Tarifa is awaiting its Duke, with a German accent

Marcos de Hohenlohe-Langenburg,
one of the heirs

TARIFA (Cádiz) -- Following the death on August 18 of the Duchess of Medinaceli, Victoria Eugenia Fernández de Córdoba y Fernández de Henestrosa, Grandee of Spain and Duchess of Tarifa (plus a host of other titles), there is now a vacancy at the head of the Duchy, according to the official State Bulletin (Boletín Oficial del Estado, better known as BOE). The title, which was created in 1882 by King Alfonso XII, has been requested, as required by constitutional law, by her grandsons, Pablo and Marco de Hohenlohe y Medina. The official announcement gives thirty days for them, and anyone else, to apply for the title and show why it should be granted to one or the other. Doña Victoria Eugenia (named after her godmother Queen Victoria Eugenia, wife of King Alfonso XIII, who was her godfather) at various times inherited 9 titles of Duchess, she was 19 times a Marquise, 19 times a Countess and 4 times a Viscountess, all in her own right as women can, and do, inherit titles directly. She was also 14 times a Grandee of Spain, thanks to many of her titles.

The Ministry of Justice, under whom these things are dealt with, will announce the result in thirty days, by issuing a Royal Charter of Succession, which must first be approved by King Felipe VI.

Marco de Hohenlohe, as he is known for short, is the eldest son of Ana de Medina y Fernández de Córdoba, the Duchess's daughter, who died two years ago. His father was Maximiliano de Hohenlohe, to whom Ana de Medina was married for 24 years. He lives in the palace called Casa de Pilatos, in Seville, his grandmother's home.

Pablo de Hohenlohe-
Langenburg

Pablo is the son of Bonnie de Hohenlohe, and brother of Prince Don Alfonso de Hohenlohe, 'founder' and major promoter of Marbella. In recent years he has been in the luxury goods business, designing for the likes of Cartier, Loewe, Dunhill and Vacheron, among others.

A recent dispute about inheriting the main family title, the Duchy of Medinaceli, was resolved in favour of Marco, though in the end his cousin, Pablo, said, "Nobody is more entitled than him."

Both Marco and Pablo are nephews of Prince Don Alfonso de Hohenlohe, who founded the Marbella Club and headed untilñ his death. He was also a major promoter of Marbella, which lead to its heyday in the 1960s and 70s. Legend has it that Maximillian, Alfonso's father, one day fell in love with Marbella when he stopped his Rolls-Royce at Finca Santa Margarita, by the sea, which he subsequently bought. That was the original site for the Marbella Club.

The Hohenlohe family, or one of its many branches of German present and descent, has a long history of attachment to Spain, where members had many business interests.