In April 1986, Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia made a state visit to the UK, where Juan Carlos became the first foreign monarch ever to address the British Parliament, a moment Elizabeth described later as a tribute to his role in Spain’s transition to democracy.
The royal couple were the first Spanish royals to stay at Windsor Castle in 80 years.
King Alfonso XIII had been a guest in 1905, and he fell in love with Victoria Eugenie Battenberg, the niece of Edward VII and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, whom he would go on to marry and make Queen of Spain.
Victoria Eugenie was Juan Carlos’s grandmother and an important influence on the whole Spanish royal family with her stoic teachings until her death in 1969.
In October 1988, during the Queen’s state visit to Spain – the first by a reigning British monarch – she addressed the Spanish Parliament, telling it: “Spain has been a formidable adversary and a true and brave ally.”
At a state banquet that evening, Juan Carlos stood alongside her, symbolising the thawing of centuries-old Anglo-Spanish tensions over issues such as Gibraltar.
At Elizabeth’s funeral in 2022, his awkward presence, alongside his wife Queen Sofía, with whom he had not been seen in public for two years, underscored how far the former Spanish king had fallen from grace.
