Juan Carlos I

Juan Carlos is the son of Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, and grandson of Alfonso XIII, the last king of Spain before the abolition of the monarchy in 1931 and the subsequent declaration of the Second Spanish Republic.

Juan Carlos was born in Rome, Italy, during his family's exile.

Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María was born to Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, and Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies in their family home in Rome, where his grandfather King Alfonso XIII and other members of the Spanish royal family lived in exile following the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic in 1931.

He was baptized as Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII.

Juan Carlos's early life was dictated largely by the political concerns of his father and General Francisco Franco.

Juan Carlos has two sisters: Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz (1936–2020); and Infanta Margarita, Duchess of Soria (born 1939).

Juan Carlos I (Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, born 5 January 1938) is a member of the Spanish royal family who reigned as King of Spain from 22 November 1975 until his abdication on 19 June 2014.

In Spain, since his abdication, Juan Carlos has usually been referred to as the rey emérito ('king emeritus') by the press.

Francisco Franco took over the government of Spain after his victory in the Spanish Civil War in 1939, yet in 1947 Spain's status as a monarchy was affirmed and a law was passed allowing Franco to choose his successor.

Juan Carlos's father assumed his claims to the throne after King Alfonso XIII died in February 1941.

He also had a younger brother, Alfonso (1941–1956).

The rendering of his name as "Juan Carlos" (the first and second particles of his baptismal name) was a modification by choice of Franco.

He was always known in his familiar circle simply as "Juan" or "Juanito".

Juan Carlos spent his early years in Italy and came to Spain in 1947 to continue his studies.

He moved to Spain in 1948 to be educated there after his father persuaded Franco to allow it.

He began his studies in San Sebastián and finished them in 1954 at the Instituto San Isidro in Madrid.

After completing his secondary education in 1955, he began his military training and entered the General Military Academy at Zaragoza.

Later, he attended the Naval Military School and the General Academy of the Air, and finished his tertiary education at the University of Madrid.

He then joined the army, doing his officer training from 1955 to 1957 at the Military Academy of Zaragoza.

According to his sister Pilar, he had difficulty in his studies because of dyslexia.

On the evening of Holy Thursday, 29 March 1956, Infante Alfonso died in a gun accident at the family's home Villa Giralda in Estoril, on the Portuguese Riviera.

The Spanish Embassy in Portugal then issued the following official communiqué:

"Whilst His Highness Prince Alfonso was cleaning a revolver last evening with his brother, a shot was fired hitting his forehead and killing him in a few minutes. The accident took place at 20.30 hours, after the Infante's return from the Maundy Thursday religious service, during which he had received holy communion."

Alfonso had won a local junior golf tournament earlier in the day, then went to evening Mass and rushed up to the room to see Juan Carlos who had come home for the Easter holidays from military school.

Both Juan Carlos, age 18, and Alfonso, age 14, had been apparently playing with a .22 caliber Long Automatic Star revolver owned by Alfonso.

As they were alone in the room, it is unclear how Alfonso was shot, but according to Josefina Carolo, dressmaker to Juan Carlos's mother, Juan Carlos pointed the pistol at Alfonso and pulled the trigger, unaware that it was loaded.

Bernardo Arnoso, a Portuguese friend of Juan Carlos, also said that Juan Carlos had told him he had fired the pistol not knowing that it was loaded, and adding that the bullet ricocheted off a wall, hitting Alfonso in the face.

In 1962, Juan Carlos married Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark in Athens.

The couple have three children: Elena, Cristina, and Felipe.

However, Franco saw Juan Carlos's father to be too liberal and in 1969 declared Juan Carlos his successor as head of state.

Due to Franco's declining health, Juan Carlos first began periodically acting as Spain's head of state in the summer of 1974.

In November the following year, Franco died and Juan Carlos became king.

Juan Carlos was expected to continue Franco's legacy, but instead introduced reforms to dismantle the Francoist regime and to begin the Spanish transition to democracy soon after his accession.

This led to the approval of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 in a referendum which re-established a constitutional monarchy.

In 1981, Juan Carlos played a major role in preventing a coup that attempted to revert to Francoist government in the king's name.

In 2008, he was considered the most popular leader across all Ibero-America.

Hailed for his role in Spain's transition to democracy, the King and the monarchy's reputation began to suffer after controversies surrounding his family arose, exacerbated by the public controversy centering on an elephant-hunting trip he undertook during a time of financial crisis in Spain.

In June 2014, Juan Carlos, citing personal reasons, abdicated in favour of his son, who acceded to the throne as Felipe VI.

The New York Times estimated in 2014 that Juan Carlos's fortune was around 1.8 billion euros (2.3 billion U.S. dollars).

Since August 2020, Juan Carlos has lived in self-imposed exile from Spain over allegedly improper ties to business deals in Saudi Arabia.