José Osorio, 9th Duke of Sesto

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Osorio and the second or maternal family name is Silva.

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.

The Most Excellent The Duke of Sesto GE
The Duke of Sesto in diplomatic uniform at the Exposition Universelle, 1900
Mayor of Madrid
In office 16 October 1857 – 6 October 1864
Monarch	Isabella II
Preceded by	Carlos Marfori
Succeeded by	José Mesía del Barco
Personal details
Born	José Osorio y Silva (1825-04-04)4 April 1825 Madrid, Spain
Died	30 December 1909(1909-12-30) (aged 84) Madrid, Spain
Spouse	Sophie Troubetskoy, Duchess of Morny ​ ​ (m. 1869; died 1898)​

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 form 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.

The Duke of Sesto in 1866

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.

Osorio in robes of the Order of Charles III, 1864

Marriage and other romantic relationships

Considered one of the most eligible bachelors of the time owing to his considerable fortune and noble titles, as a young man he was in love with Francisca de Portocarrero, 9th Countess of Montijo, daughter of Cipriano Palafox and María Manuela Kirkpatrick, 15th Counts of Teba, who would go on to marry Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart, 15th Duke of Alba de Tormes, 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 she 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." 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.

Pepe Osorio with his wife Sofía Troubetzkoy, photographed in Deauville in the spring of 1869, a few days after their wedding.

Finally, in 1868, while in Deauville (France) accompanying the Spanish royal family in exile, he met the Russian princess Sofía Troubetzkoy, who had been widowed three years earlier by Charles, Duke of Morny, himself a half-brother of Napoleon III. Sofía'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. 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.

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 Sofía'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.

The marriage produced no children. Sofía 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 Sofía, his wife.

Titles, decorations and honours

José Osorio in the robes of the Order of Charles III (19th century).

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

Pepe Osorio on horseback at his Soto de Mozanaque estate (Algete) in 1874, wearing traditional countryside dress.

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.

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.

Considered one of the best mayors the city ever had, he devoted much of his term to trying to eradicate dirt and bad smells in order to create a clean, modern capital. To this end he installed public urinals and issued a proclamation forbidding people from relieving themselves in the street, on pain of a 20-peseta fine, an amount considered excessive for the time. This led to anonymous verses being painted next to the prohibition notices, mocking the new mayor: "Four duros to piss? Good heavens, how expensive! How much does the Duke of Sesto charge to shit?"

He created ten first-aid houses (casas de socorro), one for each of the districts into which the city was then divided, the first being that of the central district, which was housed in the building of the Royal Hospice of San Fernando. Wishing to preserve a record of the city's artistic heritage, he undertook an inventory and photographic archive of all its existing fountains, a project that was also meant to cover churches, convents, palaces and other notable buildings, but which he never completed.

The year 1860 saw a number of important events in both his private life and in politics. In April he obtained from the queen an amnesty for Francisco Cavero, a cousin of the Empress Eugénie, who had been a lieutenant general in the Carlist armies and had been condemned for taking part in the attempted uprising of San Carlos de la Rápita led by Jaime Ortega y Olleta. On 2 May he welcomed to the city the troops returning from the war in Africa after their victory at the Battle of Tétouan, and on 21 June, in his capacity as mayor-corregidor, he stood as witness at the baptism of the Infanta Mercedes, who would go on to become queen consort. That year ended with the death of Paca de Alba, one of the great loves of his youth, whose funeral he organised and which was held in Carabanchel.

He was president of the Provincial Council of Madrid between 8 December 1861 and 30 May 1863.

Following O'Donnell's fall and the turbulent change of power, he ended his term, handing over the mayoral staff of office to José Mesía Pando, Duke of Tamames. He was also Civil Governor of Madrid on three occasions, in 1861–1863, 1865–1866 and 1874–1875, during which periods he planned to create a photographic album of thieves, criminals and murderers so that witnesses could identify them. When Amadeo of Savoy visited Spain to meet the royal family, it was he who was tasked with receiving him and showing him the city's most picturesque spots, and he showed great efficiency in the aftermath of the 1865 cholera outbreak, in which he lost his mother. He finally resigned as governor after being appointed head of the royal household in 1875.

Education of the prince and exile

Pepe Osorio with Prince Alfonso as a child.

On 28 November 1857 Queen Isabella had given birth to a son, christened Alfonso, and the day after the birth he was named Gentleman of the Bedchamber and High Steward to the infant prince. Two hypotheses have been put forward for this appointment: either a reward for the loyalty shown by the family, and especially by his father Nicolás, who had served the monarchs, or as compensation for the murder, within the palace, of his brother Joaquín at the hands of Juan Antonio de Urbiztondo, in the presence of King Francisco himself, the appointment being intended to help keep the affair concealed. Throughout the prince's childhood he became his principal mentor, although the prince was also instructed in religious matters by Fernando de la Puente y Primo de Rivera, Archbishop of Burgos. At that time he also had in his charge the four children from his wife's previous marriage, his two nephews — the sons of his late brother Joaquín — and his cousin Julio Quesada-Cañaveral, son of the 5th Counts of Benalúa, who was orphaned in 1867 and whose custody was granted to him owing to their family relationship.

In 1866 news reached him of plans being made by members of the Liberal Union together with those of the Progressive Party, and he informed the queen of this; two years later, after the 1868 Revolution carried out by them, she would regret not having listened to him. On 19 September the revolution broke out which dethroned Queen Isabella, and, since she refused to accompany him, he left for Deauville with his family, where he had bought a large villa; he then returned to Spain in search of the royal family, and, having escorted them to the border, went back to Madrid to collect his belongings.

The royal family in exile was supported by an account of 500,000 francs which the duke had held open in Paris from 1871 until the Restoration, and which he had renewed through his general administrator, while the debts run up by the queen in Switzerland were covered by Sofía Troubetzkoy herself. The prince's education was entrusted to Pepe, who first enrolled him at the Collège Stanislas in Paris, and later transferred him to the Theresianum in Vienna to continue his studies, which were completed at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England.

Involvement in the Restoration

Observing the political landscape in which the country found itself, he concluded that the only possible way to restore the monarchy was for Isabella II to abdicate in favour of her son, and he discussed this with the queen until he succeeded in convincing her. The effort involved in bringing about the abdication is reflected in the contemporary account, which describes how one day the queen said to the prince: "Alfonso, shake Pepe's hand, for he has managed to make you king." The instrument of abdication was granted on 25 June 1870, and the Duke of Sesto himself was the first witness to sign it.

Pepe Osorio with his wife Sofía Troubetzkoy, photographed during the Restoration.

On learning of the impending arrival of the new king, Amadeo I of Spain, the duke's family returned to Madrid in full. Once in the capital, they set about socially isolating the new monarchs while co-operating with Antonio Cánovas del Castillo in everything he asked of them. The palace of Alcañices became the headquarters of Alfonsist meetings and parties, and was consequently targeted by their opponents, one of whose gangs (the partida de la porra) went so far as to detonate a device there. There the duchess, together with the Marchioness of Bedmar, the Marchioness of Torrecilla, the Countess of Castellar and the Countess of Tilly, organised the well-known Rebellion of the Mantillas (1871). The Count of Benalúa, who was then living with the family, recalled in his memoirs: "Our house was a constant hive of Alfonsist politics. My aunt Sofía held a constant salon: generals, politicians, ladies, diplomats and the most notable figures of Madrid society at the time."

The duke and duchess frequently travelled to France and Vienna to meet with the prince and the queen, keeping them informed of the situation in Spain: the civil war in the North, the Cantonalist struggles in the Levante and overseas, and the growing independence movement in Cuba. They also brought letters from Cánovas and other politicians, and took the opportunity to attend events and meetings that brought together supporters of the exiled monarchy. On one of these trips, they accompanied the royal family to the railway station as they set off for Rome to visit Pius IX. Finally, on 1 December 1874, the Prince of Asturias signed the Sandhurst Manifesto, a document declaring his willingness to become king under a parliamentary monarchy, which set in motion the political process of the Restoration.

The document had been drafted jointly by Cánovas and the prince himself, and the draft was written out in fair copy by Sofía, the Duchess of Sesto, who acted as Cánovas's secretary. The duke and duchess helped distribute the manifesto throughout the city, and Sofía secretly sent two copies to Russia so that the leading European nations might recognise the liberal monarchy then being established.

Re-establishment of the monarchy

Engraving published in 1878 by La Ilustración Española y Americana depicting José Osorio delivering to Antonio de Orleans, Duke of Montpensier, a letter from Alfonso XII asking for the hand of his daughter María de las Mercedes de Orleans, as his close friend and adviser.

With the Restoration, he was appointed head of the royal household.

His financial contribution to the Alfonsist cause has been estimated at between the 15 million reales given by Julio Quesada-Cañaveral, 8th Duke of San Pedro de Galatino and 6th Count of Benalúa, and the 20 million reales cited by Antonio María Fabié y Escudero, who further maintained that after the monarchy's triumph he refused to accept even a single peseta, and whose father had been a close friend of both Sesto and Cánovas. By 1879 the couple were practically ruined, and he began selling off part of their property, including the palace on Calle de Alcalá, as well as a significant number of estates belonging to the county of Ledesma (Salamanca) and other entailed estates (mayorazgos) in Écija and Alcalá de Guadaíra (Seville).

Final years at court

Alfonso XII died on 25 November 1885, and the following day he tendered his resignation as head of the royal household, although he did not withdraw from court life as has sometimes been suggested. He was also relieved of his posts as steward, Great Equerry, keeper of the seals, and Chief Huntsman to the late king. His resignation was accepted by the queen, who appointed José Álvarez de Toledo y Silva, Duke of Medina Sidonia, as his successor, while he himself was granted the High Stewardship of the household of the infantas María de las Mercedes, then Princess of Asturias, and María Teresa, Princess of Bavaria by marriage, in addition to retaining the direction of the royal stud. A year later he was given the post of gentleman-in-waiting to the king's posthumous son, Prince Alfonso, and some time afterwards accompanied the family on their summer stay in Comillas.

When the dowager queen began reviewing the accounts of the royal treasury, she noticed that for the past four years a series of sums had regularly been disbursed in his favour, and she summoned him to explain; these turned out to be small repayments that the late king had been making to his friend, treating as a loan the money that the Marquis of Alcañices had invested in supporting the royal family and the restoration of the monarchy. The marquis refused to give the queen any explanation, owing to the mutual dislike between them — she considered him responsible for her husband's escapades, while he had tried to keep the king away from them — and so he went to the palace and, when the queen asked him about it, offered her what remained of his diminished fortune, so that she might choose from it; in the end he gave up the Duchy of Sesto and all his properties in Italy, which had meant so much to him and by whose title he had been known, and which the queen sold years later. Following this episode, on 18 July 1889 he resigned from all his posts at the palace and withdrew from court for good.

Old age

The Duke of Sesto photographed in 1900, on the occasion of his role as Spanish commissioner at the 1900 Paris Exposition.

After leaving the service of the royal household he once again took up his political career, while also devoting himself to business ventures and travelling around Europe with his wife. In mid-1890 he was appointed dean of the Permanent Deputation of the Grandeza, and in November of that year the widowed Eugénie de Montijo invited him to a party at her residence in Farnborough (Hampshire), which he took as an opportunity to spend a few months outside Spain. He returned after being appointed vice-president of the Senate of Spain, and once back in Madrid the Liberal-Conservative Party awarded him the honorary vice-presidency. He continued to maintain ties with the royal family, and in 1891 he witnessed the marriage settlement of the Princess of Asturias with Carlos de Borbón-Dos Sicilias; as a grandee of Spain, he and his wife represented Prince Alfonso at the wedding of the Marquises of Villamanrique. He was later appointed to the commission that travelled to the French border to receive the remains of King Francisco de Asís de Borbón.

On the financial and business front, in 1891 he joined the board of directors of the Puerto Rico Railway Company, and a year later that of the Monte de Piedad and Savings Bank of Madrid, posts he combined with others such as councillor of Madrid City Council, president of the first-aid house of the Buenavista district, and royal commissioner and president of the organising committee for Spain's participation in the 1896 Paris Exposition. The following year he served as inspector of the capital's first-aid houses, until in 1900 he moved to France as an official of Public Instruction, where he was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honour for his services. There he took part, as Spain's commissioner, in the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition.

Illness and death

On 10 December 1909 municipal elections were held for the mayoralty of Madrid, resulting in the departure of Alberto Aguilera and the arrival of José Francos Rodríguez. Despite his advanced age and a winter cold, and at his nephew Miguel's request, he went out to vote — the last time he left his house, as the cold turned into pneumonia over the following days. On 30 December he ate a bowl of broth and smoked a cigar in his armchair, dying at one in the afternoon — the same date on which the Bourbon Restoration had begun thirty-five years earlier.

On the very day of his death, the newspaper ABC reported on his state of health, informing its readers that "the respected Marquis of Alcañices, Duke of Sesto, is seriously ill. The illustrious patient's condition is not desperate, but his advanced age gives cause for concern. Late yesterday afternoon he had shown some improvement." The following day the same newspaper published his obituary, in which it described him as:

A man of clear intelligence, highly cultured, courteous and gentlemanly in his manner, of unwavering loyalty to the monarchs, whom he served with genuine devotion, and a jealous lover of his homeland like an old Castilian lord. A witty and entertaining conversationalist, a man of the world who had taken a direct part in scenes of the highest interest during the Restoration and the first years of the Regency, he must have carried in his mind an archive of the most fascinating dealings — memories which he sometimes recalled in conversation, though never overstepping the bounds of reserve and discretion, and from which more than one volume of stirring and moving memoirs could be made, memoirs that would shed light on certain transcendental episodes of contemporary history.

— ABC, 31 December 1909, p. 7.

The chapelle ardente was set up in the main hall of his palace, over a tapestry embroidered by his widow. At his express wish, the Royal and Laureate Corps of Royal Halberdier Guards, to which he was entitled as a member of the Golden Fleece, did not attend the wake, and he was buried the following day at the Cemetery of San Isidro in Madrid, amid a great show of public mourning.

King Alfonso XIII was in Granada when he received the news, and asked his brother-in-law Ferdinand of Bavaria (husband of María Teresa de Borbón) to attend on his behalf. Owing to the great crowds, the mounted municipal guard had to take part; the funeral procession set out from his residence, crossing the Puerta del Sol and the Puente de Toledo, where a crowd of enthusiastic Madrilenians cheered the man who had been their mayor; moreover, by special privilege, the coffin was allowed to pass through the Royal Palace. He was accompanied by various representatives of the royal family, the entire government, the city council and the diplomatic corps, as well as by the ecclesiastical authorities. Various corps of the Royal Guard were also present, along with a large part of Madrid's most prominent aristocracy and the palace officials. The only flowers to adorn the coffin were a bouquet of violets sent by the queen mother María Cristina as a token of homage, and a bouquet of white flowers on behalf of Alfonso XIII himself.

His remains were later transferred to the family pantheon at the cemetery of La Almudena, where they rest today. The Madrid city government named a street after him, Calle Duque de Sesto, in his honour, located in the Salamanca district.

Heraldry

• Heraldry of José Osorio, Marquess of Alcañices
• 
  Coat of Arms as Marquess of Alcañices (1866-1909)

External links

• Biografiasyvidas.com