DUCAL CONFUSIONS

DUCAL TITLES OF THE SAME NAME AND RANK HELD BY DIFFERENT FAMILIES

Those marked with an * derive from the same creation, but have become two titles because of the different Italian and Spanish succession rules.

ABRANTES – Duke, Spanish title of the Zuleta family; French title granted to Marshal Junot.

BERWICK – English 1687, then created as a Spanish dukedom in 1707 – the former today is held by the Duke of Penaranda de Duero, the latter by the Duchess of Alba.

*BIVONA – Duke, Sicilian title granted to D. Pedro de Luna, inherited by the Moncada; from the Moncada it was claimed by two different families – the first, the Neapolitan Jose Alvarez de Toledo, who obtained recognition of the succession from the King of the Two Sicilies in 1854 and was held by this branch of the family until the 1940s when there was no King to confirm the succession; meanwhile the title was also confirmed for the Spanish Jose Maria Alvarez de Toledo, Conde de Xiquena, as a Grandeeship in 1865 and this title has now passed to the duke of Fernan Nuñez. Thus there were two dukes of Bivona from the same creation. In a sense this is almost a parallel situation, yet it would be hard to argue that one was “legitimate” and the other not.

*CASTIGLIONE – Prince, Sicily 1602 – the Italian Princely title is today held by Prince Rospigliosi, as heirs of the Gioeni, heirs of Cardona; meanwhile the same title has been rehabilitated in Spain by another heir of the Cardona, as a Marques, for Maria del Pilar Colón de Carvajal (mother of Julio Prado, Conde de la Conquista and now held by his son).

*FERNANDINA  - Duke, Spanish title and Grandeeship of 1573; held by the same Alvarez de Toledo family, but recognized by the King of Italy for D. Giuseppe Alvarez de Toledo and then passed to his heirs, but meanwhile rehabilitated in Spain in 1993 for D. Maria Gonzalez de Gregorio y Alvarez de Toledo, of the Spanish branch of the family.

*FRANCAVILLA – Prince, originally one creation in 1555, the title remains a Princely title of the Caracciolo family, but was then recognized as having passed to the Imperiali under the original patent by the Conuslta Araldica in 1942; however, it was also converted into a Spanish ducal title, when rehabilitated in 1921 by D. Inigo de Arteaga.

*SANTA CRISTINA – Duke, Spain 1830, created for Prince Ruffo di Calabria and today confirmed in Italy for the Torrigiani (Elenco Ufficiale) and now held by Marchese D. Raffaelle Torrigiani, as cognatic heir of that branch of the Ruffo di Calabria; the same title also rehabilitated in Spain in 1923 for D. Maria de la Concepion Alvarez de Toledo and today held by her heir Jose Doquin Marquez y Alvarez de Toledo, succ 1975.

TERRANOVA – Duke, Spanish 1502, for the Gran Capitan Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba and now held by D. Gonzalo de la Cierva, Grandee of Spain; also the same title created as a Neapolitan duchy held by Prince Pignatelli Aragona Cortes, and by the last Serra, Principe di Gerace, who died in 1947.