Joaquín Álvarez de Toledo, 20th Duke of Medina Sidonia

José Joaquín Álvarez de Toledo y Caro, 20th Duke of Medina Sidonia (18 April 1894 – 11 December 1955) became Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1915.

Biography

He was the eldest son of José Joaquín Álvarez de Toledo, 19th Duke of Medina Sidonia (1865–1915) and Rosalía Caro y Caro.

On 12 October 1931, he married in Biarritz, France, María del Carmen Maura (1905–1946), a daughter of Gabriel Maura Gamazo, 1st Duke of Maura, the son of Antonio Maura, a Prime Minister of the Spanish Crown.

In the 1933 Spanish general election, Joaquín Álvarez de Toledo ran as a right-wing candidate for Madrid, a political activity he shared with his wife, and which led them to take extreme right-wing positions. In 1936, with the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic, the entire Maura family went into self-imposed exile in Portugal. In 1937, the family returned to their palace in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, which was under control of the Francoist Army. They opened a dispensary and provided meals for the many hungry.

On 21 August 1936, their only daughter Luisa Isabel Álvarez de Toledo was born, who succeeded her father in 1955.