María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba the House of Osuna. The Duchess' relationship with famed Spanish painter Francisco Goya and her somewhat eccentric personality have contributed greatly to a continuing interest in her life during the two centuries since her death. Goya executed several well-known portraits of the duchess, most of them during his stay at Sanlúcar de Barrameda (one of the Andalusian country seats of the House of Medina-Sidonia), shortly after the death of her husband, the Duke of Alba, who was also Duke of Medina Sidonia, in 1796. Goya's accompaniment of the recently widowed Duchess combined with certain innuendo expressed in his portraits of
Spanish succession issue of 1789 enormously and might suggests distinct interpretations. One group of works sort of imply that in 1789 the succession law was effectively changed. There are authors who claim that Carlos IV decreed the Pragmatic Sanction, though he kept it secret; others tend to agree vaguely that the 1713 law was effectively altered in 1789, though the decision was not published. Another group of works is fathered by students who wrote highly ambiguous paragraphs; some note that the 1713 law was indeed changed in 1789, but the decision was put into effect in 1830, some point that the 1713 law "was modified