José Osorio y Silva, 9th Duke of Sesto, 16th Duke of Alburquerque, 17th Marquess of Alcañices (4 April 1825 – 30 December 1909), was a Spanish nobleman, politician and army officer. He was also known by one of his titles, Duke of Sesto, inherited from his father, and by nicknames Pepe Osorio or Pepe Alcañices. He was head and representative of the houses of Alcañices, Alburquerque and los Balbases, causing a personal union of sixteen noble titles and four grandee titles. He is also considered one of the most notable mayors of Madrid, serving from 1857 to 1864. Prior to this, during the 1850s and briefly in 1876 he was a Deputy for Segovia.
He had inherited strong monarchist convictions as a result of his education and family tradition. During the Glorious Revolution he convinced Isabel II that the only way to re-establish the monarchy was for her to abdicate - he was the first to sign the abdication document and became so involved in the process that the queen told her son "Alfonso, shake hands with Pepe, who has managed to make you king". During the royal family's exile he paid their expenses and put his residence in Deauville at their disposal.
He then paved the way for the restoration of the monarchy and the accession of Isabel's son Alfonso XII, on which he spent much of his family fortune. Alfonso XII came to look on him as a second father and throughout Alfonso's life José was his best friend and main advisor. He also acted as mentor to prince Alfonso (the future Alfonso XIII) and José's wife, the Russian princess Sofía Troubetzkaya, built up support for the restoration socially among the Spanish nobility while José's friend Antonio Cánovas del Castillo consolidated support politically.
On Alfonso XII's death in 1885, José was disgraced before his widow Maria Christina of Austria and left the Spanish court. He briefly returned to be the vice-president of the Senate from 1898 to 1899. He spent his last years back in politics as well as on business and leisure travel across Europe with his wife. He died aged 84 in his palace of Paseo de Recoletos on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the start of the restoration of the monarchy. He left no children and named his nephew Miguel Osorio y Martos as his heir.
Life
Childhood He was born in Madrid, in the palace of Alcañices, on 4 April 1821, the son of Nicolás Osorio y Zayas (1793-1866), marquis of Alcañices and of los Balbases, Duke of Alburquerque, the owner of 18 titles of nobility and 6 grandeeships of Spain. The marquis held several offices of the Spanish Crown, such as High Steward to king consort Francisco de Asís de Borbón, Steward and Great Equerry to Infanta Isabel, Princess of Asturias, Gentleman of the Bedchamber Grandee of Spain to queen Isabel II of Spain and tutor to prince Alfonso, later Alfonso XII of Spain.
His mother was Inés de Silva y Téllez-Girón (1806-1865), daughter of José Gabriel de Silva-Bazán, 10th marquis of Santa Cruz de Mudela, grandee of Spain and of Joaquina Téllez-Girón y Pimentel, Countess of Osilo. He had six siblings of whom only Joaquín survived to adulthood. José had a close relationship with his brother Joaquín throughout his life and ceded the title of count of la Corzana to him and his descendants on marrying María de las Mercedes de Heredia y Zafra-Vázquez, 3rd marquise of los Arenales.
From a young age he was tutored by some of the most prestigious teachers of the time, learning to speak English, French and Italian. In 1833 he attended the Masarnau school in Madrid, an institution linked to the University of Madrid. The family would spend their summers in Cuéllar (Segovia), at the castle owned by the family and which had been used for this purpose since the Dukes of Alburquerque went to live near the Royal Court. They would also often visit Ledesma (Salamanca) during the holidays. During his childhood he was a frequent visitor of the Royal Palace of Madrid together with his mother, who was a close friend of queen María Cristina and, after the death of the king and subsequent start of the First Carlist War, the family went into exile in Italy, settling in turn in Rome, Naples and Palermo.Sagrera, Ana de (1990), pp. 216–220.
Marriage and other romantic relationships Considered one of the most eligible bachelors of the time owing to his considerable fortune and noble titles,Sagrera, Ana de (1990), pp. 213–230. as a young man he was in love with María Francisca de Sales Portocarrero (daughter of Cipriano de Palafox, 8th Count of Montijo and María Manuela Kirkpatrick y Grivegnée) who would go on to marry Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 15th Duke of Alba in 1844. In order to get closer to her he became friends with her sister, Eugénie de Montijo (later Empress of the French through her marriage to Napoleon III of France), but she fell in love with him instead; on discovering the truth, she attempted to take her own life with a concoction of phosphorus and milk. In 1853, Eugénie wrote to the duke announcing her engagement to the Emperor of the French, and, met with his silence, sent him a telegram reading "The Emperor has asked for my hand, what should I do?" The duke's reply arrived days before the wedding, in a note that read only "May you be very happy."Ana de Sagrera notes that the message Sesto actually sent Eugénie read "¡Que haya suerte!" ("Good luck!"), a phrase typically used to wish bullfighters well, delivered in a mocking tone. Another of his romantic attachments was said to be Josefa Peña Azcárate, known as Pepita Peña, who later married in Mexico Marshal François Achille Bazaine, noted for his role in the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War.
Finally, in 1868, while in Deauville (France) accompanying the Spanish royal family in exile, he met the Russian princess Sophia Sergeyevna Trubetskaya, who had been widowed three years earlier by Charles, Duke of Morny, himself a half-brother of Napoleon III. Sophia's paternity was disputed between Prince Sergei Vasilyevich Trubetskoy and Tsar Nicholas I of Russia himself, who had admired her mother, Ekaterina Petrovna Musina-Pushkina, a fact of which she was proud.Sagrera, Ana de (1990), pp. 29–44. The couple fell in love at first sight and moved to Spain; on 20 February 1869 they obtained royal permission from Isabella II to marry, and the wedding was finally held in Vitoria on 21 March of the same year.Sagrera, Ana de (1990), pp. 269–298.
His wife, considered one of the most beautiful and elegant women in 19th-century Europe, dazzled the court with her cosmopolitan spirit and enthusiasm for the monarchy, as well as with her tastes in fashion and decoration, which were soon imitated just as they had been in France. A few years after the marriage, at Sophia's request, an important remodelling of the palace of Alcañices was carried out, adapting the family residence to her taste; it was there that Spain's first Christmas tree was set up, at the duchess's request, at Christmas 1870. She was appointed a lady of the Order of the Noble Ladies of Queen María Luisa, and Antonio Cánovas del Castillo made her his personal secretary; she supported her husband in the restoration of the monarchy, taking an active part in it: she made fashionable among aristocratic ladies a brooch bearing the emblem of the House of Bourbon, the fleur-de-lis, and she led the well-known "Rebellion of the Mantillas" to demonstrate the Spanish people's patriotism in opposition to Amadeo of Savoy and María Vittoria dal Pozzo.Sagrera, Ana de (1990), pp. 299–323.
The marriage produced no children. Sophia died on 27 July 1897, and Pepe outlived her by twelve years. Shortly before his death, he summoned his nephew Miguel, whom he named his heir, and asked him to burn, in his presence, the extensive correspondence he had kept with Paca de Portocarrero, whom he had loved; with Eugénie de Montijo, who had loved him; and with Sophia, his wife.Sagrera, Ana de (1990), pp. 399–420.
Titles, decorations and honours
From birth, as heir to the house, he held the titles of Duke of Sesto, Marquis of Montaos, of Cuéllar and of Cullera. He received his first decoration in 1844, at the age of nineteen, when he was made a knight of the Royal Maestranza of Cavalry of Seville. Numerous appointments followed, such as that of knight of the collar of the Order of Charles III, granted to him by Isabella II in 1863, of which order he later served as interim grand chancellor.
He was also a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece, received the gold medal of Alfonso XIII, and was interim grand chancellor of the Order of Isabella the Catholic. He was also awarded numerous foreign decorations, such as the Grand Cross of the Order of Christ of Portugal, the Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus of Italy, the Grand Cross of the Order of the Red Eagle of Prussia, and the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour of France, as well as others from Germany, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Hungary, Switzerland and Turkey.
On the death of his father at his palace on Calle de Alcalá on 31 January 1866, he succeeded him in fifteen noble titles: the house's five grandeeships — the marquisates of Alcañices and de los Balbases, the duchies of Alburquerque and Algete, and the county of la Corzana — together with the marquisate of Cadreita and the counties of Fuensaldaña, Grajal, Huelma, Ledesma, la Torre, las Torres de Alcorrín, Villaumbrosa and Villanueva de Cañedo.
Equestrian pursuits
From childhood he was trained in the use of arms, practising fashionable pursuits such as fencing, for which he had a room set aside at home. His father was one of the twelve founders, in 1841, of the Society for the Promotion of Horse Breeding in Spain, and instilled in his children his own passion for equestrianism. From an early age he showed himself to be an excellent horseman, riding at the Soto de Mozanaque, a family estate in Algete, where he always appears in the company of his uncle Juan de Silva, later Marquis of Arcicóllar, who was younger than him; of Andrés de Arteaga, Marquis of Valmediano, who was married to a sister of his mother; of his cousin Jacobo Méndez de Vigo, Count of Santa Cruz de los Manueles; and of Nicolás Patiño, Marquis of Castellar, among others, who were known by their age group as los pollos ("the chicks"). The sons of the Duke of Alba, Jacobo, the future duke, and Enrique, Count of Galve, later joined the group.
He directed the royal stud and was Chief Huntsman to Alfonso XII, and equerry to the infantes. Throughout his life he held various posts in institutions connected with equestrianism. In 1855 he joined the General Association of Livestock Breeders of the Kingdom, and two years later was appointed a member of the jury for the Livestock Exhibition. He went on to serve on the commission for the purchase of horses for the state depots (1860–1864), on the Higher Council of Agriculture, and as a member of the Society for the Promotion of Horse Breeding, an institution of which his father had been a founding member and which he himself would go on to preside over from 1886 to 1907. He also held other posts, including the presidency of the delegated commission of the 1892 Equestrian Competition, of the register of thoroughbred horses, and membership of the board of stud depots.
Beginnings in military and political career
Mayor of Madrid A few days before being removed from his post as President of the Council of Ministers as a result of the "Rigodón" crisis — on 16 October 1857, to be precise — Leopoldo O'Donnell appointed him Mayor of Madrid, a post he would hold until 1864; a year later, once again in power, O'Donnell extended his appointment by also naming him corregidor.Sagrera, Ana de (1990), pp. 231–268.