Marquess of San Felipe


Marquess of San Felipe, was a hereditary title in the Peerage of Spain, granted in 1709 by Philip V to Vicente Bacallar y Sanna, a Sardinian historian of Valencian origin who served as ambassador in the Spanish Netherlands and the Republic of Genoa.
The title became extinct in 1983 and is currently held unofficially by Vincenzo Amat di San Filippo, an Italian from Alghero.

The grant

was a military officer and politician who supported Philip of Anjou, the heir appointed by the last Habsburg king Charles II, in the War of the Spanish Succession. For this reason, he had to flow in exile when the other claimant, Charles of Austria, took control over Sardinia. As an award to Bacallar's loyalty, Philip, now Philip V of Spain, made him Viscount of Fuente Hermosa and Marquess of St. Philip. Bacallar became later an important historian, linguist and political philosopher while still serving as military and diplomat.

The inheritance

Bacallar's only surviving issue was his daughter Maria Josefa, who married Francisco Amat of an ancient and distinguished Sardinian house of Catalan origin, son of the Marquess of Villarios. In accordance with Spanish and Sardinian succession rules at that time, she inherited the titles and has transmitted them to her issue. Amat firstborn has brought the title of Marquess of St. Philip since, and they were recognized as such in Italian official registers until the Italian Republic ceased to recognize nobility titles. Along with the titles, Amats have inherited the name Vicente, or Vincenzo in Italian.

List of Marquesses of San FelipeAccording to the common genealogical use in Sardinia (and also legal use in Spain), Marquesses are indicated with both the father's and the mother's surnames, whatever the actual form in documents.In order to describe the spouses' houses, main titles of those houses are indicated, in the modern Italian form «of the title»

Present unofficial holder is a nephew of the latter, also called Vincenzo, with his younger brother as heir presumptive.