[3] His mother, María Eulalia Maroto y Pérez del Pulgar, was born in 1897 to the Marquess of Santo Domingo and his wife, the Marchioness of Pozoblanco.

During his time as frigate captain, he was awarded the Silver Medal of the Salvation Society of the Shipwrecked, for having rescued the seventeen members of the fishing crew of Onubenses, which sunk.

As ship captain, he departed on 8 January 1981 from Cadiz with course to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Punta Arenas, Valparaíso, Callao, Balboa, crossed the Panama Canal and cruised to Pensacola, New York, Saint-Malo, Melilla, Livorno and arrived to the Bay of Cádiz 3 August of the same year.

The attack took place on Thursday 6 February 1986 at 10:20 a.m. His car, a brown Talbot 1800 driven by 55-year-old chauffeur Manuel Trillo, occupied by vice admiral Colón de Carvajal and his assistant, 45-year-old Antonio Rodríguez Toube, who was in the back seat of the car, was headed down Calle del Tambre from the corner with Balbina Valverde.

[8] In spite of the bloodshed, commander Antonio Rodríguez Toube, Colón's personal assistant, was severely wounded but survived the attack almost miraculously.

[9] The funeral for the Duke of Veragua and driver Manuel Trillo was held the following morning, at the General Headquarters of the Navy, in Madrid.