biography
pronunciation:
[hwan kah(r)los]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1938– )
|
| biography:
| King of Spain (1975– ), born in Rome, Italy, the son of Don Juan de Borbón y Battenberg, Count of Barcelona (1908–93), and the grandson of Spain's last ruling monarch, Alfonso XIII. He studied in Switzerland and from 1948 in Spain (by agreement between his father and General Franco). He earned commissions in the army, navy, and air force (1955–9), and studied at the University of Madrid (1959–61). In 1962 he married Princess Sophia of Greece (1938– ), and they have three children. In 1969 Franco named him as his eventual successor, and he was proclaimed king on Franco's death in 1975. Instead of upholding the Franco dictatorship (as had been intended), he decisively presided over Spain's democratization, helping to defeat a military coup (1981) and assuming the role of a constitutional monarch. |
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