Where Was The King of Spain On His 70th Birthday Eve?
The reigning King Juan Carlos I of Spain, who was baptized as Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, has turned 70. What was he doing on the eve of his birthday? “There was no pipe and slippers for this grandfather over Christmas,” reports the BBC.
“Instead, just days shy of his 70th birthday, King Juan Carlos paid a surprise New Year’s Eve visit to Spanish soldiers serving at a base in Afghanistan. The visit was typical of a king who has always taken pride in an action-man image. A love of skiing, sailing, karate, fast cars, motorbikes and helicopters figure prominently on the royal CV. Getting old quietly does not.
“How many other reigning monarchs would publicly tell Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez to ’shut up,’ as Juan Carlos did during last November’s Ibero-American summit in Chile?
” ‘There’s a deep-rooted feeling of gratitude for the king’s role in the transition to democracy,’ explains Charles Powell, a historian and royal biographer. ‘Polls show that he is the individual to whom democratisation is most closely attributed, and the sense of gratitude cuts across class and ideological lines’.”
On 22 November 1975, two days after the death of Francisco Franco, Juan Carlos was designated King according to the law of succession promulgated by Franco. He successfully oversaw the transition of Spain to a democratic constitutional monarchy. Polls from 2000 show that he is widely approved of by Spaniards.
Juan Carlos’s titles include that of King of Jerusalem (disputed among others), as successor to the royal family of Naples. He is also a descendant of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom through his grandmother, Victoria Eugenie; of Louis XIV of France through the House of Bourbon; of the Emperor Charles V, who belonged to the Habsburg dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire; of the House of Savoy of Italy; etc. More here…
So what is better — Tradition and Experience….Or Just CHANGE…???
