Red Duchess leaves fortune to lesbian ‘wife’

When the Duchess of Medina Sidonia (pictured), holder of Spain's most ancient dukedom, died two months ago aged 71 there was fevered speculation that she had, on her death bed, married her long-time secretary and companion, a German woman called Liliana Maria Dahlmann. Now it transpires a lesbian marriage did indeed take place – and, what's more, she left her new bride all of her worldly possessions.

The Duchess's sexual preferences were known to her immediate family, but the news has shaken Spain's proud and ancient aristocracy and looks set to be challenged by her three children from her first marriage. They are indignant and threatening court action.

Says her daughter Maria Pilar Gonzalez de Gregorio, 51, Duchess of Fernandina: "She was a singular person; she had many qualities, but not the maternal instinct." This is borne out by her son, Gabriel, 50, who was cast out of the family circle and last saw his mother in 1986. "She wouldn't even receive us on her deathbed," said Gabriel. "I was very surprised she maintained her bitterness to the point of not saying farewell."

If the family fail to overturn the will, which is likely, the duchess's German-born widow, 52, will inherit an undisclosed quantity of art and property as well as the sumptuous 16th-century ducal palace in Sanlucar de Barrameda.

The Duchess had an eventful life. Franco jailed her for championing workers, who nicknamed her the Red Duchess, a 'title' she never accepted. She also challenged Spain's official history, arguing that Columbus didn't discover America. She was an atheist, a republican and reckoned her 13th-century ancestor Guzman el Bueno, ennobled for fighting the Moors, was a north African whose grandmother was black.