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| Affiliation | Monarchy |
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| Name | Juan Carlos I de Borbón |
| Address |
Abu Dhabi, , United Arab Emirates |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
January 05, 1938 |
| Died |
Still Living
(86 years) |
| Contributor | Gerald Farinas |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
Jan 05, 2024 12:38am |
| Tags |
Catholic -
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| Info | His Majesty Juan Carlos
King of Spain
His Majesty the King was born on 5 January 1938 in Rome where the Royal Family was living, having had to leave Spain when the Republic was proclaimed in 1931. His parents were Juan de Borbon y Battenberg, Count of Barcelona and Head of the Spanish Royal Household since his father, King Alfonso XIII, relinquished this status, and Maria de las Mercedes de Borbon y Orleans.
At the express wish of his father, he was educated in Spain as from the age of ten, after a period as a boarder at the Marianist school in the Swiss town of Fribourg. His parents, meanwhile, had been living since 1946 in the coastal town of Estoril in Portugal.
In 1954 he completed his secondary education at San Isidro School in Madrid and then went on to study at the Military Academies and Colleges of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force reaching the rank of Officer. During that period, he went to sea as a midshipman on the "Juan Sebastian Elcano" training ship, and also qualified as a military pilot. He completed his education from 1960 to 1961 at the Complutense University, Madrid, where he studied constitutional and international law, economics and taxation.
On 14 May 1962, in Athens, he married HRH Princess Sofia of Greece, the eldest daughter of King Paul I and Queen Federica. After their honeymoon, the Prince and Princess went to live at La Zarzuela Palace just outside Madrid which is still their residence today. Their first daughter, HRH the Infanta Elena, was born in 1963, followed two years later by HRH the Infanta Cristina and in 1968 by HRH Prince Felipe.
After his designation as successor to the Head of State in 1969, he embarked on a series of official activities, touring Spain and visiting many foreign countries.
After the death of the Head of State, Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was proclaimed King on 22 November 1975. In his first message to the nation in the Spanish Parliament, he expressed the basic ideas of his reign - to restore democracy and to become the King of all Spaniards, without exception.
The transition to democracy, under the guidance of a new Government, began with the 1976 Law for Political Reform. In May 1977, the Count of Barcelona transferred to the King his dynastic rights and his position as Head of the Spanish Royal Household in a ceremony which confirmed the role of the Crown in the restoration of democracy. A month later, the first democratic elections since 1936 were held, and the new Parliament drew up the text of the current Spanish Constitution which was approved by referendum on 6 December 1978 and received the royal assent in a solemn session of the Parliament on 27 December of the same year.
The Constitution establishes the political form of the State as a parliamentary monarchy in which the King is the arbiter and overseer of the proper working of the institutions. In his message to Parliament, King Juan Carlos expressly proclaimed his firm intention to abide by it and serve it. In fact it was the Monarch who saved the Constitution and democracy during the night of 23 February 1981 when the other Constitutional authorities had been held hostage in the Parliament building in an attempted coup.
During his reign, the King has paid official visits to almost all the countries of the world as well as the main worldwide and regional international organisations.
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