Juan Carlos is not easy to describe:
outside elegant, handsome, sportive, perfect manners and controlled by a very good education and tradition,
he is the man who led Spain to a new future.
"A Lady's-dream"
for sure.
Men appreciate him as much
as women do, as friend and colleague. In the business world he is highly estimated. Politically, he guides
cleverly thru all deep waters- commander of the boat, as he does by sailing.
A fascinating personality,
his "negative" sides are known in his country - but a very smart and clever, high born Princess
at his side ~ the right woman - a distant cousin: Sofia Princess of Greece is able to put all in a good range.
Three loved children,
Elena, Christina and Felipe complete this royal family. With emotion the crowd watched him as he brought his two
daughters into church for their marriages. He showed openly his love for them. He is a proud grandfather.
A bit like a fairytale family-
why not. They seem to be able to handle a family-structure in a modern and fair way. Sure Queen
Sofia is the background manager of this Spanish throne- but he, the King, is the constructor of the flowering new
modern Spain and his spiritual sense is among the best spirits in Europe. Both Juan and Sofia handle their own
fields on the same level and with the same success.
Juan Carlos' private life is known
~ he is an avid biker- out of the back portals of the palace Zarzuela
where the royal family lives ( 
Palacio de
la Zarzuela ) you can see him
drive off on his red bike, alone no bodyguards- he takes his "time-out", recovering, being alone
- rumours that this can include a pretty companion does not bother anybody too much.
Sailing along all shores clear to
Mallorca, Marbella and St. Tropez is a family tradition. Juan Carlos and his son won the gold Medal at the Olympics
in Barcelona 1992.
There are negative rumours sometimes,
the newest one: he agreed to a very expensive present: industry giants gave him last week a motorboat, 34 Million
US$ heavy. Some questions? No comment.
His radiant face running the boat
over sea said enough. Maybe kings of our times are not anymore as rich as we think.
The
Royal family officially lives at the Royal Palace:
The Royal Palace of Madrid is a towering structure with 250 years of history and it is considered one of the best
in Europe. We assure you that this palace is not a country house! With 870 windows, 240 balconies, 44 flights of
steps and 110 doors, it keeps its janitors pretty busy during the week.
Let's look into Juan Carlos' beginning:
JUAN CARLOS DE BORBON Y BORBON was born on January 5th, 1938 in Rome, where the Royal Family
was living at that time, having had to leave Spain when the Republic was proclaimed in 1931. His father, Don Juan
de Borbon y Battenberg, Count of Barcelona and Head of the Spanish Royal Household ever since King Alfonso XIII
had relinquished this status, and his mother, Dona Maria de las Mercedes de Borbon y Orleans.
Generalissimo Francisco
Franco ruled Spain from
the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) until he died in 1975.
(The circumstances of this civil war
are described in Hemingway's book and the movie that was made from it - "For Whom the Bell Tolls" with
Gary Cooper & Ingrid Bergman. )
The target of Robert Jordan and the Rebels to blow it up and cut
off the only route for Fascist's supplies over the mountains.
"Robert Jordan watched it become daylight. He
loved this hour of the day always and now he watched it: feeling it gray within him, as though he were a part of
the slow lightening that comes before the rising of the sun; when solid things darken and space lightens and the
lights that have shone in the night go yellow and then fade as the day comes."
In the background of this
impression see the young Prince being educated by Franco to guide Spain into a free and modern State. At the express wish of his father, he was educated in Spain and
Switzerland. Spain he visited for the first time at the age of ten.
In
1954 he completed his Baccalaureate at the San Isidro School in Madrid, and in 1955 began his studies at the Academies
and Military Colleges of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. During this time he carried out his practice voyage
as a midshipman on the training ship Juan Sebastian Elcano and qualified as a military pilot. In 1960- 61 he completed
his education at Madrid's Complutense University, where he studied constitutional and international law, economics
and taxation. Still General Franco was governing Spain.
On
May 14th, 1962, he married Princess Sofia of Greece, the eldest daugther of King Paul I and Queen Federika, in
Athens. After their honeymoon, the Prince and Princess went to live at the Palacio de la Zarzuela Palacio
de la Zarzuela on
the outskirts of Madrid, which is still their residence. In 1963 the first of their three children, Princess Elena,
was born, followed, two years later, by Princess Cristina and finally, in 1968, by Prince Felipe.
After his designation as future
succesor to the Head of State in 1969, he embarked on a series of official activities, touring Spain and visiting
many foreign countries, including France, the Federal Republic of Germany, the United States, Japan, China and
India.
The
transition to democracy, under the guidance of a new Government, began with the Law on Political Reform in 1976.
In May 1977, the Count of Barcelona transferred to the King his dynasty rights and his position as head of the
Spanish Royal Household, at a ceremony which confirmed the fulfilment of the role incumbent on the Crown in the
restoration of democracy. A month later the first democratic election sice 1936 was held and the new parliament
drafted the text of the current Constitution, approved in a referendum on December 6th, 1978.
The
Constitution establishes as the form of government of the Spanish State that of a parliamentary monarchy, in which
the King is the arbiter and overseer of the proper working of the institutions. By giving the royal assent to this
Constitution, King Juan Carlos expressly proclaimed his firm intention to abide by it and serve it. In fact, it
was the actions of the Monarch that saved the Constitution and democracy during the night of February 23rd 1981,
when the constitutional powers had been retained in the Parliament building during an attempted coup.
In the course of 18 years the
King has toured Europe, Latin America, the United States and Canada, the Arab countries, Israel, China, Japan,
Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and many countries in black Africa. He has also addressed many international
organizations: the United Nations, the institutions of the European Union, the Council of Europe, the Organization
of American States, UNESCO, the International Labour Organization and the Arab League.
The King has encouraged a new
style in conducting relations with Latin America, emphasizing the identifying features of a cultural community
based on a common language, and pointing out the need to generate common initiatives and take part in suitable
kinds of cooperative activity. The countries of that area have shown great generosity in agreeing on the need to
create a permanent framework capable of expressing this new situation, setting objectives and organizing programmes
and specific lines of action. This is the rationale behind the Latin American Conferences, the first of which was
held in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1991.
As a convinced European, and
a winner of the Charlemagne Award in 1982, Juan Carlos delivers insistent reminders of Spain's European calling
throughout its history. The importance of the European union in the contemporary world and in particular in the
areas which are most akin to it, including Latin America, has been stressed by the King in many messages, such
as the one he gave at the French National Assembly in 1993.
In
a long Interview some weeks ago, sitting in the old library of his Pallazzio, he unrolled his thoughts and insights
about life, ethics, rules, states and Europe, as well as the Latin American countries. A man with deep insights
and visions ~ leading ideas.
King Juan Carlos, who pays constant
attention to the world of intellectual developments and its capacity for innovation, has a special relationship
with universities, both in Spain and abroad, where he has had conferred upon him honorary doctorates by the most
renowned centers, including the Universities of Bologna, Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, amongst many others. He
is also an associate member of the Institut de France and the American Philosophical Society. As honorary chairman
of COTEC, a Spanish Foundation for technological innovation, King Juan Carlos gives his personal support to this
fundamental activity on the threshold of the 21st century.
He also pays special attention
to the future of the Spanish language, the heritage of the community of Spanish speakers. The King is honorary
president of the Board of Trustees of the Cervantes Institute, which is dedicated to the dissemination of the Spanish
language worldwide, and the Foundation in support of the Royal Accademy, to whose setting up in 1993 he contributed
out of his own personal patrimony.
As
a keen practitioner of several sports, such as skiing and sailing, Juan Carlos supports and appreciates sport as
a formative influence of unquestionable social value. The presence of the King and Queen and their encouragement
of the Spanish Olympic teams during the Games in Barcelona in 1993 attest to the importance which Juan Carlos attaches
to this activity. In sailing he and his son won the Olympic gold medal .
As you can expect his son is
raised up and educated carefully, University with modern studies, military services etc. etc. to be prepared as
his father was .
To
rule this very old traditional country and to lead it to such a prosperity and democratic state will give this
Royal family, especially Juan Carlos and Sofia a grand place in European history.
Coming closer you might have
discovered that the sketch of Juan Carlos is quite a lot more, than you have seen till now from far.
