José Brunetti y Gayoso
Duke of Arcos
José Ambrosio Brunetti y Gayoso de los Cobos (Pisa, Tuscany, 6 February 1839 - San Sebastián, Spain, 5 September 1928), 15th Duke of Arcos and Grand Duke of Spain, Spanish aristocrat and diplomat who served as minister plenipotentiary in Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, the United States and Belgium, and ambassador to Italy and Russia. He was also an important benefactor of the Prado Museum, to which he made a posthumous bequest of ten paintings, including Young Woman with a Feathered Hat by Pieter Hermansz. Verelst. His father was Count Lázaro Brunetti, originally from Massa and Austrian ambassador in Madrid during most of the reign of Ferdinand VII, between 1819 and 1834. In Spain, Count Brunetti had contracted an advantageous marriage with María Josefa Gayoso y Téllez-Girón, one of the ‘most admired and celebrated Camarasa sisters’, daughters of the Marquises of Camarasa and granddaughters of the influential Duchess of Osuna. Although the Count was later posted to the court in Turin, his family remained in Madrid. José was the last of the five children of the marriage, the only boy, and soon became fatherless, as a few months after his birth, in December 1839, the Count died in Castelfranco, near Florence. His mother remarried in 1847 to Fernando de Nieulant y Sanchez-Pleités, son of the Counts of Nieulant, later Marquis de Sotomayor, and entered the service of the Royal Household: appointed Lady of the
Queen, she was in charge of the ill-fated Infanta Concepción and her sister the Infanta Pilar. The Marquise de Sotomayor died on 30 June 1866, shortly after her firstborn, Sofia. Later, through his maternal ancestry, José Brunetti was able to share out the numerous titles of his uncle Mariano Osuna, who died without descendants in 1882, and succeeded him as Duke of Arcos in 1892. Similarly, his sisters Cristina - wife of the prosperous politician Fermín de Lasala - and Laura became respectively Duchesses of Mandas and Monteagudo. After graduating in civil and canon law from the Central University, he entered the diplomatic career in 1862, following in his father's footsteps. In his youth he was attaché to the Spanish legations in Austria (1864), Italy (1866-1869), Switzerland (1869-1876) and the United States (1877-1882). In 1882 he was promoted to minister plenipotentiary and was assigned to head the Spanish legation in Bolivia, followed by those in Uruguay (1890-1891), Chile (1891-1894) and Mexico (1894-1897). In 1899 he returned to Washington, this time as minister, and was the first Spanish representative in North America once diplomatic relations had been resumed following the Treaty of Paris, which put an end to the Spanish-American War of 1898. He was transferred to Belgium in 1902, a post he took up in 1904 in Russia, now with the rank of ambassador. His last post was that of ambassador to Italy, which he held from 1905 until his resignation in 1907. When he arrived in Washington as embassy secretary in 1877, Joseph met Virginia Woodbury Lowery, daughter of wealthy businessman Archibald H. Lowery and granddaughter on his mother's side of Levi Woodbury, a former Secretary of the Treasury, Senator, Governor of New Hampshire and Supreme Court Justice. Mr. and Mrs. Lowery opposed their daughter's courtship of Count Brunetti, an unfortunate young diplomat, and although they also disapproved of her chief rival, a naval officer who would eventually become the famous Admiral George Dewey, they preferred him because he was an American. Virginia became secretly engaged to Brunetti, but refused to marry in the face of her father's opposition, and the young man had to leave for successive postings in Latin America. Almost two decades later, in 1895, when he was already Duke of Arcos and minister in Mexico, Mr Lowery relinquished his veto, and the eternal bride and groom were able to marry. The wedding took place in October of that year at the Lowerys' summer residence in New London, Connecticut.
The Cavalry Regiment El Rey (Spanish: Regimiento de Caballería El Rey) is the oldest cavalry regiment in the Spanish Army, distinguishing itself on several occasions during the Peninsular War. They are best known for their charge at the Battle of Talavera where they dealt the decisive blow against General Jean François Leval's German Division. The Cavalry Regiment El Rey is Spain's oldest cavalry regiment, founded in 1538 under the reign of King Charles I of Spain, and as such bore the title The King's in the Spanish Army. During the Napoleonic era it was considered as one of the best Spanish regiments and it distinguished itself during the Spanish War of Independence, frequently being commented as performing very well in those years. In 1807 the regiment was assigned to Marquis de La Romana's Division of the North and the following year was able to return to Spain to fight against the French invasion. Upon arrival in Cantabria the cavalrymen marched to Extremadura where they were to collect horses, thus avoiding the defeat that fell upon La Romana's division at Espinosa de los Monteros. In 1809 the regiment would see much action while serving in Gregorio García de la Cuesta's Army of Extremadura, as part of General Juan Henestrosa's 1st Cavalry Division. It would fight at the Battle of Talavera, where
they captured four French cannons and would be highly praised in Cuesta's report. Its intrepid attack and destruction of a column of enemy infantry. Its colonel, Don José Maria de Lastra, was wounded during the charge and was succeeded with valour by lieutenant colonel Don Rafael Valparda. Captain Don Francisco de Sierra gained much distinction by taking a cannon while vanquishing its defenders; Ensign Don Pablo de Cataneo, of 16 years of age, slew four Frenchmen, and all officers and men of the regiment manifested proof of its valour and discipline. The regiment would see action again at the Battle of Arzobispo, under the command of the Duke of Alburquerque, in which the cannons that the regiment had captured at Talavera were lost. Later on in 1809 the regiment saw action in the Army of La Mancha under General Juan Carlos de Aréizaga, in General Juan de Bermuy's 1st Cavalry Division, at the Battle of Ocaña. The battle was a disaster for the Spanish Army as large numbers of the well trained pre-1808 veterans had been killed or captured, leaving the army with a great need for more trained men; the defeat also leading to the second Spanish attempt to re-capture Madrid being halted. In 1815, a review from the Estado Militar de España placed the regiment as one of the units that were to remain as part of the regular army after the Peninsular War ended. This review was normally done annually, however due to the chaotic state of Spanish politics during the war it had been difficult to make a full review of the Spanish Army until peace was made. In 1898 the regiment saw service in the Spanish–American War in Cuba, around the main area of the conflict, Santiago de Cuba. They fought in the Battle of El Caney under General Joaquín Vara del Rey.
Duke of Arcos (Spanish: Duque de Arcos) is an hereditary title in the Peerage of Spain, granted by Isabella I in 1493 to Rodrigo Ponce de León, then 4th Count of Arcos. The dukedom is among the first 25 titles which reached the rank of Grandee of Spain 1st Class, in 1520. Nowadays however, all Grandees are of the same class. The title makes reference to the town of Arcos de la Frontera in Cádiz. The 4th Duke of Arcos was a character in the opera called Salvator Rosa (1874) by Antônio Carlos Gomes.
Awards: Collar, sash and star of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic (Real Orden de Isabel la Católica), stars of the Cross of Naval Merit (Cruces del Mérito Naval) and the Royal Noble Chapter of Knights of the Order of Mercy (Real Capítulo Noble de Caballeros de la Orden de la Merced).
