Word: kingless
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Bourbon dynasty was impoverished and living in Rome. It was eligible for the kingship only because the direct line was tainted with the hemophilia gene inherited from Britain's Queen Victoria. Needy and apparently pliant, he thus became the acceptable heir to Francisco Franco, military dictator of the kingless kingdom of Spain. At Franco's 1975 death, Juan Carlos, above, at his 1962 wedding, took the throne. Spaniards expected little. But the King pressed the move to a constitutional monarchy. When militarists opposed it and attempted a coup in 1981, the King himself rallied the troops to save democracy...