Marco de Hohenlohe, the duke who arrived from Marbella and conquered “la Arfarfa”

The duke, 54 years old, who on September 15 would celebrate two years in possession of the title inherited from his grandmother, Victoria Eugenia Fernández de Córdoba, had been in a coma for three days and had been in a delicate physical condition for some time. Marco gave a German surname to a duchy that for 300 years was in the hands of the Fernández de Córdoba. In reality, his life gave him a second chance in 1996 when, almost newly married, after a spectacular accident on the road between Estepona and Marbella, he managed to save himself from another coma that left him with significant consequences.

Then Marco was a young aristocrat who enjoyed the golden age of Marbella and who had no thought at all about being head of the ducal house from which he descended through his maternal branch. Ana Luisa de Medinamarried with Max Hohenlohebrother of Alfonso, the creator of glamorous Marbella, was the first-born of the Duchess of Medinaceli, but the titles still fell with preference to men, until the law enacted in 2006. The logical thing is that in this case it would have been for the descendants of the Duke of Feria, Rafael Medinasecond of the offspring of Mimi Fernández de Córdoba, and brother of Ignacio Medina Fernández de Córdobacurrent Duke of Segorbe, the youngest of the house.

Marco Hohenlohe, who divorced the German woman in 2004 Sandra Schmidt-Polex, lost his mother in 2012, months before the death of grandmother Mimi, who adored him. It was then when he moved to live in Seville. Educated in Switzerland, fond of tennis and of exquisite culture, he never managed to connect with the atmosphere of the rancid Seville ancestry, instead he exuded enthusiasm for becoming the godfather of the daughter of Ruben Costas, his friend and accomplice at the breakfasts “at Ca Diego”, the terrace of the Plaza de la Alfalfa in Seville, near Pilatos, where the duke had breakfast daily. He referred to that “Arfarfa” with affection every day, to the point that every morning his Facebook friends eagerly awaited the breakfast report. There he read his favorite newspaper and had social gatherings. If Marco did not appear on time with his Panama hat or cap, depending on the time of year, the regulars in the square would get worried. And that happened this week. This time the hospital admission was definitive. Flavia HohenloheMarco's sister, to whom he was very close, as well as his brother Pablo, announced the outcome on her Facebook.

Marco Hohenlohe was born in Madrid in 1962 as a result of the marriage between the beautiful Ana Luisa de Medina, countess of Ofalia and marchioness of Navahermosa, and the prince Maximilian Emanuel Maria Alexander Vicot Bruno of the Holy Trinity and All Saints zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg and Iturbe. In 1996 he married Sandra Schmidt-Polex, with whom he had two children, Victoria Elizabethfuture Duchess of Medinaceli, and Alexander Gonzalo.

During the last few months, Marco, a historian at the Casa Ducal de Medinaceli Foundation, chaired by his uncle Ignacio, had requested, as it appeared in the BOE, the succession of the county of Ofalia and the marquisate of Navahermosa for his children. Victoria, 19 years old, who will be the 20th Duchess of Medinaceli, studies in Madrid. At the age of 7, she went to live in Munich with her mother, who is about to remarry, and with her younger brother.

The death of the Duchess of Medinaceli in August 2013 opened speculation about the succession. The doubts were dispelled when Marco Hohenlohe y Medina made the official request. Rafael Medina, current Duke of Feria and Marco's first cousin, confirmed at the time that Marco was the natural “heir” and that it would be “unlikely” for him or any other person in the family to request it. Now, the young Victoria has in her hands a legacy with more than fifty noble titles, some older than those of the House of Alba, eleven of them with Spanish grandeur and a heritage spread throughout Spain.

Victoria, born in Malaga in 1997, is a discreet young woman, fond of horse riding and very Spanish, as her father defined her. “My children consider themselves more Spanish than German. I should have seen them with their faces painted red and yellow in Madrid's matches against Bayern,” the duke declared in an interview. The future duchess will continue writing the history of this ancient Castilian lineage.