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The
Count of Barcelona
The Life of Don Juan, Infante of Spain (1913-1993)
By Art Beéche
Revered by Spanish monarchists, opposed by his country's right-wing
rulers, Don Juan, Count of Barcelona, was the symbol of Spain's
millenarian monarchy. Even though he never ruled as king,
on his death Don Juan was given a king's funeral. Attended by a large
gathering of European royalty, the Count of Barcelona's obsequies were
the culmination of a life dedicated to upholding
his family's historical legacy. Such was his quiet role in the
restoration of the Spanish monarchy, that even though he never
ascended to the throne, Don Juan was buried in the King's Pantheon at
the Escorial Monastery in the outskirts of Madrid.
Born in 1913 at the Palace of San Ildefonso, the Infante Juan of
Spain brought untold joy to his parents. Even though the newborn son
had two older brothers, both were affected by physical handicaps. The
heir to the throne, Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, suffered from an acute
case of hemophilia. His other brother, the Infante Jaime, was hearing
impaired. To the delight of King Alfonso XIII and Queen
Victoria-Eugenie, Juan was born healthy, strong and without
hemophilia. A fourth son would arrive in 1914, but again the royal
family was struck by disaster when it was discovered that the newborn,
the Infante Gonzalo, was also a sufferer of hemophilia. The appearance
of hemophilia among some of Alfonso XII's children had dire
consequences in his relationship with Victoria-Eugenia. It also sent
the King into a tailspin of irresponsible behavior that led him to
abandon the affairs of daily government to questionable characters and
dictators. Although Alfonso and Victoria-Eugenia were deeply affected
by hemophilia, at least they did not suffer the fate of their Romanov
cousins.
Breaking with tradition at the Spanish royal court, Don Juan chose
to be a sailor in his father's navy. In 1930 he joined the Naval
School at San Fernando. Six months later, the young cadet was forced to
drop out when King Alfonso XIII was ousted from the throne and the
royal family summarily sent into exile. In April of 1931, Don Juan
boarded a Spanish cruiser and sailed . He was not yet eighteen years
old.
The political situation within Spain had worsened considerably
since the beginning of Alfonso XIII's personal reign in 1902. Between
that year and 1923, the young monarch witnessed the inauguration of
nineteen different ministries. In the meantime, Alfonso failed to
obtain the support of the country's blooming intellectual movement, a
group of young talents who the monarch constantly ridiculed. Supporters
of the monarchy watched in frustration as the political climate
deteriorated and the country risked loosing its few remaining colonies
in North Africa. The political parties of the left also abandoned the
king for they believed he was the instrument of the old landed
aristocracy and, as such, completely ignorant of the needs of his
people. Nonetheless, Alfonso XIII's biggest mistake was to legalize
the coup d'etat of 1923. The king thought that allowing the armed
forces a role in politics would stabilize the country, yet this attempt
at strong-man government failed dismally. Once the dictatorship was
toppled, the monarchy was blamed for the political fiasco and Alfonso
XIII found personally responsible. Within months, the Spanish
electorate voted the king out of his throne.
Soon after the fall of the Spanish monarchy, Alfonso XIII sent Don
Juan to continue his naval training at the Naval School at Dartmouth,
Great Britain. Don Juan served as an officer in the Royal Navy for some
time. In 1932 he boarded HMS Enterprise and sailed to the Far East. At
he beginning of 1933 Don Juan met his father, Alfonso XIII, in India.
The two spent an enjoyable vacation as guests of the British Raj and
several Indian potentates. Soon after this furlough from his naval
services, Don Juan was summoned by his father.
It was the early Summer of 1933. Having fallen in love with a Cuban
commoner, Prince Alfonso of Asturias, Don Juan's eldest brother,
renounced his dynastic rights. Less than two weeks later, Don Jaime,
Alfonso XIII's second son, follows suit and relinquishes his dynastic
rights as well. These solemn acts made Don Juan his father's dynastic
heir. To prepare the new Prince of Asturias for his future role,
Alfonso XIII sent Don Juan to study at the University of Florence.
This period also saw the beginning of the long political education of
Don Juan as the heir of the Spanish crown.
In early 1935, the Spanish royal family congregated in Rome to
attend the wedding of Infanta Beatriz and Prince Alessandro Torlonia.
It was while living in Italy that Don Juan encountered a cousin he had
often seen in Spain, Princess Maria de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two
Sicilies. At the same time, many expected Don Juan to marry the
youngest daughter of the Italian monarch, Princess Maria of Savoy.
However, Don Juan's heart had already been stolen by his cousin Maria
de las Mercedes and the Savoy alliance was never given much thought.
The couple's wedding took place in Rome on October 12, 1935. Thousands
of Spaniards traveled to the Italian capital to witness the marriage of
the man they saw as their future and rightful king.
HRH Don Juan, Count of Barcelona (1913-1993)
After a honeymoon that took them around the world, Don Juan and
Doña Maria de las Mercedes settled in a small apartment in Rome.
Their first child, the Infanta Pilar, was born on July 30, 1936. While
Doña Maria was in labor, Don Juan prepared himself to travel to
Spain and join the anti-Communist forces fighting in the Spanish civil
war. Within days of his daughter's birth, Don Juan is already inside
Spain trying to demonstrate his valor and deep love for Spain. The
young Infante's military escapade was quickly ended when his identity
was discovered. The military men who would rule Spain for the next four
decades did not want the last king's son and heir becoming a hero of
the civil war. Don Juan continued petitioning the military authorities,
General Francisco Franco in particular, to allow him service in the
country's armed forces. Franco was in the process of displacing his
comrades as the country's undisputed military leader and was not about
to allow the Bourbon heir any chance to increase his popularity.
Consequently, Don Juan was forced to remain in Rome.
The couple's first son and heir was born on January 5, 1938. His
name is Juan Carlos and his future was going to be the restoration of
the monarchy in Spain. That same year witnessed the death of Don Juan's
oldest brother, Don Alfonso, as a result f a car crash. The couple's
third child, the Infanta Margarita, was born in 1939. The happiness
caused by the newborn baby was suddenly turned into worry when it was
discovered that Margarita was born with a severe optical handicap. It
is due to Don Juan and Doña Maria de las Mercedes' great
dedication that Margarita, notwithstanding her handicap, was raised as
just another child. A second son, Infante Alfonso, was born in 1941.
The year 1939 also witnessed two tremendous political events. In
Spain, Franco defeated the republican forces and established his
personal dictatorship. In Europe, Hitler invaded Poland and started the
Second World War. In Rome, the Spanish royals desperately tried to
become a political player in the events unfolding around them. Don Juan
approached General Franco and offered his services, only to be politely
turned away. That same year also witnessed the deterioration of Alfonso
XIII's health. The King of Spain had always suffered from a precarious
respiratory system. This ailment was compounded by his fast existence
as monarch and the worries caused on him by his family's plight and the
future of Spain. On January 15, 1941, King Alfonso XIII abdicated his
dynastic rights on Don Juan. Six weeks later the King was dead.
After the death of his father, Don Juan dedicated most of his
energies to the restoration of the Spanish monarchy. Although Don Juan
had become King of Spain upon his father's abdication, h chose to be
known as the Count of Barcelona, which in itself was a sovereign title
held by the Spanish crown. He continued contacting Franco and trying to
negotiate the Bourbons' return to their throne. General Franco.
although himself a monarchist, was untrusting of Don Juan, whom he
believed to be too liberal for the good of Spain. Liberal or not
though, Don Juan was certainly the most "English-like" of Queen
Victoria-Eugenie's sons. He enjoyed the simplicity of his mother's
character and English political traditions. Don Juan continuously
demonstrated his opposition to the fascist regimes overtaking Central
Europe and disrupting the nascent democracies of the Balkan Peninsula.
Although supportive of Franco's movement, Don Juan did not want to
become the head of a right-wing government. Doing so, he felt, would be
following his father's missteps during the 1920's. Don Juan wanted to
be the monarch of all the Spaniards, not just of those who had the
lineage required to attend the royal court, but also of those who had
the guns to keep republicanism at bay.
During the Spanish civil war, Franco and his army received vast
amounts of war materiel from the Nazis and Fascist Italy. Although not
as virulently right-wing as these two regimes were, Franco's government
was filled with followers of European fascism. For these men, any signs
of liberalism were sufficient reason to disqualify anyone from
ascending the Spanish throne. As the one person who held dynastic
legitimacy, the very liberal Don Juan was the target of their vitriol.
Some of Don Juan's advisors, convinced that the Allies would defeat
Germany and Italy, asked Don Juan to abandon Rome and move closer to
his mother in Switzerland. Believing that this would improve his
standing with London and Washington, Don Juan duly settled in Lausanne,
from where he continued his political maneuvering to negotiate with
Franco while organizing his downfall. Don Juan was convinced that
because of Franco's close ties to Hitler and Mussolini, the Allies
would overthrow the Spanish dictator after victory over fascism was
achieved. It seems that even President Roosevelt assured Don Juan that
this was going to be the policy adopted by the United States.
Unfortunately for the monarchist cause, two events precluded
Franco's continuation in power after 1945. The first event was the
untimely death of President Roosevelt just months before the war
ended. The second was the Soviet Union's expansion across Central and
Eastern Europe. Not many people expected that the Allies would allow
Stalin's forces to overthrow the monarchy in Romania and Bulgaria; that
Communist partisans would exile King Peter II of Yugoslavia; and that
George II of Greece would be faced with a civil war ignited by Greek
Communists. Faced with this unprecedented political coup by Soviet
Communism, the Allies were not willing to overthrow Franco and
jeopardize Spain. General Franco, aware of the changing political
situation, not only made overtures to the Allies but also allowed the
United States to open military installations in Spain.
By this time, Don Juan had moved from Switzerland to Portugal where
he felt closer to Spain. Franco's survival surprised Don Juan and his
followers, most of whom were predicting the dictator's demise. Final
word of Franco's renewed international standing was communicated to Don
Juan by his cousin Louis, Earl Mountbatten of Burma. Mountbatten
clearly explained that Don Juan's cause had lost considerable support
when Roosevelt died and after Communism effectively overthrew so many
of his royal cousins. Mountbatten also recommended that Don Juan
continue his negotiations with Franco.
Once again, Don Juan was forced to approach Franco and arrange for
the return of Spain to the monarchical system. Don Juan and Franco met
for the first time in August, 1948. The meeting, which lasted for three
hours, took place off the Spanish coast on Franco's impressive yacht.
At the meeting it was agreed that Don Juan's eldest son, Juan Carlos,
was to be educated Spain. Franco wanted to make sure that the
monarchy's future heir would receive a thoroughly Spanish education.
This would not make Don Juan Carlos a stranger to Spain when the time
came to restore the monarchy. Franco also stressed his deep respect
for Alfonso XIII and the Spanish monarchy, but failed to agree on a
date for the restoration of the Bourbons.
For the next six years Franco and Don Juan continued negotiating
the most adequate road for the return of the monarchy. A second meeting
was held in 1954 at the country estate of the Count of
Ruiseñada, one of Don Juan's supporters. This was the first time
in eighteen years that Don Juan had touched Spanish ground. For him,
this second meeting with Franco was a very emotional affair. Much
ground had been advanced towards the monarchy's restoration; Don Juan
Carlos was successfully completing his secondary education surrounded
by a group of his future subjects. Don Juan and Franco agreed that Don
Juan Carlos would continue his education in Spain and fulfill military
service in all the branches of the armed forces. Franco also allowed
the monarchists to begin the distribution of monarchist propaganda
within Spain, as long as it did not attempt against the dictatorship.
In the meantime, Don Juan and Doña Maria de las Mercedes
developed into a strong and loyal couple. While he spent a
considerable amount of time preparing the road towards the monarchy's
restoration, Doña Maria de las Mercedes proved to be an ideal
companion to her exiled husband. She also spent a large amount of time
dedicated to the upbringing of the three children who remained at home.
It was during 1956 that the Spanish royal family was visited again by
tragedy. Don Juan Carlos and Don Alfonso, who had been studying in
Spain as well, traveled home to Portugal during Easter vacation. On
March 29, 1956, after attending Holy Mass, Don Alfonso died as a result
of an accidental gunshot wound. Don Juan received this new trial in
regal silence; Doña Maria de las Mercedes was devastated. It
would take many years for her to recover from the loss of her youngest
son.
By the early 1960's it was becoming increasingly apparent to Don
Juan that Franco was not willing to give up power. In fact, in private
General Franco prepared his own succession. His choice was not Alfonso
XIII's son, but the king's grandson, Don Juan Carlos. Schooled by some
of Franco's henchmen and surrounded by scions of Franco's
collaborators, Don Juan Carlos was expected to become the inheritor of
the fascist tradition and not of the Bourbon royal legacy. Many of Don
Juan Carlos' enemies were convinced that the young prince had become a
puppet under the control of Franco. Exiled in Portugal, Don Juan
witnessed with increasing worries his son's apparent molding into
Franco's creature. But how mistaken most were became evident later on.
The year 1962 saw the marriage of Don Juan Carlos to Princess
Sophia of Greece, daughter of King Paul I and Queen Frederica. Juan
Carlos and Sophia were descendants of two of Queen Victoria's
children. Don Juan Carlos was the great-grandson of Princess Beatrice,
Queen Victoria's youngest daughter who had married Prince Henry of
Battenberg. King Paul was the grandson of Princess Victoria of Great
Britain, the Princess Royal, eldest daughter of Queen Victoria who had
married Emperor Friedrich III of Germany. Queen Frederica, a
granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II, was a great-granddaughter of
Emperor Friedrich III and Princess Victoria.
Between 1963 and 1968, Don Juan Carlos and Princess Sophia had
three children: Elena, Cristina and Felipe. It was the christening of
Don Felipe in 1968 that provided the momentous occasion for the return
of Queen Victoria-Eugenie to Spain. The wife of Alfonso XIII had been
absent from Spain for thirty seven years. The streets of Madrid were
lined with well-wishers who proudly toasted the Spanish royal family.
If anything, the christening of the young Don Felipe provided a needed
boost to the fortunes of the monarchist movement in Spain. Within a
year of the event, Franco assured the official return of the Bourbons
by declaring Don Juan Carlos his political heir. It has been said that
Franco waited until Queen Victoria-Eugenie's death to declare an heir,
and since she died on April 15, 1969, Franco was freed to announce his
choice. On July 22, 1969, Franco presented Don Juan Carlos to the
Spanish Cortes as his official successor. Don Juan would never ascend
the throne that he had tried to restore for almost three decades.
Franco bypassed Don Juan as his heir because the Franco movement
saw Alfonso XIII's son as a liberal. Franco and his close advisors
believed that Don Juan Carlos was a better candidate to continue the
legacy of the dictatorship. Even still, some other members of Franco's
inner circle believed that Don Juan Carlos was not the best choice
available to the dictator. The monarchist party was unpleasantly
surprised in 1972 when Franco's granddaughter married one of King
Alfonso XIII's grandchildren, Don Alfonso de Borbón y
Dampierre. The groom was the eldest child of the Infante Don Jaime and
his first wife, Emanuela Dampierre. But since Don Jaime had renounced
his dynastic rights in 1933, years before the birth of his children,
Don Alfonso was born without a place in the line of succession to the
throne. Added to this fact were the restrictions the law of succession
placed on spouses a Spanish prince or princess could marry. The old
Bourbon law demanded that members of the Spanish royal family marry
members of reigning or formerly sovereign royal houses. This alone
excluded don Jaime's children from any dynastic pretensions.
Nonetheless, having been raised on the fringes of the royal family Don
Alfonso de Borbón y Dampierre saw marriage into Franco's family
as a means to improve his future standing in Spain.
Naturally, both Don Juan and Don Juan Carlos were very concerned
about Don Alfonso's motives. After all, the Infante Don Jaime had
tried to recant his renunciation of 1933 on several opportunities.
Real concern to the succession was increased when Franco loyalists
began paying particular attention to Don Alfonso and his new wife.
Finding himself in the limelight, Don Alfonso did not hide his desire
to become one of the possible candidates for king once the monarchy was
restored. And if his candidacy did not succeed, he at least wanted to
become a fully titled member of the Spanish royal family, not a
morganatic son of a father who had willingly relinquished his dynastic
rights. Indeed, Don Alfonso became a thorn on the side of both his
uncle and cousin.
The last years of the Franco regime where clouded by increasing
terrorism throughout Spain and renewed uncertainty about the
succession. By 1975 Franco was a ghost of his past self, death loomed
over his palace. The international community, as did the Spanish royal
family, carefully prepared for what could be the plunging of Spain into
yet another period of political instability. After several
excruciatingly painful days, General Francisco Franco died on November
20, 1975. Almost four decades of military dictatorship ended with his
death. For several hectic days Spain was adrift as many groups tried to
imprint the dictator's succession with their own choice. Despite these
efforts, Don Juan Carlos swore allegiance in front of the Cortes on
November 22, 1975. Spain was again a monarchy, the Bourbons had
returned after a forty-four year hiatus.
Don Juan and his court in exile felt affronted by the accession of
Juan Carlos I. Don Juan had always considered that he was going to be
Franco's successor. For some months there was distance between father
and son. But as time passed by, Don Juan and King Juan Carlos settled
their differences. The Bourbon restoration gained strength and support
under Juan Carlos and slowly all the vestiges of Franco's state were
abolished as Spain became a constitutional monarchy. Peace within the
family arrived on May 14, 1977, when Don Juan abdicated his dynastic
rights on the person of his son, the King of Spain.
After this solemn ceremony at the Royal Palace in Madrid, Don Juan
and Doña Maria de las Mercedes returned to Spain. One month
after Don Juan's abdication the first general election of the
post-Franco era was held. Democracy received a sounding victory and
Franco's old cronies finally realized that Juan Carlos I was just as
liberal and democratic as his father had been. Today, King Juan Carlos
I of Spain serves as the most relevant source of inspiration for many
of his exiled royal cousins. He played a leading role in the
transformation of Spain from dictatorship to democracy. He is
responsible for lifting the fortunes of his house to levels not
witnessed in centuries.
Once settled in Madrid, Don Juan enjoyed the popularity he
rightfully deserved. He remained away from political squabbles and
relished the remaining years of his life. Surrounded by a large family,
Don Juan and Doña Maria de las Mercedes thrived in the role of
grandparents. The Infanta Doña Pilar married Luis Gomez-Acebo,
Viscount de la Torre, in 1967. The couple received the courtesy title
of Duke of Badajoz from Don Juan, and had five children. The Duke of
Badajoz succumbed to cancer in 1991. The Infanta Doña Margarita
married Doctor Carlos Zurita in 1972. Don Juan gave his daughter the
courtesy title of duchess of Soria. The Dukes of Soria have two
children.
Don Juan proudly witnessed how his son transformed Spain
and restored the luster of the Bourbon monarchy. He also continued to
sail his yacht along the coast of the land he had always lived to
serve. Unfortunately, Don Juan, an avid smoker, fell victim to a
terrible cancer in 1993. The Count of Barcelona bravely fought to
endure this new obstacle. Nonetheless, this was a battle he would not
survive. Don Juan died on April 1, 1993. Spain was plunged into deep
mourning by the passing of this legendary figure. The royal family
prepared itself to give a final farewell to this courageous man. And
although he never ruled as monarch, Don Juan was interred in the
Pantheon at the Escorial Monastery reserved for the Kings of Spain.
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