Alonso Pérez de Guzmán (1256–1309), known as Guzmán el Bueno, was a Spanish nobleman and hero of Spain during the medieval period, the founder of the line from which the Dukes of Medina Sidonia descend.
Statue of Guzman El Bueno in Tarifa
Throwing the Dagger, by Salvador Martínez Cubells (1883)
Duke of Medina Sidonia is a peerage grandee title of Spain in Medina-Sidonia, holding the oldest extant dukedom in the kingdom, first awarded by King John I of Castile in 1380. They were once the most prominent magnate family of the Andalusian region, the best-known of whom, Don Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y Sotomayor, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, commanded the Spanish Armada at the end of the 16th century. The defeat at the hands of weather and the English in 1588 brought disgrace to this family. The House of Medina Sidonia traces its descent from Alonso Pérez de Guzmán.
The facade of the palace of the Duke of Medina-Sidonia