Antonia Domínguez y Borrell

Spanish Noblewoman
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(m. 1850; died 1885)​

Antonia Domínguez y Borrell (1831–1917) also known as the Duchess of La Torre (Spanish: duquesa de la Torre), was a Spanish noblewoman who played an influential role in Spanish politics and society during the Sexenio Democrático. She held the nobiliary title of Countess of San Antonio [es].

Biography

Early life

She was born in the Captaincy General of Cuba in 1831, reportedly in Havana.[2] Her family owned a number of ingenios.[3] She married her cousin Francisco Serrano y Domínguez, 20 years her senior, on 29 September 1850 in Madrid.[4]

She became a Dame of the Order of Maria Luisa in 1856.[2]

Sexenio democrático

Engraving of a portrait by Winterhalter

Following the overthrow of Isabella II in the 1868 Glorious Revolution, many members of the aristocracy vied for the return of the Bourbons; however the Duchess of La Torre (whose husband soon became President of the Provisional Government and later Regent of the Realm) had no interest whatsoever in such prospect and confronted the likes of Sofia Trubetskaya, the Duchess of Sesto and Marchioness of Alcañices,[5] founding a rival political salon in Madrid.[6] Always involved in the affairs of her husband, both political and particular,[7] she also displayed a mutual animadversion and rivalry towards Francisca Agüero, the widow duchess of Prim.[8]

Following the election of Amadeo of Savoy to the Spanish throne in 1870, the new king offered Antonia Domínguez the Court post of Camarera mayor de la Reina but she rejected it.[9]

After the coup of Pavía [es] in January 1874, she became a prominent figure of the First Spanish Republic, which became presided by her husband as a sort of Spanish MacMahon.[10] According to Charles Benoist; when Serrano left the capital to fight the Carlists in the north, the Republic was not left without a President as she was the real president, becoming even more of a president once her husband returned.[11] During this period she continued with her anti-alfonsine activity,[10] opposing the possibility of the restoration of the monarchy in the person of Alfonso, the son of Isabella II.

Later life

By 1883, the dukes of La Torre saw their reputation damaged after the international scandal caused by the divorce of their son Francisco from Mercedes Martínez de Campos, who had married the former in October 1880 after reportedly undergoing harassment by Antonia Domínguez.[12]

Following the death of her husband in 1885 Antonia Domínguez retired from public life.[13][14] She built a theatre in his Madrilenian address, the Teatro Ventura.[6] By the late 1880s, she was however linked to alleged intrigues with former queen Isabella (who also lived in France), Romero Robledo and López Domínguez to avoid Sagasta getting to power.[15] Having lived in Paris,[6] she ultimately settled in Biarritz, where she died on 5 January 1917.[16]

References

Citations
  1. ^ "La Duquesa de la Torre, La Regenta". Instituto Cervantes.
  2. ^ a b Caballeros de Orden de Calatrava que efectuaron sus pruebas de ingresos durante el siglo XIX. Madrid: Ediciones Hidalguía. 1976. p. 331. ISBN 84-00-03498-8.
  3. ^ Partzsch 2012, p. 867.
  4. ^ Barcia Zequeira 2017, p. 200.
  5. ^ Simón Palmer 2002, pp. 8–12.
  6. ^ a b c Ezama Gil 2009, p. 470.
  7. ^ Miquel i Vergés 1955, p. 571.
  8. ^ Sánchez 2019, p. 23.
  9. ^ López Sánchez 2017, p. 237.
  10. ^ a b Espadas Burgos 1990, p. 324.
  11. ^ Benoist (1930); cfr. Álvarez Barrientos 2002, p. 167
  12. ^ Fernández 2014, p. 139.
  13. ^ Castell 1917, p. 413.
  14. ^ "La duquesa viuda de la Torre". Heraldo de Madrid. XXVIII (9532). 6 January 1917.
  15. ^ González Calleja 1998, p. 170.
  16. ^ El C. de L. (February 1917). "Necrologías". Revista de Historia y Genealogía Española. VI (2): 95.
Bibliography
  • Álvarez Barrientos, Joaquín (2002). Espacios de la comunicación literaria. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. ISBN 84-00-08061-0.
  • Barcia Zequeira, María del Carmen (2017). "Las élites de Cuba en un siglo histórico (1780-1886)". In Alvarado Planas, Javier (ed.). La administración de Cuba en los siglos XVIII y XIX. Madrid: Boletín Oficial del Estado; Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales. pp. 179–204. ISBN 978-84-340-2411-3.
  • Castell, Ángel Mª (1917). "Figuras aristocráticas del pasado. La duquesa de la Torre". Le Tout Madrid. Madrid: Tip. V. H. de Sanz Calleja: 412–414.
  • Espadas Burgos, Manuel (1990). Alfonso XII y los orígenes de la Restauración. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. ISBN 978-84-00-07060-1.
  • Ezama Gil, María de los Ángeles (2009). "'Criollas en París'. La condesa de Merlin, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y la duquesa de la Torre" (PDF). Analecta Malacitana: Revista de la Sección de Filología de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras. 32 (2): 463–482. ISSN 0211-934X.
  • Fernández, Pura (2014). "Mediadoras de la intimidad, negociadoras del escándalo. Las domésticas en la novela naturalista radical de fin de siglo". Cuadernos de Ilustración y Romanticismo. 20. Cádiz: University of Cádiz: 127–142. doi:10.25267/Cuad_Ilus_Romant.2014.i20.08. hdl:10498/16658. ISSN 2173-0687.
  • González Calleja, Eduardo (1998). La razón de la fuerza: orden público, subversión y violencia política en la España de la Restauración (1875-1917). Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. ISBN 84-00-07778-4.
  • López Sánchez, María del Carmen (2017). La mano del rey: el mayordomo mayor en la Casa Real del siglo XIX (PDF). Getafe: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
  • Miquel i Vergés, J. M. (1955). "La mexicana Francisca Agüero, esposa de prim". Historia Mexicana. 4 (4). El Colegio de México: 544–573. ISSN 0185-0172. JSTOR 25134397.
  • Partzsch, Henriette (2012). "Violets and Abolition: The Discourse on Slavery in Faustina Sáez de Melgar's Magazine La Violeta (Madrid, 1862–66)". Bulletin of Spanish Studies. 89 (6): 859–875. doi:10.1080/14753820.2012.712322. hdl:10023/3507. S2CID 154418265.
  • Sánchez, Raquel (2019). "Política de gestos. La aristocracia contra la monarquía democrática de Amadeo de Saboya". Pasado y Memoria. Revista de Historia Contemporánea. 18 (18): 19–38. doi:10.14198/PASADO2019.18.02. hdl:10045/93533.
  • Simón Palmer, Carmen (2002). Actividades públicas de las madrileñas en la I República (PDF). Madrid: Ayuntamiento de Madrid. pp. 7–37.
Further reading
  • Ortuzar Castañer, Trinidad (2019). La Duquesa de la Torre. 'Mariscala Serrano' (1831-1917). Barcelona: Arpegio.
Spanish nobility
Preceded by
Miguel Domínguez Guevara
 Countess of San Antonio [es]
1858–1881 		Succeeded by
Francisco Serrano y Domínguez