The reign in Spain...
Scandals, secrets & what not to say to visiting royals
King Juan Carlos is claimed to have made a pass at Princess Diana
WHEN the Spanish King and Queen arrive in London today for a State Visit, there will be a number of issues it would be polite not to mention.
Gibraltar, obviously, will be taboo when the royals share a carriage journey down The Mall.
Best stay clear of Scottish independence, too. It’s a sensitive subject when Catalonia wants to break away from the rest of Spain.
But, above all, try to avoid the question of abdication.
Just like our own Royal Family, the Spanish monarchy has endured its fair share of scandal, unpopularity and controversy. To be precise, more than its fair share.
By comparison with the right royal goings on in Madrid in recent years, our House of Windsor has been positively, er, regal. Yet it did not start out that way.
At one point, King Felipe’s father Juan Carlos was one of the most respected leader’s in Spanish history.
Juan Carlos, grandson of Alfonso XIII who fled the country in 1931 when it looked like the monarchy was at an end, was chosen by General Francisco Franco to be his successor.
When the dictator died in 1975, Juan Carlos, then 37, helped steer the country towards democracy.
Resisting pressure from the military, he worked with the charismatic Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez to turn Spain from being an isolated backwater of Europe into a modern, thriving state.
His greatest moment came with an attempted coup in 1981 when he helped quell the military uprising with a TV address to the nation calling for the country to support the government.
Over 20 years, Spain was to boom – and with it the monarchy.
Juan Carlos opted for a less fussy style than his British counterparts, living relatively modestly in the small Zarzuela Palace rather than the Royal Palace, the largest royal residence in Europe.
Dashing Juan Carlos always had a reputation for being a playboy.
For the first two decades of his reign, the media tended to respect his and Queen Sofia’s privacy.
But then, allegations surfaced that he did not just have an eye for the senoritas but was, according to one book, a serial womaniser having had 1,500 lovers.
There were claims he made a pass at Princess Diana, used the secret service to settle a lawsuit brought by a former lover, and reportedly had an affair for 10 years with a German aristocrat, though she denied it.
His fall from being hero of democracy to national embarrassment was cemented in 2012 when he went on an elephant hunting trip to Botswana at the height of the financial crisis.
The safari came to light only after he broke his hip in a fall and had to be flown back to Madrid for surgery. It later emerged he had been on a junket paid for by a Syrian-born Saudi businessman, who also paid for a private jet.
To add to the sense of shambles, his accident took place just days after his 13-year-old grandson shot himself in the foot while hunting in Spain.
Even in a country that celebrates bull fighting, there was disapproval their head of state spent his considerable leisure time shooting endangered animals.
Two years later, Juan Carlos abdicated in favour his son. It was hoped the coronation of Felipe VI would end the problems.
He is a more serious figure than his father and has a better ear for a country that is only now beginning to recover economically.
One of Felipe’s first acts was to cut his salary from £260,000 to £210,000, The Spanish royal family costs the state £6.8million a year, compared to the £42million our Queen receives.
Unfortunately for the new monarch, his first three years on the throne have been dominated by the scandal of his sister Princess Cristina, who was named a major suspect in an investigation into tax fraud by her entrepreneur husband Inaki Urdangarin.
The pair went on trial last year over accusations Urdangarin, a former Olympic handball player, had syphoned more than £4million in state contracts for his charity into private accounts.
Cristina was cleared in February but Urdangarin was sentenced to six years and three months in jail. He is on conditional release at the family home in Switzerland.
King Felipe, 49, had already stripped her and Urdangarin of their titles as Duke and Duchess of Palma de Mallorca but the damage to the family could reverberate for years.
The British royals will no doubt be careful not to mention such difficulties when hosting King Felipe and Queen Letizia, 44.
The State Visit will be an opportunity to present the Spanish royals in a new light and, hopefully, showcase the other side of Spain – a country on the road to economic recovery, rich in culture and innovation and with a deep affection for Britain.