Duke of Suárez ( es, Duque de Suárez) is a hereditary title in the

Spanish nobility Spanish nobles are persons who possess the legal status of hereditary nobility according to the laws and traditions of the Spanish monarchy and historically also those who held personal nobility as bestowed by one of the three highest orders of ...

. The

duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are rank ...

dom was bestowed by

King Juan Carlos King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ti ...

on Adolfo Suarez González on 25 February 1981, following his resignation as Spanish Prime Minister, in recognition of his role in the Spanish transition to democracy. The Duke of Suárez is also a

Grandee of Spain Grandee (; es, Grande de España, ) is an official aristocratic title conferred on some Spanish nobility. Holders of this dignity enjoyed similar privileges to those of the peerage of France during the , though in neither country did they ha ...

. The current holder of the title is Alejandra Romero Suárez, Adolfo Suárez's granddaughter.

Unsuccessful petition

Shortly after the first Duke's death in 2014, it was reported that in 2009 his son

Adolfo Suárez Illana Adolfo Suárez Illana (born 5 May 1964) is a Spanish politician, lawyer, author and aficionado-practitioner of bullfighting. Biography He is the eldest son of the late Adolfo Suárez González, Prime Minister from 1976 and 1981 and central ...

had unsuccessfully written to King Juan Carlos I to ask him to use the supposed historic powers of the Crown to alter the legal line of succession to make him heir to his father's title of Duke of Suárez instead of his niece Alejandra Suárez Romero, daughter and heir of Mariam Suárez Illana (his father's eldest child, who had died in 2004). This was on the basis that, although he himself cared little or nothing for the title, this had been the repeatedly expressed desire of his father, supported by the depositions of five witnesses. His father allegedly wanted the Dukes of Suárez to have his surname Suárez for many future generations, but Alzheimer's disease had made him both unable to decide the succession himself (as is permitted by Spanish law through ''Succession by Assignment''), and also made him unaware that in 2006 the Equity Act for the Succession of Titles of Nobility ( es, Ley de Igualdad para la Sucesión de Títulos Nobiliarios) had removed

male-preference cognatic primogeniture Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...

, thereby ensuring that the title would pass to his granddaughter rather than to his son. The failure of the petition was unsurprising given that the royal family itself had already expressed its support for a constitutional change to eliminate the preference for male rather than female

succession to the Spanish throne Succession to the Spanish throne follows male-preference cognatic primogeniture. A dynast who marries against the express prohibition of the monarch and the Cortes Generales, the legislative chamber of Spain, is excluded from the succession. U ...

, a matter which

Socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero included in his inaugural speech in 2004.

List of Dukes of Suárez

* Adolfo Suárez González, 1st Duke of Suárez (1932–2014) * Alejandra Romero Suárez, 2nd Duchess of Suárez (born 1990)

References

Dukedoms of Spain Noble titles created in 1981 Grandees of Spain {{Spain-noble-stub