The Story of the Paca and Eugenia Sisters

Both were very complicit and had a deep affection for each other. Their mother dreamed of marrying them and, when Eugenia, the eldest daughter, received the request from the Duke of Alba, she rejected it in favor of her younger sister, thus assuring her of one of the highest positions in Spain at the time. Moreover, Paca was deeply in love with the Duke.

A story of true love, which had a tragic ending.

After the wedding, Eugenia and her mother continued their journey around Europe. During a dance at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Eugenia impressed Prince Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, then president of the French Republic. He falls in love with her, but until she receives a formal proposal, she does not agree to marry him.

The wedding took place civilly on January 29, and Eugenia de Montijo became Empress on January 30, 1853. This union was much welcomed by the French. The marriage took place at Notre-Dame, but Paca, the Duchess of Alba, was unable to attend the wedding because she was seriously ill. Seven years later, when the Empress was leaving a dance, she was informed of the death of her sister. This was a hard blow for her that marked her for life. He stopped going to more dances and surrounding himself with objects and portraits that would remind him of his sister.

After the fall of the regime in 1870, the family went into exile in England. It was then that two events took place, which ended up removing the sovereign from her public life. In 1873 the death of the emperor and 6 years later the tragic death of his only son, Luis Eugenio Napoleon, who died at the hands of the Zulus.

Finally, in 1920, elderly and sick, Eugenia returned to Madrid and settled in the residence of her grandnephew, the Duke of Alba, in the Liria Palace, where she ended up dying in the same bed as her sister, 60 years earlier.