• Residences Juan Carlos I in Zarzuela: almost 60 years of a hunting lodge turned into a palace
  • Banishment Juan Carlos I communicates to Felipe VI his decision to leave Spain

King Juan Carlos has made what is surely the most complicated decision of his entire professional life. After almost 40 years in the service of Spain, the father of Felipe VI ratified this Monday, August 3, his availability to exile from Spain for the future of the Crown.

"A year ago I expressed to you my desire and desire to stop developing institutional activities. Now, guided by the conviction of providing the best service to the Spanish, their institutions and you as King, I communicate my thoughtful decision to move, in these moments, outside of Spain, "he said in a letter released by Casa Real. A way of making decisions in Zarzuela to which Don Juan Carlos is accustomed, because in the most important moments of his life he has sent letters.

Perhaps one of the most difficult was the one he wrote in July 1969 to his father. Don Juan Carlos lived in Madrid with Doña Sofía and their three children when on July 12 Franco called El Pardo. The then infant went solicitously to the meeting with the dictator, who communicated his decision to appoint him successor as King. According to the memories that Villalonga wrote of the King Father, he did not give Don Juan the option to communicate it before making the decision , he had to accept at the moment, something he did for Spain.

In the aforementioned memoirs, Villalonga records that the father of Felipe VI then contacted the Count of Barcelona by telephone. However, Luis María Anson maintains in his book Don Juan that this was not the case and makes a reconstruction of the days prior to the appointment of Don Juan Carlos as successor.

According to his words, King Juan Carlos wrote a letter to his father from La Zarzuela and asked the Marquis of Mondéjar to travel to Estoril to hand deliver it. On July 16 , first thing in the morning, the aristocrat entered Villa Giralda with the letter, which Don Juan picked up before Anson's gaze.

Dearest Dad,

I have just returned from El Pardo where I have been called by the Generalissimo; and since you can't speak on the phone, I hasten to write you these lines so that Nicolás can take them to you, who comes out of a deal in the 'Lusitania'.

The moment that so many times I had repeated to you that it could come, has arrived and you will understand my enormous impression when communicating your decision to propose me to the Cortes as successor as King.

It is very difficult for me to express the concern that I have at the moment. I love you very much and I have received from you the best lessons of service and love for Spain. These lessons are what compel me as a Spaniard and as a member of the dynasty to make the greatest sacrifice of my life and, fulfilling a duty of conscience and doing with what I believe is a service to the Homeland, accept the appointment to return to Spain the monarchy and can guarantee for the future, our people, with the help of God, many years of peace and prosperity.

In this hour, for me so emotional and transcendental, I want to reiterate my filial devotion and immense affection, praying to God that I maintain above all the unity of the family and I want to ask for your blessing so that she always helps me to fulfill, in good from Spain, the duties imposed on me by the mission for which I have been called.

I end these lines with a very strong hug and, loving you more than ever, I ask you again, with all my soul, your blessing and your love.

Juan Carlos.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Philip VI
  • Real home
  • Juan Carlos I

Royal HouseThe Portuguese media place King Juan Carlos in Estoril

Politics Quim Torra announces that he studies denouncing King Juan Carlos the day before Felipe VI's visit to Catalonia

JusticiaCorinna affirms that Juan Carlos I claimed the money the year he abdicated

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