RESEARCH PROGRAMMES

The King. A History of the Monarchy

On 2 November 2005, José Antonio Escudero, Director of the Institute of the History of Intolerance, and the Director of the Rafael del Pino Foundation signed an agreement to carry out a research project entitled The King.

The results of this research have been published in a three-volume book by Planeta under the title “El Rey. Historia de la Monarquía“ [The King. A History of the Monarchy]. The first volume was published in 2007, and the second and third were published in 2008. Together they make up a complete study of the figure of the monarch and of the institution the monarch embodies, carried out by 33 academics and coordinated by Professor José Antonio Escudero.

The first volume covers the following subjects: the mediaeval background - from the Visigothic elected monarchy to the hereditary monarchy -; the crown prince; the titles of the kings and queens of Spain; the queen; and, lastly, the central government of the monarchy during the ancien régime.

The second volume concentrates mainly on modern and contemporary times and analyses: the role of the king in the governance of the monarchy’s territories; matters of grace and favour; the king as the head of the armed forces; the Court and the King’s Household; and the king in the history of Spanish Constitutional Law. The third volume deals with the king’s relationship with Parliament, religion and the Church, international politics, subjects and citizens, and culture. The final two chapters are devoted, respectively, to the loss of the Crown, both in the violent mediaeval dethronements and in the abdications and renunciations of more advanced times; and death and succession to the Crown.