Spain’s former king will spend the first day of his retirement from public life on Sunday lapping up the sunshine at a bullfight south of Madrid – exactly five years after his reign ended in abdication and scandal.

As emeritus king since his son, Felipe, took up the throne, 81-year-old Juan Carlos de Borbón has endured a series of humiliations as ill health and revelations about his private life have seen him shunted in and out of the spotlight.

According to reports, Juan Carlos was piqued after planning to accompany King Felipe VI at Saturday’s annual Armed Forces Day in Seville, only for his son and Queen Letizia to decide this was not a good idea.

Quite unexpectedly, last Monday Juan Carlos wrote in a letter to Felipe VI, posted on the Royal Household's website, that it was time to “start a new chapter in my life and complete my retirement from public life”.

As king, Juan Carlos kicked off the changes that created modern Spain by swearing allegiance to the fascist regime of dictator Francisco Franco before launching a democratic transition after the latter’s death in 1975. </s> Image zoom King Felipe and King Juan Carlos; Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth Carlos Alvarez/Getty; Arthur Edwards -Pool/Getty

Five years after his abdication, King Juan Carlos I of Spain is retiring from public life.

The 81-year-old royal shared his plans to withdraw from public duties in a letter to his son, King Felipe VI, according to El Pais.

In Juan Carlos’ letter to Felipe IV, which was shared by La Zarzuela, reveals that the former king has been considering his retirement since his 80th birthday in Jan. 2018. The recent celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Spanish Constitution in Congress in December confirmed his decision.

“[It was] a solemn act, full of emotion for me, that evoked, with pride and admiration, the memory of the many people who made the political transition [to democracy] possible and renewed my feeling of permanent gratitude toward the Spanish people, the true architect and leading protagonist of that transcendental stage of our recent history,” King Juan Carlos said in the letter.

Image zoom King Juan Carlos and King Felipe of Spain Carlos Alvarez/Getty

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King Juan Carlos’ final official act was the presentation of the Spanish Order Awards 2019 in the San Lorenzo de El Escorial Royal Monastery on May 17, when he handed the prestigious prize to historian Miguel Ángel Ladero. His final royal trip was to Chile in March 2018, accompanied by his wife, Queen Sofia.

Image zoom Queen Letizia, King Felipe VI, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain A. Ware/NurPhoto via Getty

Juan Carlos’ retirement will officially begin on June 2, exactly five years after his abdication. The former Spanish king reportedly wanted to pass the job onto his son before Felipe, 51, grew old – comparing the situation to Prince Charles‘ nearly lifelong wait to be king.

He reportedly spoke to Rafael Spottorno, chief of the royal household, and said: “I do not want my son to wither waiting like Prince Charles,” according to El Mundo newspaper in 2014.

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Image zoom Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth Tim Rooke/REX/Shutterstock

In a rare move, Queen Elizabeth publicly backed Charles as the next Commonwealth leader in April 2018.

The monarch, now 93, formally asked the Commonwealth Heads of Government to appoint her eldest son as her successor of the association of Britain and its former colonies.

Queen Elizabeth has been the group’s symbolic figurehead since 1952. Leaders were expected to discuss who should follow her in the role. The position is not hereditary, but Prince Charles is expected to get the nod. (As the Queen’s firstborn, Charles is the hereditary heir to the British throne, which he will automatically inherit upon his mother’s death.)

“It is my sincere wish that the Commonwealth will continue to offer stability and continuity for future generations and will decide that one day the Prince of Wales should carry on the important work started by my father in 1949,” the Queen said at the formal opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Buckingham Palace.

Charles’ father, Prince Philip, also publicly retired from public life in August 2017.

“The Duke of Edinburgh will no longer undertake his own program of public engagements,” a statement from Buckingham Palace read. “The Captain General’s Parade will bring His Royal Highness’s individual program to a conclusion, although he may choose to attend certain events, alongside The Queen, from time to time.” </s> As he steps back, a look at the dramatic life of Spain’s Juan Carlos I

Madrid, Spain | AFP | He only discovered Spain when he was 10, was picked by dictator Francisco Franco to succeed him but instead steered his country to democracy. On Sunday, former king Juan Carlos I retires from public life.

“Such a long, full story, as if it were designed by an architect,” Spanish novelist Eduardo Mendoza said last year.

Born 81 years ago in Italy, the grandson of exiled Spanish king Alfonso XIII will go down in history as the one who gave both the throne back to the House of Bourbon and democracy back to Spain.

But the end of his 38-year reign (1975-2014) was clouded by several scandals until he abdicated in favour of his son Felipe VI.

On a winter day in 1948, a 10-year-old boy, escorted by a duke and viscount, arrives at Lisbon station.

This little prince “with his blond curls, fighting back tears,” boards a train bound for Spain, a country he doesn’t know, writes Jose Luis de Vilallonga in his biography “The King.”

Dictator Francisco Franco, who rules Spain with an iron fist since 1939 when he won a civil war, has decided to bring him over.

His father Juan de Bourbon might be wary of Franco but has accepted to entrust Juan Carlos to the dictator with the hope that one day, the throne will be returned to the Bourbons after Alfonso XIII fled the new republic in 1931.

Far from his family, Juan Carlos’ childhood is marked by church services and speeches vaunting the victory of Franco’s forces over the republican “reds.”

He also plays a lot of sport with friends who call him “Juanito” or else “your highness.”

When he is 18, tragedy hits when he accidentally kills his 14-year-old brother with a shot to the forehead while visiting his parents in Portugal, according to the biography “Juan Carlos” written by British historian Paul Preston.

Franco will make sure the accident is kept under wraps.

Trained in military schools, Juan Carlos will spend 27 years of his life in the shadow of the dictator who may have considered him as the son he never had but still “devoured police reports” about him, says Preston.

In 1962, Juan Carlos marries then Princess Sofia of Greece whom he met on a cruise

Seven years later, Franco names him as his successor. Two days after the death of the dictator, on November 22, 1975, he finally recovers his grandfather’s throne and becomes Juan Carlos I.

“Years of appearing with Franco, dejected and mute, has prompted the widespread idea that he lacked both intelligence and courage,” writes Preston.

But it wasn’t so. Going against his mission to preserve the Franco regime, the king choses to carry his country to democracy.

The Communist Party is legalised, political offences are amnestied and, after free elections in 1977, he is applauded as “the king of all Spaniards.”

Then he became the “national hero who saved democracy,” according to Mendoza.

When a military coup takes place on February 23, 1981 in his name, the king manages to put a stop to it and reassures the country in the middle of the night with a speech vaunting the “democratic process.”

But his life tips over in 2012 when aged 74, he falls over and breaks his hip during an elephant hunting trip in Botswana.

In deep financial crisis at the time, Spain discovers he was on a luxury safari paid for by a Saudi entrepreneur and that a German woman accompanying him is his lover.

He is forced to abdicate in 2014, “when he realises that the media has started reporting many irregularities in his life” like the numerous covert relationships of “this Casanova” or doubts about where his fortune came from, says author Pilar Urbano.

As such, the end of his reign is “arduous”, quite “sad” and far from exemplary, says the author of two biographies of former queen Sofia.

Now though, she says, by retiring from public life and no longer representing the Crown, he recovers his freedom, having always liked “doing what appeals to him, in secret.” </s> With palaces and gardens to rival Versailles, Aranjuez has long been part of Spanish royal life. For Juan Carlos de Borbon there could be no more fitting venue from which to say his adioses.

The former king has announced he will retire from official duties today after presiding, as guest of honour, over a bullfight in the city that inspired Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.

From a royal box in the arena, Juan Carlos, 81, for decades a prominent fixture of Spain’s public rituals, will observe the bloody pageant — he is a great fan of the corrida — while wondering, perhaps, how much longer such traditions can survive.

Just as bullfighting is under threat from a younger generation of Spaniards — many regard it as… </s> Spain's former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says he will step down as leader of the conservative People's Party after 14 years.

He was removed as prime minister last week when he lost a no-confidence vote in parliament after several former party officials were found guilty of corruption. </s> Spanish media report that the brother-in-law of Spain's King Felipe VI is already in prison to begin serving a sentence of nearly six years for fraud and tax evasion

MADRID (AP) — The brother-in-law of Spain’s King Felipe VI has begun serving a nearly six-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion, Spanish prison authorities said Monday.

An official with the Interior Ministry’s prison management division said Inaki Urdangarin arrived Monday morning at a prison near Avila, about 100 kilometers north of Madrid. The official spoke anonymously, in line with ministry rules.

Urdangarin, a 50-year-old former Olympic handball medal winner married to the king’s sister, Cristina, is the closest person to the ruling Bourbon family to be imprisoned.

He was convicted to five years and 10 months in prison for embezzling about 6 million euros ($7 million) by exploiting his position in the royal family to obtain public contracts.

Cristina was fined 136,950 euros ($158,600) as a beneficiary of her husband’s crimes.

The corruption scandal helped erode the image of the Spanish royal family and prompted the abdication in 2014 of Juan Carlos I, who ceded the throne to Felipe.

Urdangarin had been given five days to voluntarily turn himself in to begin serving his sentence after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal earlier this month.

The ministry official described the Brieva prison chosen by Urdangarin as a small facility with less than 100 inmates, most of them women.

The prison has a small module for men, but authorities could choose to send him elsewhere for security or internal organization reasons, the official said.

Spain’s Royal House has said that it respects judicial decisions and King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia have not publicly commented on the result of the appeal.

The royal couple is on an official visit to the United States. On Monday they are scheduled to meet entrepreneurs and students in San Antonio, Texas, before traveling to Washington D.C. for a meeting Tuesday with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. </s> The brother-in-law of Spain's King Felipe VI has begun serving a nearly six-year sentence for fraud and tax evasion, Spanish prison authorities said Monday.

Inaki Urdangarin, who is married to King Felipe's sister Princess Christina, arrived Monday morning at a prison near Avila, about 62miles north of Madrid.

Urdangarin, a 50-year-old former handball player and Olympic medal winner, exploited his royal connections to overcharge regional governments for public events contracts, embezzling some 6million euros (£5.25million).

He was convicted to five years and ten months in prison in February last year, and his wife Princess Cristina was fined 136,950 euros (£120,000) as a beneficiary of her husband's crimes.

The corruption scandal aided in the erosion of the public image of the Spanish royal family and prompted the abdication in 2014 of Juan Carlos I, who ceded the throne to Felipe.

The retired Spanish handball player appealed the sentence before the Supreme Court, which cut the sentence slightly after overturning a part of the original ruling by the Mallorcan Court.

He may appeal the Supreme Court’s ruling before the Constitutional Court.

Urdangarin had been given five days to voluntarily turn himself in to begin serving his sentence after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal earlier this month.

The ministry official described the Brieva prison chosen by Urdangarin as a small facility with less than 100 inmates, most of them women.

The prison has a small module for men, but authorities could choose to send him elsewhere for security or internal organization reasons, the official said.

Spain's Royal House has said that it respects judicial decisions and King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia have not publicly commented on the result of the appeal.

The royal couple is on an official visit to the United States. On Monday they are scheduled to meet entrepreneurs and students in San Antonio, Texas, before traveling to Washington D.C. for a meeting Tuesday with President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump. </s> LONDON: After a lifetime of public service by the side of his wife Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip will finally retire on Wednesday at the age of 96.

The Duke of Edinburgh will attend a parade of Royal Marines at Buckingham Palace, the last of 22,219 solo public engagements since she ascended to the throne in 1952.

He has attended countless more events with the queen, now 91, but both have slowed their pace in recent years, handing over responsibilities to the younger royals.

“Prince Philip is entitled to slow down a bit,” the Daily Telegraph newspaper wrote in an editorial, adding: “This is a man who has always put his country first.”

The former World War II naval officer has carried out 637 overseas visits on his own in the past 65 years, given almost 5,500 speeches, and was patron, president or a member of more than 780 organizations.

His final engagement on Wednesday will honor his military background, as he attends the end of a charity challenge in which Royal Marines ran 1,664 miles over 100 days to mark the founding of the commando force in 1664.

Philip has been captain general of the corps since 1953, taking over from the queen’s father king George VI, who had died the year before.

The queen has described Philip, her husband of almost 70 years who is now the longest-serving consort in British history, as “my strength and stay.”

But after announcing his plans to retire in May, he joked he was the “world’s most experienced plaque-unveiler.”

The prince’s often politically incorrect sense of humor has got him into trouble in the past, although for many of the queen’s subjects, it has also provided some welcome warmth into the institution of the monarchy.

“Humor is important. The Duke’s has brightened these decades,” the Telegraph said.

Philip is still in good health for a man of his age, although he was hospitalized for two nights in June for the treatment of an undisclosed infection.

A spokeswoman said his individual program of public engagements had come to an end, but “he may choose to attend engagements alongside the queen from time to time.”

When he announced his retirement, Prime Minister Theresa May offered him Britain’s “deepest gratitude and good wishes.”

Both the senior royals have taken a step back in recent years, leaving their eldest son and heir Prince Charles and grandson Prince William to take their places.

William, the Duke of Cambridge, ended his brief career as an air ambulance pilot last week and will now turn his full attention to royal duties, alongside his wife Kate.

But while the queen supports her husband’s decision to retire, experts say her own sacred vow at her 1953 coronation to serve for life was unbreakable.

“Her Majesty will continue to carry out a full program of official engagements with the support of members of the royal family,” the palace said earlier this year. </s> Iñaki Urdangarin was found guilty last year of embezzling millions of euros between 2004-2006 from a non-profit foundation he headed in Majorca.

Last week Spain's Supreme Court rejected his appeal and handed him a sentence of five years and 10 months in prison.

Urdangarin, just as any citizen, was allowed to choose where he wanted to serve his sentence.

Princess Cristina's husband is not the first man to serve in the Brieva prison. The former director of the Civil Guard Luis Roldán, convicted in 1998 to 31 years for embezzlement offences, was also held in the same male unit.

Brieva prison is located 100 kilometres north of Madrid and, despite it being a prison for women, it has four cells reserved for male inmates.

The prison is one of the smallest in Spain and was built in 1989.

It is the first time in modern Spanish history that a monarch's relative has gone to prison. The case caused an uproar in Spain, which contributed to the decision of King Felipe VI's father Juan Carlos I to abdicate in 2014.
King Juan Carlos I of Spain retires from public life five years after his abdication.