Birth Margarita Gómez-Acebo y Cejuela was born on 6 January 1935 in Villa Alba,
Collado Villalba,
Madrid, during the
Second Spanish Republic, as the second child and only daughter of the two children of
Spanish nobles: Manuel Gómez-Acebo y Modet, 4th Marquess of Cortina, a state counsellor and lawyer of commercial and banking companies (eldest child of
José Gómez Acebo y Cortina, 3rd Marquess of Cortina and wife Margarita Marta Modet y Almagro) and wife María de las Mercedes Cejuela y Fernández (daughter of Manuel Cejuela y González-Orduña and wife María de las Mercedes Fernández Molano).
Childhood In 1936, at the outset of the
Spanish Civil War Margarita's parents Manuel and María de las Mercedes as well as her maternal grandmother María de las Mercedes were arrested by the Communists and given a three-month prison detention. They were executed in November (Manuel on 9 November and María de las Mercedes and her mother María de las Mercedes on 16 November) at their farm "La Arbodela" in
Collado Villalba. In recognition of their parents' murders, Margarita and her elder brother José-Luis (1930–2010) both received the
Suffering for the Motherland Medal from
Francoist Spain. After the death of their parents, Margarita and José-Luis continued to live at Villa Alba for some time until they were taken in by their father's close friend, the
marquess of Casa Pissaro until May 1937, when the siblings were to go to northern Spain, but due to the war were instead forced to follow a route via
Valencia to
Barcelona and then to France to stay with their paternal grandmother, Doña Margarita Marta Modet y Almagro, until her death in 1940. They were then taken in by their paternal uncle, Don Juan Gómez-Acebo y Modet, Marquess of Zurgena, and his family until his death, when they moved in with their other paternal uncle, Don Jaime Gómez-Acebo y Modet, and his wife, Doña Isabel Duque de Estrada y Vereterra, 9th Marchioness of Deleitosa, as well as their children, including
Don Luis Gómez-Acebo (later husband of
Infanta Pilar of Spain, Duchess of Badajoz, eldest sister of
King Juan Carlos I of Spain and aunt of
King Felipe VI of Spain. ==Residence==