Juan CarlosJuanCarlos I, the current king of Spain, was crowned on November 22, 1975. Thecrowning of Juan Carlos restored democracy to Spain after the dictatorship ofFrancisco Franco. Juan Carlos was born in 1938 in Rome. In 1947 Franco announcedthat Spain was a kingdom and that he had decided that Juan Carlos should one daybe king. (He is a grandson of King Alfonso XIII, who had been forced into exilein 1931. ) The future king was given a military education.
He attended theInstituto San Isidro in Madrid, the Navy Orphans’ College, and the AcademiaGeneral Militar at Saragossa. He became a lieutenant in the army in 1957. Hethen attended the Naval Academy in 1957 and 1958 and the Aviation Academy in1959. In July 1969 the Spanish Cortes declared Juan Carlos “Prince ofSpain”. On February 23, 1981, Juan Carlos gained the respect of manySpaniards.
Literally millions of people were fallowing a part of the army, whichhad kidnapped many government officials in order to overthrow the Democracy. TheKing appeared on Spanish National TV in his General Captain military uniform,and spoke out against the “coup”. Hours later, the coup’s plan failed. This story shows how Juan Carlos saved democracy.
I had no prior knowledge ofJuan Carlos I, but he proved to be a very interesting person.
