incumbent King of Spain

King of Spain
Felipe VI or Philip VI ( spanish : [ feˈlipe ] ; [ c ] Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia ; born 30 January 1968 ) is the King of Spain. He ascended the throne on 19 June 2014 upon the abdication of his church father, Juan Carlos I. [ 3 ] [ 4 ] [ 5 ] His beget is Queen Sofía, and he has two elder sisters, Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo, and Infanta Cristina. In 2004, Felipe married TV news diarist Letizia Ortiz with whom he has two daughters, Leonor ( his successor presumptive ) and Sofía.

In accordance with the spanish Constitution, as monarch, he is head of state and commander-in-chief of the spanish Armed Forces with military membership of Captain General, [ 6 ] [ 7 ] and besides plays the character of the supreme theatrical performance of Spain in international relations. [ 6 ] [ 7 ]

early life and class [edit ]

He was born at Our lady of Loreto Hospital at Madrid, the third child and lone son of Infante Juan Carlos and Princess Sofía of Greece and Denmark. [ 8 ] He was baptised on 8 February 1968 at the Palace of Zarzuela by the Archbishop of Madrid, Casimiro Morcillo, with water from the Jordan River. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] His full baptismal name, Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos, consists of the names of the inaugural Bourbon king of Spain ( Felipe V ), his grandfathers ( Infante Juan of Spain and King Paul of Greece ), his great-grandfather King Alfonso XIII of Spain, and de Todos los Santos ( “ of all the Saints ” ) as is customary among the Bourbons. [ 12 ] His godparents were his paternal grandfather Juan and his paternal great-grandmother, Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] [ 13 ] additionally, he is the third cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II, King Harald V, Queen Margrethe II, and King Carl XVI Gustav of the United Kingdom, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden respectively .

early life [edit ]

concisely after his birth he was styled infante. The dictator Francisco Franco died just more than two months before Felipe ‘s one-eighth birthday, and Felipe ‘s father ascended the throne, as the latter had been appointed as Prince ( heir presumptive of Franco ) back in 1969. In his first official appearance, Felipe attended his father ‘s announcement as king on 22 November 1975 .
In 1977, Felipe was formally predicate Prince of Asturias. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] [ 15 ] In May, nine-year-old Felipe was made an honorary soldier of the 1st King ‘s Immemorial Infantry Regiment. [ 16 ] The affair was marked on 28 May and was attended by the king, the prime minister and respective other ministers in a ceremony at the infantry ‘s barracks. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] On 1 November the same year, he was ceremoniously paid court as Prince of Asturias in Covadonga. [ 19 ] In 1981 Felipe received the Collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece from his don, the Chief and Sovereign of the Order. [ 12 ] [ 20 ] On his 18th birthday on 30 January 1986, Felipe swore allegiance to the Constitution and to the King in the spanish Parliament as required by the constitution, fully accepting his role as successor to the Crown. [ 21 ]

education and military discipline [edit ]

Felipe attended school at Santa María de los Rosales, which his daughters presently attend. Felipe attended high educate at Lakefield College School in Ontario, Canada, and studied at the Autonomous University of Madrid, where he graduated with a degree in Law ; he besides completed several courses in Economics. [ 12 ] He completed his academic studies by obtaining a master of Science in Foreign Service degree from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he was the roommate of his cousin, Crown Prince Pavlos of Greece. [ 22 ] As the heir to the throne, a cautiously regulated and structured design was laid out for Felipe ‘s military educate. In August 1985, a Royal Decree named Felipe as policeman at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza. [ 23 ] [ 24 ] He began his military coach there in September. [ 25 ] He completed the first phase of his formation in October. [ 26 ] In July 1986, he was promoted to Cadet 2nd Lieutenant. He was besides named as Midshipman. [ 27 ] In September 1986, he began his naval aim at the Escuela Naval Militar in Marin ( Pontevedra ), joining the Third Brigade. [ 28 ] In January 1987, he continued his naval train on display panel the discipline ship Juan Sebastián Elcano. [ 29 ]
King Felipe VI in 2015 with the Chief of Defense General Admiral Fernando García Sánchez, Chief of Staff of the Army Jaime Dominguez Buj and the Commander of the seventh Reconnissance Cavalry Group of the VII Light Infantry Brigade “ Galicia ”, as seen from left to right. In July, he was named as Student Ensign at the Academia General del Aire in Murcia. [ 30 ] In September 1987, he began his air storm train there [ 31 ] where he learned to fly aircraft. [ 32 ] In 1989, he was promoted to lieutenant in the Army, ensign in the Navy, and lieutenant in the Air Force. In 1992, he was promoted to captain in the Air Force. [ 33 ] In 1993, he was promoted to lieutenant in the Navy and captain in the Infantry of the Army. [ 34 ] far promotions in 2000 were commandant in the Army, corvette captain in the Navy, and commanding officer in the Air Force. Promotions in 2009 were lieutenant colonel in the Army, frigate captain in the Navy, and lieutenant colonel in the Air Force. Since 19 June 2014, after his rise to the toilet, he acquired the rank of Capitán General ( Commander-in-chief ) of all the spanish armies ( Land, Navy and Air Force ) .

Activities in Spain and afield [edit ]

Felipe undertook his constitutional duties as successor to the throne, hosting many official events in Spain and participating in all events of unlike sectors and aspects of spanish public life. Since October 1995, Felipe has represented Spain on a series of official visits to the spanish Autonomous Communities, starting with Valencia. Felipe has held regular meetings with constitutional bodies and state institutions keeping up-to-date with their activities. [ 12 ] He besides attends meetings of the respective bodies of the Central Administration and of the autonomous Communities as required by his national and external constitutional obligations. In particular, he has held meetings with people of his generation who have built successful careers in political, economic, cultural and media circles. As depart of his military prepare, Felipe trained as a military helicopter navigate. [ 12 ] On occasions when King Juan Carlos I was unable to attend, Felipe presided over the annual presentation of dispatches to officers and non-commissioned officers in the Armed Forces adenine well as participating in military exercises held by the three Armed Services. [ 12 ]
King Felipe VI chairs the open seance of the 14th Cortes Generales in 2020 Since January 1996, Felipe has represented the spanish State at many romance american english presidents ‘ inauguration ceremonies. [ 12 ] As Prince, he visited every nation in Latin America except Cuba, which he visited as Felipe VI in 11–14 November 2019. He made over 200 extraneous trips in entire. [ 35 ] Felipe has besides played an active role in promoting Spain ‘s economic, commercial and cultural interests and the spanish language overseas. He frequently represents Spain at populace economic and trade events ( e.g. Expotecnia, Expoconsumo, and Expohabitat ), and is particularly interested in promoting the creation of Centres and University Chairs to advance the study of Spain both historically and in the contemporary at major alien universities. Following the March 2004 Madrid bombings, Felipe, along with his sisters Elena and Cristina, took part in a public demonstration. Felipe speaks spanish, Catalan, French, English and some Greek. [ 36 ]

social activities [edit ]

In addition to his official activities, Felipe serves as Honorary President of several associations and foundations, such as the Codespa Foundation, which finances economic and sociable development in Ibero-America and other countries, [ 12 ] and the spanish arm of the Association of european Journalists, comprising outstanding communications professionals. Most noteworthy is the Príncipe de Asturias Foundation, where he presides per annum at the international awards ceremony of the highly prestigious Princess of Asturias Awards ( once the prince of Asturias Awards ). [ 37 ] [ 38 ] Felipe was appointed a “ UN-Eminent Person ” by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in 2001, during its International Year of Volunteers, [ 39 ] and continues to make contributions internationally towards enhancing the importance of volunteer solve. Felipe is a member of the Sons of the american Revolution due to his patriot ancestor Charles III of Spain. [ 40 ] In 2019 he received the World Peace & Liberty Award from the World Jurist Association at the World Law Congress in Madrid. [ 41 ]

Sports and engagement in the Olympics [edit ]

Felipe was a member of the spanish Olympic glide team at the Barcelona Games in 1992. Felipe took separate in the open ceremony as the Spanish team ‘s sag carrier. The spanish crew finished in sixth seat in the Soling class and obtained an Olympic diploma. [ 42 ] He is an honest extremity of the International Soling Association. Both his mother and uncle, King Konstantínos II of the Hellenes, were on the greek sailing team at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome ( his mother as a alternate ), and Felipe ‘s father and sister were besides Olympic sailors for Spain. [ 43 ] Felipe has been a supporter of Atlético Madrid since watching them win the 1976 Copa del Generalísimo Final. [ 44 ] He is besides the club ‘s honorary president since 2003. [ 45 ] Felipe besides attended the spanish national rugby coupling team ‘s final examination family rugby coupling equal in the 2018 Rugby Europe Championship. [ 46 ]

reign [edit ]

On 2 June 2014, King Juan Carlos announced his captive to abdicate in Felipe ‘s favor. As required by the Constitution of Spain, [ 47 ] the spanish Cabinet began deliberations the watch day on an organic law to give effect to the abdication. The police had to be passed by a majority of all members of the Congress of Deputies, the lower sign of the zodiac of the Cortes Generales ( Parliament ). According to Jesús Posada, the President of the Congress of Deputies, Felipe could have been proclaimed king arsenic early as 18 June. [ 48 ] On 4 June, El País of Madrid reported that Felipe would indeed be proclaimed king on 18 June. [ 5 ] Felipe ascended the enthrone at the stroke of midnight on 19 June ; his forefather had given his sanction to the organic police effecting his abdication barely hours earlier. [ 3 ] The adjacent dawn, after receiving the Captain General ‘s girdle from his founder, he was formally sworn in and proclaimed king in a low-key ceremony held in the Cortes. He swore to uphold the Constitution before formally being proclaimed king by Posada. [ 49 ] Upon his accession, he became the youngest sovereign in Europe, being nine months younger than King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

Felipe VI chairing his first gear Council of Ministers at direct request of the Prime Minister, an extraordinary responsibility to which the Monarch is entitled according to the article 62 of the spanish Constitution ( 18 July 2014 ). As baron, Felipe has fairly across-the-board reserve powers on paper. He is the defender of the Constitution and is responsible for ensuring it is obeyed and followed. It was expected that he would follow his beget ‘s exercise of taking a by and large ceremonial and representative function, acting largely on the advice of the politics. He indicated arsenic a lot in a address to the Cortes on the day of his coronation, saying that he would be “ a loyal head of state who is ready to listen and understand, warn and propose vitamin a well as to defend the populace interest at all times ”. [ 49 ] While he is nominally head executive, he is not politically responsible for exercising his powers. Per the constitution, his acts are not valid unless countersigned by a minister, who then assumes political duty for the act in interrogate. A poll conducted by El País, however, indicates that a majority of Spaniards wish Felipe would play a greater function in politics, with 75 % of the 600 people surveyed stating they would approve if he personally pushed the political parties to reach agreements on home problems. [ 50 ] According to an El Mundo newspaper poll, Felipe had a greater approval than his beget anterior to his reign. [ 51 ] In June 2014, Felipe and Letizia became the first spanish baron and queen to receive and recognize LGBT organisations at the Palace. [ 52 ] Felipe besides changed the protocol in order to allow people to take the curse of function without a crucifix or Bible. [ 53 ] In their first overseas trip as king and queen, Felipe VI and Letizia met Pope Francis in the Apostolic Palace on 30 June 2014. They subsequently met with Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Mgsr. Antoine Camilleri, under-secretary for Relations with States. The travel to followed one by King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía on 28 April. [ 54 ] On 18 July, the newly king chaired his first meet of the Council of Ministers. [ 55 ] In February 2015, Felipe announced he would cut his annual wage by 20 % as a consequence of the economic recess and hardships continuing to hamper Spain. [ 56 ]
The elections in 2015 resulted in no party winning enough seats to form a government. No agreements with the different parties were successful. After months of talks with the different party leaders, and with there being no apparent campaigner in a position of support in forming a politics, a royal decree was issued dissolving parliament with new elections being called in June. [ 57 ] This marked the foremost fourth dimension since the transition to majority rule that an election was called under Article 99.5 of the Constitution, wherein the first step for issuing the adjournment of the Cortes belonged to the King and not to the Prime Minister. [ 58 ] On 3 October 2017, as huge protest rallies and a general strike took set in Catalonia following the 2017 Catalan independence referendum that was deemed illegal by spanish authorities, Felipe delivered an unusually strongly worded telecast address in which he condemned the actions of the referendum organizers for acting “ outside the law ”, accusing them of “ unacceptable disloyalty ” and of “ eroding the harmony and co-existence within Catalan society itself ”. He besides warned the referendum could put the economy of the integral northeast region of Spain at hazard. [ 59 ] [ 60 ] [ 61 ] Reactions to his lecture were assorted. Party officials from the PP and Ciudadanos acclaimed the King ‘s “ commitment to legality ”, [ 62 ] whereas leaders from Unidos Podemos and Catalunya en Comú criticised it as “ adenine unworthy as it was irresponsible ”, paving the way for a harsh interposition of the Catalan autonomy. [ 63 ] As for the PSOE, its leaders showed their digest to the King ‘s words in public, but were unofficially upset that the King had not made any call to sympathize or dialogue between both the spanish and catalan governments. [ 64 ] In March 2020, following the disclosure in The Telegraph that Felipe VI appeared as moment beneficiary ( after his father ) of the Lucus Foundation, the entity on the receiving end of a €65 million contribution by Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, King of Saudi Arabia, [ 65 ] the Royal Household issued a statement on 15 March 2020 declaring that Felipe VI would renounce any inheritance from his father to which he could be entitled and that Juan Carlos would lose his populace stipend from the part of the State ‘s General Budget dedicated to the Royal Household. [ 66 ] [ 67 ] [ 68 ] [ 69 ] [ excessive citations ] The repudiation of the inheritance is a mere declaration of captive, since the Spanish Civil Code prevents accepting or rejecting an inheritance until the end of the person who bequeaths takes place. [ 70 ] The Royal Household besides implied that Felipe VI already had anterior cognition of the Fundación Lucus and his circumstance as benefactive role of the latter since April 2019. [ 69 ] A widespread cacerolada from the balconies of cities across Spain took stead on 18 March counterprogramming the television hold forth of Felipe VI on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemics, intending to force Juan Carlos to donate to public healthcare the €100M he had allegedly obtained through kickbacks from Saudi Arabia, which was ultimately dismissed. [ 71 ] [ 72 ]

marriage and issue [edit ]

King Felipe VI, Queen Letizia and their two daughters, the Princess of Asturias and the Infanta Sofia, in June 2019. Felipe ‘s bachelor years were a informant of interest to the spanish press for several years. His name was linked with several eligible women, but only two noteworthy girlfriends : spanish lady Isabel Sartorius, around 1989 to 1991, daughter of the Marquess of Mariño, who was viewed unfavorably by the Royal Family due to her mother ‘s cocaine addiction, [ 73 ] and norwegian model Eva Sannum, who modelled underwear. [ 74 ] When Felipe last began a serious kinship, nothing was suspected before the official announcement of the Prince ‘s engagement on 1 November 2003 to Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, a television journalist who had been married previously. The match were married on the morning of 22 May 2004 in the Almudena Cathedral, Madrid, with representatives of royal families from all over the world and most heads of department of state from Latin America present. Felipe and Letizia have two daughters : Leonor, Princess of Asturias ( have a bun in the oven 31 October 2005 ) and Infanta Sofía ( born 29 April 2007 ). Both were born at Ruber International Hospital in Madrid .

Titles, styles and arms [edit ]

Royal monogram of King Felipe VI

Titles and styles [edit ]

Juan Carlos became King in late November 1975, but no title was conferred on Felipe as heir apparent until 1977, when he was created Prince of Asturias, the traditional title normally held by the successor to the spanish throne. The royal rule granting him this title besides entitled him to use “ the other historical titles corresponding to the heir of the Crown ”. [ 14 ] Felipe started using the Aragonese deed of Prince of Girona publicly on 21 April 1990, during a trip around Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia, becoming the inaugural Bourbon to use this title. [ 75 ] Upon ascending the toilet, Felipe assumed the same titles held by his father. If the former Kingdoms of Aragon and Navarre had divide name styles, he would besides be known as Felipe V of Aragon and Felipe VIII of Navarre along with Felipe VI of Castile. [ 76 ]

Arms [edit ]

Felipe ‘s arms as heir to the throne ( left ) and as king ( correct ) As heir to the spanish enthrone, Felipe ‘s arms were the spanish arms differenced with a label of three points azure ( blue ). [ 77 ] The first one-fourth represents Castile, the second León, the third Aragon, and the fourth Navarre ; below are the arms of Granada. In the center, on an inescutcheon, were the ancestral arms of the autonomous House of Bourbon-Anjou. Surrounding the shield was the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece and surmounting it was the heraldic crown of the successor to the throne, decorated with four half-arches. Following his accession to the throne, the label on his arms was removed and the crown of the heir was changed to that of the sovereign ‘s ( eight half-arches rather of four ). [ 78 ] These arms differ from those of his don ‘s as king, as they omit the Cross of Burgundy, the yoke, and the bundle of five arrows .

ancestry [edit ]

See besides [edit ]

Notes [edit ]

  1. ^Borbon“, while in Spanish it is rendered as “Borbón“. In English, the house is traditionally called The English-language translation of the Official Royal Family web site is rendered as “ ”, while in spanish it is rendered as “ ”. In English, the house is traditionally called House of Bourbon
  2. ^ end of active overhaul .
  3. ^Felipe VI, although a few sources have rendered his name as Philip VI.[2] In the
    • Aragonese, Asturian, Basque, Spanish: Felipe VI, IPA: [feˈlipe]
    • Catalan, Occitan: Felip VI, IPA: [fəˈlip]
    • Galician: Filipe VI, IPA: [fiˈlipɪ]

    Most English-language media refer to the king as, although a few sources have rendered his name asIn the languages of Spain, his name is :

References [edit ]