Letter from Spain #3
You think the house of Windsor is dysfunctional? Spare a thought for the Bourbons …
Although this is called a ‘Letter from Spain’, I’m currently visiting the UK, so it is a letter from there this week, with a Spanish twist.
Inevitably, I watched the coronation of King Charles III yesterday. Inevitably, too, I compared it with how they do things in Spain, but the fact is that no-one in the world does these things like the Brits. Even if this was supposedly a ‘streamlined’ and ‘slimmed-down’ ceremony, with some 2,000 guests instead of over 8,000 for Elizabeth II’s coronation, the Brits are still world champions in pageantry. So they should be, after practising it for 1,000 years.
I couldn’t understand, however, why Charles needed cue cards in order to say things like, ‘I do’ and ‘Yes, I will reign over you’, and I spent most of the time feeling sorry for all the old fogeys in the congregation, unable to go to the loo for around four hours (having had to be in their seats two hours before it started).
The worst part of it for me, however, has been in the build-up; watching and reading the fawning, pre-coronation tributes of Charles (and Camilla) in the printed press and on TV, where there was scarcely any acknowledgement of Diana at all. I flicked through a whole Telegraph colour supplement dedicated to Charles yesterday, and there was no mention of Diana whatsoever, except for one photo caption, and even that was simply to accompany the famous shot of her poor sons walking behind her coffin. It’s as if she’s been blacked out of history, at least by the BBC, Telegraph and Mail.
And talk of being blacked out …
There was Harry yesterday, last in the ‘royal’ party to arrive and walk meekly down the aisle to his seat, with his face then strategically obscured by the feather in Princess Anne’s hat for most of the ceremony. Feathered out of the TV coverage, he was in the UK for under 29 hours before jetting back to California in time for his son Archie’s fourth birthday party. Some people say he will regret what he’s done for the rest of his life, but I’m not so sure.
Harry was dressed in civvies, while Andrew, meanwhile, was allowed to wear a flamboyant, ceremonial cape. The message was clear: if you’re a British royal, it’s okay to be accused of being a sexual predator, but don’t marry a mixed race American and slag off your family in an autobiography or on Netflix.
In every family there’s a dysfunctional element, though … which brings me back to the Spanish comparison …
If you think the house of Windsor has problems, spare a thought for the house of Bourbon. Spain’s King Felipe VI - Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia - was a guest at Westminster Abbey yesterday, and he must have been thinking, ‘If only …’
His own ‘coronation’ in June 2014 was merely a swearing-in ceremony, after his father, Juan Carlos, dogged by scandals and health problems, abdicated in disgrace at the age of 76 after a 39-year reign.
There were no gilded horse-drawn carriages or foreign dignitaries at Felipe’s low-key, austere ceremony, which was void of all pomp. It took place amid 26% unemployment in Spain, a smouldering republican sentiment and a growing independence movement in Catalonia. Although the unemployment rate has halved since 2014, the reverse has happened on the other two fronts.
A year after he became king, Felipe had to also strip his older sister, Princess Cristina, of her title of duchess as she prepared to stand trial on tax fraud charges. While she was ultimately cleared by the courts, her husband, Iñaki Urdangarin, was eventually convicted of fraud and embezzlement.
Felipe’s father, Juan Carlos, had been groomed by Spanish dictator Franco. His relationship with the Spanish public finally started to crack in 2012, when he broke a hip on an elephant hunting trip in Botswana, while his subjects back home were struggling to find jobs in the recession.
The media then uncovered that Juan Carlos had been accompanied on his fateful hunting trip by a former mistress, the Danish-German socialite and businesswoman, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (also known as Corinna Larsen).
They’d originally met in Africa in 2004, where she was involved in organising safaris. Their relationship developed romantically, and they remained lovers until 2009, remaining close friends for a while afterwards.
Things got worse during 2020, when revelations of payouts of more than $100 million to Juan Carlos from Saudi Arabia, linked to public contracts for Spanish companies, hit the front pages. It was discovered that €64.8 million was given by Juan Carlos to his former lover in 2012, although he later unsuccessfully demanded that the money be returned. They then both became subjects of judicial investigations for opaque financial dealings, including assets kept in tax havens.
Juan Carlos left Spain for self-imposed exile in Abu Dhabi on 4 August 2020, after prosecutors started looking into allegations of fraud in Spain and Switzerland. He said it was to prevent a ‘repercussion of his personal affairs’ undermining his son’s reign and damaging the monarchy (a bit late for that). Spanish and Swiss prosecutors finally closed their probes into his finances due to insufficient evidence and the statute of limitations, but said several irregularities had been found.
Corinna has since sued the former monarch, accusing him of allegedly orchestrating threats and ordering unlawful covert and overt surveillance starting in 2012, after she declined to rekindle the relationship. The case continues in the London courts, although he will be immune from prosecution during the period he was king (up to June 2014).
Corinna has also labelled the former monarch as ‘unhinged’ in a podcast series, claiming that he used to call her 10 times a day at her office using a fake name, and would ‘return home with bags full of cash, happy as a five year old’. When she asked about the origins of the money, she claims the monarch’s reply was ‘this is from my friend so-and-so’ and that it seemed ‘like it was a very common situation’. When she showed surprise, she claimed he would say, ‘Oh, you’re so dramatic, you don’t understand how Spain works.’
How Spain works …
Sure enough, the house of Windsor’s problems with Andy and Harry pale into insignificance if you consider the murkiness of the house of Bourbon’s fortunes …
On a last note, the fictional character of Lisette ‘call-me-Dixie’ Dijckhuijsen in The Barcelona Connection is based on a combination of three individuals I know like Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein …