The Permanent Deputation and Council of Grandees of Spain and Titles of the Kingdom (), before 2019 called Permanent Deputation and Council of Grandees of Spain, is a Spanish public interest association that represents the Spanish nobility. It has around 800 members, representing 40 % of Spain's titled nobility.

Furthermore, in addition to representing the nobility, the Permanent Deputation and Council has the responsibility to advise the Monarch—and the Ministry of Justice—regarding the exercise of the royal prerogative of granting noble titles—or any other aristocratic honour—as well as in procedures regarding succession and reinstatement of these, and the acknowledgement of foreign and papal titles.

Legal nature Regarding its legal nature, the Council of State, on the occasion of the statutory reform proposed by the Grandees, issued an Opinion on 22 April 1999, which has proven controversial in the doctrine. Traditionally, the institution had been considered a public corporation, but the Council of State preferred to create the formula of a "mixed corporation".

The 1999 Opinion states that the Deputation and the Council enjoy a "unique nature". The Opinion specifies that the Deputation, "as it is composed of private individuals and lacks a corporate or associative structure, it is a representation of a "body"—a group of people—that has been publicly recognized and that carries out a certain activity of public interest (...) it has a unique and non-fungible character, which gives it public relevance even without converting it into a Public Law Corporation (...)". For these reasons—the Council of State continues—, the Deputation and Council must receive "in its very existence and in its internal regulation some type of external public recognition". This public recognition is made through the approval, by an Order of the Minister of Justice, of its internal rules (estatutos).

History The Permanent Deputation and Council was created in 1815 by Ferdinand VII. After the Peninsular War, on 15 May 1815, the King summoned all Grandees of Spain so they could agreed on the financial contributions that their circumstances allowed in order to alleviate the needs of the Royal Treasury. Two of them, José Miguel de Carvajal-Vargas, 2nd Duke of San Carlos and Pedro de Alcántara Álvarez de Toledo, 13th Duke of the Infantado, very close to the sovereign, were responsible for communicating the decision. The first meetings happened in June 1815. By 1817, the grandees had donated the Crown around 8,5 million reales.

At the meeting of 10 August 1815, the Duke of San Carlos was appointed its first dean. Days later, on August 14, they met again to start the works to form an exhaustive list of grandees—from Spain and the rest of the empire—, to elaborate the first internal rules (estatutos)—which received royal assent on 19 October 1815—, and to agree to meet every Friday.

During the dynastic crisis that led to three civil wars, the Deputation of Grandees remained loyal to the infant queen Isabella II and his mother, the Queen Governor Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies. During the reign of Isabella II and the Restoration, the grandees achieved great political influence, having the right to be senators (which they lost after the disestablishment of the Senate in 1923) and to have a diplomatic passport (which they lost in 1984), among other privileges.

The internal rules of the Deputation were replaced by a new ones in 1883. During the reign of Alfonso XIII, the Deputation of Grandees was included in the administrative processes of granting, succession and reinstatement of noble titles and other aristocratic dignities, being, together with the Council of State, one of the bodies to which the monarch asks for an opinion. In 1915, King Alfonso XIII granted the Deputation new internal rules and, in 1929, the Diputation was given the right to appoint a counselor in the Council of State.

During the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, the organization proposed to integrate also the Titles of the Kingdom—those entitled nobles without the dignity of grandee—, but the fall of the monarchy in 1931 prevented this proposal from succeeding.

The Second Republic did not stop the activity of the Deputation, which continued giving—in the name of the exiled monarch—provisional succession to the noble titles. Also, they promoted the restoration of the monarchy, an activity that became complicated during the dictatorship and that divided the nobles into two: some attempted to do so from within the regime, while others, fearing reprisals, limited themselves to publish anonymous manifestos and proposals. Most of the provisional successions were ratified by the dictatorship of Francisco Franco when the monarchy—without a king—and the nobility laws were restored between 1947 and 1948. Francisco Franco also created noble titles, but most of them were suppressed in 2022.

Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1975, the Deputation promoted again the idea of integrating the Titles of the Kingdom, which was achieved in 1999, with the approval of new internal rules in an assembly chaired by King Juan Carlos I. In 2019, the Permanent Deputation and Council of Grandees of Spain was renamed as Permanent Deputation and Council of Grandees of Spain and Titles of the Kingdom. +List of deans No. Name Term 1 The Duke of San Carlos 18151816 2 The Duke of Parque 18161817 3 The Count of Fuentes 18181819 4 The Duke of Frías 1820 5 The Duke of San Fernando de Quiroga 18231829 6 The Duke of Villahermosa 18291834 7 The Marquess of Monte Real 18341835 8 The Duke of Castro-Terreño 18361843 9 The Duke of Gor 18431850 10 The Duke of Frías 18501851 11 The Count of Altamira 18511859 12 The Marquess of Miraflores 18591862 13 The Marquess of San Felices 18621863 14 The Lord of Casa Rubianes 18631865 15 The Marquess of Vallehermoso 18651866 16 The Marquess of San Felices 18661867 17 The Marquess of Molins 18671877 18 The Count of Pinohermoso 18771883 19 The Count of Puñonrostro 18831890 20 The Duke of Sesto 18901909 21 The Duke of Veragua 19091910 22 The Duke of Gor 1910 23 The Duke of Tamames 19101917 24 The Duke of Fernán Núñez 19171925 25 The Duke of T'Serclaes 19261927 26 The Marquess of Santa Cruz 19281940 27 The Duke of Alba de Tormes 19411953 28 The Duke of the Infantado 19531991 29 The Duke of San Carlos 19921997 30 The Count of Elda 19982009 31 The Duke of Aliaga 20102018 32 The Duke of Fernández-Miranda 20182022 33 The Duchess of Arcos 2022202634The Count of Casa Galindo2026pres.

Organization The Permanent Deputation and Council of Grandees of Spain and Titles of the Kingdom is governed by two bodies: the Assembly and the Permanent Deputation and Council.

Assembly The Assembly of Grandees and Titles of the Kingdom is integrated by those aristocrats that hold the dignity of Grandee or a noble title and are up to date with the payment of ordinary or extraordinary dues.

The assemblies are chaired by the Monarch or the member of the royal family that HM designates for this purpose. Failing this, the assembly is chaired by the Dean who, with the sovereign's authorization, calls the meetings and establishes the agenda.

Permanent Deputation and Council The Permanent Deputation and Council of Grandees and Titles of the Kingdoms is the executive body of the Deputation. It represents the entity and it exercises the functions assigned to it by the Spanish nobility laws.

This body is composed by a Dean, who must be a Grandee, and sixteen deputy-counselors. Eight of them must be grandees and the other eight titles of the Kingdom. Also, from its members, the Permanent Deputation must appoint a Secretary and a Treasurer, and may also appoint a Deputy Dean (also a grandee).

Current executive council As of April 2026:

Enrique María Lasso de la Vega y Valdenebro, 12th Count of Casa Galindo (GE). Dean. María Isabel Pascual de Quinto Santos-Suárez, 9th Baroness of Tamarit. Secretary. Francisco de Borja de Arteaga y Fierro, 12th Marquess of Vivola. Treasurer. María Pérez de Herrasti y Urquijo, 16th Marchioness of Albayda (GE). Jaime Alfonsín, 1st Marquess of Alfonsín (GE). Fadrique Álvarez de Toledo y Argüelles, 14th Viscount of la Armería. Francisco de Borja Montesino-Espartero y Velasco, 4th Viscount of Banderas. Juan Pedro Domecq de Morenés, 5th Marquess of Grigny. Fernando Fitz-James Stuart, 17th Duke of Huéscar (GE). Leoncio Alonso González de Gregorio, 22nd Duke of Medina Sidonia (GE). Rafael Benjumea y Benjumea, 19th Count of Peñón de la Vega. Javier Benjumea Llorente, 2nd Marquess of Puebla de Cazalla. José Sainz y Armada, 7th Duke of Rivas (GE). José María Sanz-Magallón y Rezusta, 16th Marquess of San Adrián (GE). Ana Luisa Zuleta Pérez de Guzmán, 15th Marchioness of Sardoal. Hugo O'Donnell, 7th Duke of Tetuan (GE). Catalina Luca de Tena y García-Conde, 2nd Marchioness of Valle de Tena (GE).

See also

List of current grandees of Spain List of dukes in the peerage of Spain

Bibliography

References