Luis Fernández de Córdoba, 17th Duke of Medinaceli

The Most Excellent
The Duke of Medinaceli
GE
The Most Excellent The Duke of Medinaceli GE
	Pictured in 1923
Personal details
Born	16 January 1880; Madrid, Spain
Died	July 13, 1956 (aged 76); Madrid, Spain
Spouse(s)	Ana María Fernández de Henestrosa y Gayoso de los Cobos (m. 1911; died 1938); María de la Concepción Rey y de Pablo Blanco (m. 1939)
Children	Victoria Eugenia Fernández de Córdoba y Fernández de Henestrosa, 18th Duchess of Medinaceli; María de La Paz Fernández de Córdoba y Fernández de Henestrosa, 16th Duchess of Lerma; Casilda Fernández de Córdoba y Pablo Blanco, 20th Duchess of Cardona;
Signature

Luis Jesús Fernández de Córdoba y Salabert, 17th Duke of Medinaceli, GE (16 January 1880 – 13 July 1956), was a Spanish nobleman and trophy hunter.^[1]^[2] He was born the world's most titled person since his father, the 16th Duke, had died months before in a hunting accident. He was 11 times a duke, 17 a marquess, 15 a count and 4 a viscount.^[3]

Early life

Born as the only son of the 16th Duke of Medinaceli, Luis María Fernández de Córdoba y Pérez de Barradas, and his second wife Casilda Remigia de Salabert y Arteaga, 9th Marchioness of Torrecilla. He was baptised the day after his birth in the parish church of San Luis Obispo of Madrid. He was born posthumously to his father, who had died in a hunting accident some months earlier and as such he assumed the historical titles of the House of Medinaceli from birth.

His mother, who would become the 11th Duchess of Ciudad Real in her own right, remarried the politician Mariano Fernández de Henestrosa, 1st Duke of Santo Mauro, in 1884. Through them, Luis was a half brother to Rafael and Casilda Fernández de Henestrosa.

Marriage and issue

In 1911, he married Ana María Fernández de Henestrosa y Gayoso de los Cobos, lady-in-waiting of Queen Ena, daughter of the 8th Count of Moriana del Río, a Gentilhombre Grandee of Alfonso XIII. The ceremony took place in Madrid.

At his wedding in 1911

From his first marriage he had two daughters:

Victoria Eugenia Fernández de Córdoba y Fernández de Henestrosa, 18th Duchess of Medinaceli (Madrid, April 16, 1917 - Seville, August 18, 2013);
María de la Paz Fernández de Córdoba y Fernández de Henestrosa (Madrid, January 22, 1919 - Alcalá de los Gazules, October 3, 1998), who would become the 16th Duchess of Lerma in 1957.

In 1938 his first wife Ana María died. He remarried on December 22, 1939, with María de la Concepción Rey de Pablo Blanco, with whom he had a daughter:

Casilda Fernández de Córdoba y Rey (Madrid, 1941 - Córdoba, April 19, 1998), 20th Duchess of Cardona.

Later life

In 1929, he was granted the Order of the Golden Fleece by Alfonso XIII. The collar he had been bestowed with had once belonged to Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon's younger brother.

He inherited his fondness for hunting and horse-riding from his grandmother Angela Pérez de Barradas y Bernuy, 1st Duchess of Denia and Tarifa — titles that he also held when his uncle Carlos María Fernández de Córdoba died. He was an indefatigable traveler, at the same time that he carried out numerous investigations, especially in the field of falconry, and founded the Spanish Museum of Trophy Hunting. In 1927 he was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences; His entrance speech was about birds of prey in falconry.

Considered one of the main exponents of big-game hunting in Europe, the duke made expeditions to British East Africa (1908-1909) and the North Pole (1910, 1921). In addition, he wrote numerous publications on hunting and nature, and in his palace in Madrid he founded a museum of natural history, the collection of which had to be transferred to the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

After suffering a myocardial infarction, Luis Fernández de Córdoba died on July 13, 1956, in the now disappeared Palace of the Duke of Uceda in Madrid.