- .Duchess of Alba, known as 'Cayetana', had a £2.2billion fortune
- .The 88-year-old was rushed to hospital on Sunday with pneumonia
- .Two days ago she was said to be showing signs of recovery
- .She raised eyebrows in 2011 when she married a man 25 years her junior
Spain's Duchess of Alba, one of Europe's wealthiest aristocrats, died on Thursday, aged 88, after a short illness, media said.
The owner of fabulous palaces and priceless works of art, Maria del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, known as 'Cayetana', was known for her flamboyant lifestyle and was the world's most titled person, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
A spokesman for the duchess' Duenas Palace residence in Seville said she died there today from pneumonia.
The Duchess and Alfonso walk out of the chapel after their wedding
At the wedding she thrilled a crowd of several hundred when she hiked up her dress and did some flamenco dancing
The Duchess of Alba and Alfonso Diez exchange rings during their wedding ceremony at the Palacio de las Duenas in Sevilla on Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The Duchess and Mr Diez pose after their wedding ceremony
The Duchess of Alba and Alfonso Diez dancing after they tied the knot
Two days ago she was said to be showing signs of recovery after being rushed to hospital on Sunday night.
She had a steady stream of visitors including her sons, daughter and husband Alfonso Diez.
A doctor treating her has been reported as saying she was showing signs of recovery.
According to The Olive Press a spokesperson for the duchess' charitable foundation said: 'She had suffered a stomach virus a few days earlier but had recovered from it. Now she has pneumonia. At her age, one thing leads to another.
'She is weak. We are worried because we love her very much.'
Forbes recently estimated her wealth to be in the region of 2.8 billion euro (£2.2billion).
'Cayetana always had Seville in her heart and for this reason she will always remain in Seville's heart. May she rest in peace,' Seville mayor Juan Ignacio Zoido said in a message on his official Twitter account.
A relative of Winston Churchill, the duchess shared toys with England's future Queen Elizabeth while living in England as a girl.
Twice-widowed, she raised eyebrows in 2011 when at age 85 she wed her third husband, a civil servant 25 years her junior.
At the wedding, she thrilled a crowd of several hundred when she hiked up her dress and did some flamenco dance steps on a red carpet at the palace, a 15th-century residence in the cobblestoned old quarter of Seville.
A man carries a wreath sent by the President of the Government, as he arrives at Duenas Palace, residence of the Duchess of Alba in Seville
A spokesman for the duchess' Duenas Palace residence in Seville said she died there today from pneumonia
The Duchess of Alba's son, Duke of Huescar Carlos Fitz-James Stuart, left, and her husband Mr Diez visited the Sagrado Corazon hospital in Sevilla where she was being treated five times a duchess, once a countess-duchess, 18 times a marchioness, 18 times a countess and once a viscountess, according to the entry.
With her cloud of white hair and face moulded by plastic surgery, she was rarely out of the Spanish gossip magazines.
'I don't like to talk about money. Many people confuse having cash with having assets - we've never had a lot of cash,' she wrote in her autobiography.
Many of the palaces, castles and works of art belonging to the House of Alba have restrictions placed on their sale because of their historic importance for Spain.
The 13th Duchess of Alba was a muse of artist Francisco Goya in the 18th century and is rumoured to be the subject of 'La Maja Desnuda', his famous portrait of a reclining nude which hangs in Madrid's Prado gallery.
The duchess tells in her autobiography of how Spanish artist Pablo Picasso asked her to pose nude to recreate the painting, but her conservative first husband forbade it.
With estates dotted across mainland Spain and on some of its islands, she was known for being able to crisscross the country without having to spend the night in a property that was not hers. She also had one of Spain's most dazzling art collections, including works by grand masters Goya, Rembrandt and Velazquez.
Queen Sofia and the Duchess of Alba posing for photographers in front of Francisco de Goya's painting 'Portrait of Duchess of Alba in White' at Palace of Cibeles, in Madrid in 2012
With her cloud of white hair and face moulded by plastic surgery, she was rarely out of the Spanish gossip magazines. She's pictured here presenting her memoirs at La Duenas Palace in Seville in 2011
Grand surroundings: The Duchess relaxing at her home in the Duenas Palace in Seville, Spain
Jovial: In good spirits in 2013 in Madrid
Camilla, wife of Britain's Prince Charles, speaks with the Duchess of Alba (right) at the flamenco performance during the first official visit to Spain, on April 1, 2011, in Seville
The Duchess, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Charles at the Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts charity gala at Buckingham Palace in 2011
Born in 1926 in a neoclassical palace in Madrid, she spent much of her childhood in London when her father was ambassador to Britain and where she dined with Winston Churchill and played with Princess Margaret
Born in 1926 in a neoclassical palace in Madrid, she spent much of her childhood in London when her father was ambassador to Britain and where she dined with Winston Churchill and played with Princess Margaret.
Her father, an Anglophile and royalist, sided with dictator Francisco Franco at the beginning of Spain's Civil War but relations grew frosty as it became clear Franco would not reinstate a king as head of Spain.
The twice-widowed duchess first married aged 21 in 1947 to fellow aristocrat Luis Martinez de Irujo in a wedding on a scale to rival that of Britain's Princess Elizabeth later that year.
Wearing a pearl and diamond crown, she rode to Seville Cathedral in a horse-drawn carriage with thousands of well-wishers lining the streets to cheer her. The couple had six children.
She became a fixture of the international jet-set, hosting Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy on their visits to Spain and turning her Madrid palace over to French designer Yves Saint Laurent to stage a Dior fashion show in 1959.
An aficionado of bull-fighting and flamenco, she often took place of honour at bull-fights in her beloved Seville, usually sporting a magnificent 'mantilla' - the traditional Spanish lace veil worn over a high comb.
The Duchess being elected Fallera Mayor - Queen of Las Fallas
Cayetana wearing a ballgown and tiara in 1947
The Duchess and husband Luis Martinez de Irujo y Artacoz (right), after getting married at Seville's Cathedral in 1947. The wedding was considered the last great feudal wedding in Spain and attracted the attention of the international media
The Duchess and sons in Madrid in the autumn of 1959
A portrait taken in the garden of the Palace of Liria
The Duchess enjoying a family holiday on the beach with her daughter Eugenia
She became a fixture of the international jet-set, hosting Audrey Hepburn and Jackie Kennedy on their visits to Spain. She's pictured here with husband Jesus Aguirre at the beach
Cayetana leading a parade held before a bullfight dedicated to the painter Goya during a celebration of Spain's 400th anniversary
The duchess, who favoured an eccentric clothing style, sporting beaded anklets and fishnet tights well into her eighties, married former Catholic priest Jesus Aguirre Ortiz de Zarate six years after the death of her first husband.
Her second husband died in 2001. Her courtship with dashing civil servant Alfonso Diez gripped the nation, aroused disapproval from Queen Sofia and was openly opposed by her six children.
Before tying the knot with 61-year-old Diez in 2011, the duchess divided her fortune between her offspring to silence their protests.
Although ill health kept her out of the public eye in later months, her most memorable recent image was when she flung off her shoes to perform an impromptu flamenco dance before a forest of cameras and well-wishers at her third wedding.
'Together we have a wonderful time. She's always asking: What shall we do next? She's unstoppable,' said husband Diez in an interview in Vanity Fair magazine shortly before their marriage. 'It often seems that I'm the older of the two.'
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