Carmen Franco, 1st Duchess of Franco


María del Carmen Franco y Polo, 1st Duchess of Franco, Grandee of Spain, Marchioness of Villaverde was the only child of Spain's caudillo, General Francisco Franco and his wife, Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés. In Asturian fashion, she was known by many nicknames, such as Nenuca, Carmelilla, Carmencita, Cotota and Morita.

Family

Franco was born in Oviedo.
On 10 April 1950, in El Pardo, she married Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú, 10th Marquis of Villaverde. Villaverde was a prominent surgeon. In 1968 he conducted the first heart transplant operation in Spain. The couple had seven children:
Shortly after her father's death in 1975, King Juan Carlos created her Duchess of Franco and a grandee of Spain, with a coat of arms of new creation. The arms are a variation of the arms of the de Andrade family of Galicia, from whom she is twice descended from the Pardo de Andrade branch, and twice again from the 7th counts of Lemos and Sarria.

Controversies

In 1978, she was arrested at Madrid Barajas International Airport for attempting to smuggle 300 million pesetas worth of gold, jewellery and medals that had belonged to her father.
Her daughter divorced from her husband and moved to Paris, where she lived with the antiquarian Jean-Marie Rossi, whom she married.
In 2008, she collaborated with Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios Tapias to write Franco, My Father, a biography of her father from her point of view. She described her father as a warm person. With regards to the White Terror, she noted that "he did not talk about it at home". According to the book Franco, referred to as "Generalísimo" or "Head of State", was an "intelligent and moderate", a "brave and Catholic" man and who established an "authoritarian but not totalitarian" regime.
She chaired the Francisco Franco National Foundation, which is under criticism for its revisionist opinions such as calling the Spanish coup of July 1936 an "armed referendum". The Spanish historian Borja de Riquer called that a euphemism with reference to an era in which approximately 140,000 Spaniards were executed in a reign of terror by the Falange, the Guardia Civil and other Nationalist organisations.
During the premiership of José María Aznar the foundation received financial support from the Spanish Minister of Education and Culture. Funding was terminated in 2004.
She is regarded as an icon by the remaining followers of Francoism.

Death

She died from cancer on 29 December 2017 in Madrid, aged 91, and her ashes were buried next to her husband in the crypt of Almudena Cathedral.

Honours