The Spanish Royal Family always referred fondly to the now-deceased monarch, but Gibraltar’s shadow weighed on their relationship
In 1905 Alfonso XIII undertook a European tour that, among other things, had to find a wife. In London, he had a target: Patricia of Connaught, one of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters. But she turned it down. However, Felipe VI’s great-grandfather did not come out of a vacuum. He caught the attention of Victoria Eugenia, whom he married the following year. Hence the fraternal ties between the two royal families, which is why Don Juan Carlos has always called Queen Isabel ‘cousin’ Lilibeth and that Don Felipe has ascribed to her the kinship of ‘aunt’.
Victoria Eugenia brought the tradition of wedding cakes from England, amassed a beautiful collection of jewels—the jewels Queen Letizia wears today on grand occasions—and introduced hemophilia to the Spanish monarchy. So her husband distanced himself and almost cast her out.
But “the only problem that remains between us” – as Queen Elizabeth described it in a British monarch’s only state visit to our country in 1988 – was and is Gibraltar. Those six square kilometers in such a strategic spot have been the subject of disputes between Spain and the United Kingdom, between Don Juan Carlos and Isabel II, for decades. To the point that the King and Queen of Spain refused to attend the Prince of Wales’s wedding to Diana Spencer in July 1981 when they learned that the royal couple would be starting their honeymoon from Gibraltar.
That was the most infamous clash, but not the only one for the sovereignty of Peñón. In 2012, Queen Sofia canceled her attendance at the celebration almost at the last minute to mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s arrival to the throne due to tensions between the two countries. The reason? The visit of Prince Edward, the youngest son of Queen Elizabeth, and his wife to the rock as part of the tour of the colonies by various members of the British royal family.
But the love between the two families also showed on many other occasions. In April 1986, Don Juan Carlos and Doña Sofía made an official trip to the United Kingdom, beginning five years of excellent relations. That summer and the next, in fact, Carlos and Diana chose Marivent to spend a few days with their sons Guillermo and Enrique. And in 1988, Spain hosted Queen Elizabeth on a journey that will remain in the annals of history. Accompanied by Felipe de Edinburgh, Greek by birth and second uncle to Queen Sofia, the most photographed woman in history – the chronicles of the time have already been told – visited Madrid, Seville and Barcelona.
In the Congress of Deputies, Queen Elizabeth delivered a speech in which she referred to Spain’s transition to democracy as “one of the most brilliant pages in the long and proud history of your nation”, which was met with applause for several minutes. Two years earlier, Don Juan Carlos had become the first monarch to speak in the British Parliament.
The example of the emeritus – whom Elizabeth II did not speak of when she announced her abdication, who advocated that a king ceases to be king until the day of his death – was followed by Felipe VI on the state tour the king and Queen in July 2017, sealing the good harmony of two royal families in mourning today.
Source: La Verdad
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