The Children Of Spain's Red Duchess Are Suing Their Mother's Widow

and it's getting ugly.

This is Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo, 21st duchess of Medina Sidonia.

Via ecestaticos.com

That's her on the left. Her husband is on the right.

She died in 2008.

Not only was she heir to one of Spain's oldest aristocratic titles, she was also an activist who protested against the dictatorship of General Franco.

Via 4www.ecestaticos.com

She spent some time in jail, then went into exile in France until the dictatorship ended. The press described her lifestyle in France as "bohemian."

Ever after, she was known as the Red Duchess.

When she came back to Spain, she dedicated herself to organising her family's archive.

Via elcorreoweb.es

That was a big job, since it included more than 6,000 documents going back to the late middle ages.

She became a historian and scholar who published books and articles about her family's history in southern Spain.

Since things weren't going so well financially, the duchess donated her palace and everything in it - including the archive - to a foundation so it would be preserved.

Via barbourne.co.uk

It's a pretty good-sized palace. And it comes with a lot of art and old furniture.

Then, before she died, she did one more thing.

On her deathbed, she married her longtime secretary, Liliane Dahlmann, who she first met at her daughter's wedding.

Via lavozdigital.es

This meant that Dahlmann could continue to live in the house as the dowager duchess.

It also allowed her to manage the archive, one of the most important historical resources in Spain.

The story would end there - a Spanish aristocrat who defied convention and dedicated herself to historical research - except for one thing.

Her children are really not happy.

Via ecestaticos.com

That's her son, Leoncio González de Gregorio, with his wife and two children.

Today, he is duke of Medina Sidonia. He believes that his rightful inheritance has been withheld by his mother's widow.

He, along with his younger brother and sister, are suing his mother's widow for what they say is their share of their ancestral estate - which they believe to be worth €60 million.

There's just one problem: nearly everything of value the Red Duchess owned - the palace, the archive, the art collection amassed over centuries - is now the property of a foundation which has been tasked with preserving it.

It's hard to see how these things could be divided among the heirs.

The duchess's children believe this was part of a deliberate strategy by their mother to deprive them of their inheritance.

"My mother always told us she would fuck us over," her son Gabriel told reporters.

Via 4www.ecestaticos.com

That's him as he arrives at the courthouse.

That's not the only legal battle in the family, either.

Pilar, the duchess's daughter, fought a years-long battle against her brother Leoncio over the dukedom of Fernandina.

Via mujerhoy.com

The dukedom of Fernandina was bestowed on the house of Medina Sidonia in the 16th century (because you can never have too many dukedoms, right?).

But the Red Duchess paid little attention to her many titles and allowed some of them to lapse after she went into exile.

In Spain, noble titles are regulated by the government. Anyone who holds a title must pay an administrative fee to use it.

Pilar went through the legal process of "rehabilitating" the title, styling herself the duchess of Fernandina. But her brother Leoncio wanted the title for himself so he could bestow it on his son.

The courts agreed that Leoncio's claim was stronger than Pilar's. But by revoking Pilar's right to use the title, Leoncio fell afoul of a law stating that any title which is revived may not have been extinct for more than 40 years.

In the end, the dukedom of Fernandina had been dormant for too long. Leoncio was unable to claim the title for his son and it was abolished.

And there's one more thing.

A woman has come forward claiming to be the illegitimate daughter of the Red Duchess's husband by another woman.

That would be José Leoncio González de Gregorio y Marti. He petitioned for a divorce from his bohemian spouse in 2005.

Rosario Bermudo says he was her father. She's petitioning for his corpse to be exhumed for a DNA test. If true, she might have a claim to a share of the estate.

So there's a lot to sort through.

Via periodistas-es.com

In the meantime, the ducal palace - parts of which date from the 12th century - is being run as a hotel.

I hear the south of Spain's lovely this time of year.