JUAN CARLOS

in full Juan Carlos Alfonso Victor Mara De Borbn Y Borbn born Jan. 5, 1938, Rome, Italy king of Spain from Nov. 22, 1975. He acceded to the Spanish throne two days after the death of Francisco Franco. Juan Carlos was the grandson of the last king, Alfonso XIII, who left Spain in 1931 and died in exile 10 years later, after renouncing his rights in favour of his third son, Juan Carlos Teresa Silverio Alfonso de Borbn y Battenberg, Count de Barcelona (191393), popularly known as Don Juan. (Alfonso's eldest son had been killed in an auto accident, and his second son had renounced his rights in 1933 for medical reasons.) Don Juan married Mara de las Mercedes de Borbn y Orleans, and their elder son was Juan Carlos. Juan Carlos spent his early years in Italy and first came to Spain in 1947 for his education. After his father suggested in 1945 that Franco should step down as leader of the country and generally began opposing Falangist policies, Franco grew resentful and turned with increasing interest to Juan Carlos and his education, especially his military education. In 1955 he entered the General Military Academy at Zaragoza and later attended the Naval Military School at Marn in Pontevedra, the General Academy of the Air at San Javier in Murcia, and the University of Madrid. A 1947 law had abolished the republic and established Spain as a representative monarchy, but the country remained, throughout Franco's lifetime, without a monarch. Finally, on July 22, 1969, Franco presented to the Cortes (parliament) a law designating Juan Carlos the future king of Spain. Two events facilitated the move: in December 1968 the Carlist pretender, Carlos Hugo de Borbn-Parma, had been expelled from the country; and on Jan. 7, 1969, Juan Carlos said for the first time that he would accept the throne if offered (previously he had maintained that his father's claim preceded his own). Although Juan Carlos in 1969 swore loyalty to Franco's National Movement, he demonstrated far more liberal and democratic principles after his accession to the throne in 1975, encouraging the revival of political parties and amnesty for political prisoners. In 1981 Juan Carlos took swift action to deflate a military coup that threatened to topple Spain's nascent democracy and return the government to Franconian reactionary lines; in doing so, he alienated the military sector but preserved the state of democracy that made possible the accession of a socialist government in late 1982. Also, a liberal divorce law was passed in 1981 and a law granting limited abortion rights in 1983. In 1981 Juan Carlos became the first Spanish king to visit the Americas and was the first crowned monarch to make an official visit to China; in so doing, he became the first Spanish head of state to visit a communist country. Spain entered NATO in 1982 and joined the European Community in 1986. Juan Carlos was married in Athens on May 14, 1962, to Princess Sophia of Greece, daughter of King Paul. They had two daughters, Elena and Christina, and a son, Felipe.