King Juan Carlos of Spain

Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María was born on 5 January 1938 to Infante Juan, Count of  Barcelona, and Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies in their family home in Rome, where his grandfather King Alfonso XIII of Spain and other members of the Spanish royal family lived in exile following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931. 

Baptism

He was baptized as Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII.

Family

He has two sisters: Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz (1936–2020); and Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria (born 1939). He also had a younger brother, Alfonso.

Childhood

His early life was dictated largely by the political concerns of his father and General Franco. He moved to Spain in 1948 to be educated there after his father persuaded Franco to allow it.

The tragic death of his younger brother

On the evening of Holy Thursday, 29 March 1956, Juan Carlos's younger brother Alfonso died in a gun accident at the family's home Villa Giralda in Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera. 

Whilst His Highness Prince Alfonso was cleaning a revolver last evening with his brother, a shot was fired hitting his forehead and killing him in a few minutes. The accident took place at 20.30 hours, after the Infante's return from the Maundy Thursday religious service, during which he had received holy communion.

Alfonso had won a local junior golf tournament earlier in the day, then went to evening Mass and rushed up to the room to see Juan Carlos who had come home for the Easter holidays from military school.

Both Juan Carlos, age 18, and Alfonso, age 14, had been apparently playing with a .22 caliber Long Automatic Star revolver owned by Alfonso.

Following a later declaration of María de las Mercedes, Paul Preston argues that the content of the former testimony implies that Juan Carlos had pointed the gun at Alfonso and, apparently not knowing that the gun was loaded, he had pulled the trigger.

Education

He began his studies in San Sebastián and finished them in 1954 at the Instituto San Isidro in Madrid. He then joined the army, doing his officer training from 1955 to 1957 at the Military Academy of

Zaragoza. According to his sister Pilar, he had difficulty in his studies because of dyslexia.

In 1957, Juan Carlos spent a year in the naval school at Marín, Pontevedra, and another in the Air Force school in San Javier in Murcia. In 1960–61, he studied law, international political economy and public finance at the University of Madrid. He then went to live in the Palace of Zarzuela and began carrying out official engagements.

Marriage

Juan Carlos was married in Athens on 14 May 1962, to Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark, daughter of King Paul of Greece, firstly in a Roman Catholic ceremony at the Church of St. Denis,
followed by a Greek Orthodox ceremony at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Athens. She converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism. 

They had three children together:  Elena (b. 1963), Cristina (b. 1965) and Felipe (b. 1968).

A Prince of Spain

After the civil War, Spain was ruled by dictator Francisco Franco. This authoitarian government reamained dominant in Spain until the 1960's. With Franco's increasing age, left-wing protests increased, while at the same time, the far right factions demanded the return of a hardline absolute
monarchy. 

At the time, the heir to the throne of Spain was Infante Juan, Count of  Barcelona, the son of the late Alfonso XIII. However, General Franco viewed him with extreme suspicion, believing him to be a liberal who was opposed to his regime.

Juan Carlos's first cousin Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz was also briefly considered as a candidate. Alfonso was known to be an ardent Francoist and married Franco's granddaughter, Doña María del Carmen Martínez-Bordiú y Franco in 1972.

Ultimately, Franco decided to skip a generation and name Juan de Borbón's son, Prince Juan Carlos, as his personal successor. Franco hoped the young prince could be groomed to take over the nation while still maintaining the ultraconservative and authoritarian nature of his regime.

In 1969, Juan Carlos was officially designated heir-apparent and was given the new title of Prince of Spain (not the traditional Prince of Asturias).

As a condition of being named heir-apparent, he was required to swear loyalty to Franco's Movimiento Nacional, which he did with little outward hesitation. His choice was ratified by the Spanish parliament on 22 July 1969.

Juan Carlos met and consulted Franco many times while heir apparent and often took part in official and ceremonial state functions, standing alongside the dictator, much to the anger of hardline republicans and more moderate liberals, who hoped that Franco's death would bring in an era of reform. 

During 1969–1975, Juan Carlos publicly supported Franco's regime. Although Franco's health worsened during those years, whenever he did appear in public, from state dinners to military parades, it was in Juan Carlos's company. 

Juan Carlos continued to praise Franco and his government for the economic growth and positive changes in Spain.

However, as the years progressed, Juan Carlos began meeting secretly with political opposition leaders and exiles, who were fighting to bring liberal reform to the country. He also had secret conversations with his father over the telephone. 

Franco, for his part, remained largely oblivious to the prince's actions and denied allegations from his ministers and advisors that Juan Carlos was in any way disloyal to his vision of the regime.

During periods of Franco's temporary incapacity in 1974 and 1975, Juan Carlos was acting head of state. On 30 October 1975, Franco gave full control to Juan Carlos.

King of Spain

On 22 November 1975, two days after Franco's death on 20 November, the Cortes Españolas proclaimed Juan Carlos King of Spain. 

On 27 November, a Mass of the Holy Spirit was celebrated in the church of San Jerónimo el Real in Madrid to inaugurate his reign. He opted not to call himself Juan III or Carlos V, but Juan Carlos I.

Juan Carlos's accession met with relatively little parliamentary opposition. Some members of the Movimiento Nacional voted against recognizing him, and more against the 1976 Law for Political Reform. But even most Movimiento members supported both measures. 

Juan Carlos quickly instituted reforms, to the great displeasure of Falangist and conservative (monarchist) elements, especially in the military, who had expected him to maintain the authoritarian state. 

In July 1976, Juan Carlos dismissed prime minister Carlos Arias Navarro, who had been attempting to continue Francoist policies in the face of the King's attempts at democratization. 

He instead appointed Adolfo Suárez, a former leader of the Movimiento Nacional, as prime minister, who went on to win the following year's election and become the first democratically elected leader of the new regime.

Further legitimacy was restored to Juan Carlos's position on 14 May 1977, when his father (whom many monarchists had recognized as the legitimate, exiled King of Spain during the Franco era) formally renounced his claim to the throne and recognized his son as the sole head of the Spanish Royal
House, transferring to him the historical heritage of the Spanish monarchy, thus making Juan Carlos both de facto and de jure king in the eyes of the traditional monarchists.

A coup

There was an attempted military coup, known as 23-F, on 23 February 1981, when the Cortes were seized by members of the Guardia Civil in the parliamentary chamber. 

During the coup, the King, wearing his uniform as Captain-General of the Armed Forces, gave a public television broadcast calling for unambiguous support for the legitimate democratic government. The broadcast is believed to have been a major factor in foiling the coup. The coup leaders had promised
many of their potential supporters that they were acting in the King's name and with his approval, but were unable to demonstrate either, and the broadcast – coming just after midnight on the night of the coup – definitively showed the King's opposition to the coup makers.

A popular king

In 2008, he was considered the most popular leader in all Ibero- America. Hailed for his role in Spain's transition to democracy, the King and the monarchy's reputation began to suffer after controversies
surrounding his family arose.

A hunting trip 

In April 2012, Juan Carlos faced criticism for an elephant-hunting trip in Botswana.The public found out about the trip only after the King injured himself and a special aircraft was sent to bring him home.

In April 2012, Spain's unemployment was at 23% and nearly 50% for young workers. El País estimated the total cost of a hunting trip at €44,000, about twice the average annual salary in Spain. 

A petition called for the king to resign from his position as honorary president of the Spanish branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature.

In July 2012, WWF-Spain held a meeting in Madrid and decided with 226 votes to 13 to remove the King from its honorary presidency. He later apologised for the hunting trip.

Up until the Botswana elephant trip, Juan Carlos had enjoyed a high level of shielding from media scrutiny, described as "rare among Western leaders.

Abdication

Spanish news media speculated about the King's future in early 2014, following public criticism over his taking an elephant hunting safari in Botswana and an embezzlement scandal involving his daughter Cristina, and her husband Iñaki Urdangarin. 

The King's chief of staff denied in a briefing that the "abdication option" was being considered.

On the morning of 2 June 2014, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy made a televised announcement that the King had told him of his intention to abdicate. Later, the King delivered a televised address and announced that he would abdicate the throne in favour of the Prince of Asturias.

Royal officials described the King's choice as a personal decision which he had been contemplating since his 76th birthday at the start of the year. 

On 18 June, he signed the organic law passed by parliament several hours before his abdication took effect.

King Felipe of Spain

Felipe was enthroned on 19 June 2014, and Juan Carlos's granddaughter Leonor became the new Princess of  Asturias. 

Juan Carlos was the fourth European monarch to abdicate in just over a year, following Pope Benedict XVI (28 February 2013), Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (30 April 2013), and King Albert II of Belgium (21 July 2013).

The Spanish constitution at the time of the abdication did not grant an abdicated monarch the legal immunity of a head of state, but the government changed the law to allow this. 

However, unlike his previous immunity, the new legislation left him accountable to the supreme court, in a similar type of protection afforded to many high- ranking civil servants and politicians in Spain. 

The legislation stipulates that all outstanding legal matters relating to the former king be suspended and passed "immediately" to the supreme court.

Retirement problems of Juan Carlos

Recordings of the former King's alleged mistress Corinna zu Sayn- Wittgenstein-Sayn speaking with a former police chief were leaked to the press in mid-2018. Sayn-Wittgenstein claimed that Juan Carlos received kick-backs from commercial contracts in the Gulf States – particularly in the late-2000s

construction of the €6.7 billion Haramain high-speed railway in Saudi  Arabia – and maintained these proceeds in a bank account in Switzerland. 

She alleged that he purchased properties in Monaco under her name to circumvent the tax treatment of lawful residents, stating "[not] because he [loved] me a lot, but because I reside in Monaco."

She further claimed the head of the Spanish intelligence service warned her that her life, and those of her children, would be at risk if she spoke of their association. The allegations drew demands for Juan Carlos to be investigated for corruption in early June 2019.

Swiss authorities began investigating Juan Carlos in March 2020 in relation to a $100 million gift to Sayn-Wittgenstein in 2012. This donation was linked to alleged kick-back fees from Saudi Arabia.

Sayn-Wittgenstein reportedly told the head Swiss prosecutor on 19 December 2018 that Juan Carlos had given her €65 million out of  "gratitude and love", to guarantee her future and her children's, because  "he still had hopes to win her back". 

A letter written by Juan Carlos to his Swiss lawyers in 2018 stated the gift was irrevocable, despite his having asked in 2014 for the return of the money. 

On 14 March 2020, The Telegraph reported that his son Felipe, King of Spain since 2014, appeared as second beneficiary (after Juan Carlos) of the Lucum Foundation, which had received a €65
million donation by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

On 15 March 2020, the Royal Household declared that Felipe VI would renounce any inheritance from his father. Additionally, the Household announced that the former king would lose his public
stipend from the State's General Budget.

In June 2020, the public prosecutor's office of the Supreme Court of Spain agreed to investigate Juan Carlos's role as facilitator in Phase II of the high speed rail connecting Mecca and Medina, intending to determine the criminal relevance of events that took place after his abdication in June 2014. 

As King of Spain, Juan Carlos was immune from prosecution from 1975 to 2014 by sovereign immunity.

A further investigation by Swiss authorities was undertaken regarding €3.5 million paid from the Lucum Foundation to the Bahamas-based bank Pictet & Ciein for a society called Dolphin, which was controlled by the lawyer Dante Canónica, who also controlled Lucum.

On 3 August 2020, the Palace of Zarzuela announced Juan Carlos wished to relocate from Spain because of increased media press about his business dealings in Saudi Arabia and left a letter to his son saying so. 

By the time the letter had been made public, he had already left the country.Journalists speculated that he might have fled to the Dominican Republic, Portugal, France, as of 7 August, the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi.

In December 2021, the Swiss prosecutors dropped all cases due to the impossibility of proving any illegality.

In March 2022, Spanish prosecutors closed all cases against him following the same decision from Swiss prosecutors in December 2021. However there still can be a lawsuit in London. 

🔊 At this moment there also is a wonderful podcast called Corinna and the King. More on this link. 

Source pictures:

1: own picture taken at the royal palace in Madrid (2022) - other pictures: wikipedia