protection of the valid Felipe III.
He was succeeded by his son Gaspar Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Sandoval (?-1664), who led an attempted revolt by the Andalusian nobility to separate themselves from the monarchy in 1641.The conspiracy, organized by the Marquis of Ayamonte, in the framework of the general crisis of 1640 (when Catalonia, Portugal and Aragon rebelled against Felipe IV and the Count-Duke of Olivares), wanted to make the Duke of Medina Sidonia, brother-in-law of the Duke of Braganza (who, to in turn, he was the candidate for the Crown of Portugal).
Discovered the conspirators, the rebellion was aborted and Medina Sidonia saved his life only because of the kinship that united him to the valid Olivares.The XIV Duke of Medina Sidonia, Pedro de Alcántara de Guzmán (?-1777), died without descendants, for which, once the Guzmán lineage was extinguished, the title passed to the Marquis of Villafranca.
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