Spain

Protests and praise divide Spain as the return of King Juan Carlos dominates headlines

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23rd May 2022
King Juan Carlos has been spending time in Spain after several years of self imposed exile. He has been warmly greeted in the Galician town he’s been staying in, Sanxenxo, where large crowds have gathered to cheer him. However, there has also been a vocal reaction from those opposed to his visit which follows a string of controversies, many of them around a series of allegations of financial…
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Spain

Portuguese newspapers report a possible return to Europe for King Juan Carlos

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30th November 2021
King Juan Carlos could be on his way back to Europe according to newspapers in Portugal. The man who ruled Spain for almost forty years has been in self imposed exile in Abu Dhabi for over a year. For much of that time, reports have circulated of the former monarch’s desire to return to Spain. There have been reports of loneliness and of missing family and friends. He has been visited…
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HistoryHistoryPalaces & Buildings

Joseph Bonaparte - The King who moved to New Jersey

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4th February 2021
Joseph Bonaparte is best known for two things, firstly he was the brother of one of Europe’s most famous Emperors, Napoleon I, and secondly, he was himself King of two European nations, Spain and Naples. What is not so well known is what happened to this monarch after the end of Napoleon’s reign. That he ended up moving to the United States is a story that is not well known. After…
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FeaturesHistorySpain

Murdered royals: Queen Blanche of Navarre

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6th July 2020
Queen Blanche II was born on 9 June 1424 as the daughter of John II of Aragon, King of Navarre, and his wife, Queen Blanche I of Navarre. Blanche grew up in the Palace of the Kings of Navarre of Olite with her family. Blanche was a member of the House of Trastámara which…
CoronavirusHistoryHistory

The King whose illness led to the naming of a pandemic

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12th March 2020
While the coronavirus continues to spread, we can rewind a little over a hundred years in time. In 1918 and 1919, another virus as ravaged countries across the globe. It caused widespread devastation but, despite its origins, it became known as Spanish flu because of a much maligned king. The Spanish flu came not from Spain, but from France at the very end of the First World War. The…
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