The White Duchess The White Duchess The White Duchess is a life sized (192 x 128 cm) oil-on-canvas painting by the Spanish artist Francisco Goya, completed in 1795 and now in the collection of the Duchess of Alba, Madrid. It portrays María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba, and is one of a number of portraits Goya painted of her around this time, and is usually compared alongside the similarly sized but tonally very different "Black Duchess", which was painted two years later, just after her husband, José Álvarez de Toledo died aged 39. The duke and duchess were highly placed, cultivated
Spanish succession issue of 1789 Spanish succession issue of 1789 Spanish succession issue of 1789 was a series of debates and decisions, taking place and adopted prior, during and after the Cortes sittings. They were initiated by king Carlos IV, who suggested that the succession law in force be altered; the change would consist of giving preference to females of main descendant line over males of collateral lines. The proposal was accepted and formally adopted as Cortes’ petition to the king, but a corresponding law was not published until 1830, which triggered a dynastical conflict and a series of civil wars. The question whether the