A Prevalence of Pretenders

As sunrise touched the jagged rocks of Montejurra last week, 60,000 Spaniards followed wooden crosses and old battle flags up steep paths toward a plateau on the mountaintop. There, at the heart of the old northern kingdom of Navarre, they gathered for their annual commemoration of two bloody 19th century civil wars in which their ancestors fought to put a Carlist king on the throne of Spain.*

Reign in Spain. Carlism began in 1833, when King Ferdinand VII, dying without a male heir, directed that his daughter Isabella assume the crown. Her right to the throne was contested by Ferdinand's younger brother Don Carlos, and ever since, his descendants and their supporters have been trying bravely but futilely to seize power. The Carlists are the most rabid and fanatic rightists in Spain, and their political ideas seldom go beyond reviving the Inquisition. Though they view Franco as a woolly liberal, los Requetes, the rugged Carlist fighting men, nevertheless provided El Caudillo with some of the best battalions he ever had in the Spanish Civil War.

Donning their traditional red berets, the Carlists at Montejurra were out in force to honor their current pretender to the throne, Prince Carlos Hugo, who last month married the wayward Princess Irene of the Netherlands and hopes to use her considerable fortune to advance his ambitions. But the problem of the reign in Spain is anything but plain, for Prince Carlos has prestigious rivals:

> Handsome Juan Carlos de Borbon y Borbon, 26, grandson of Alfonso XIII, the last King of Spain, who was deposed in 1931. His father, Don Juan, has never formally withdrawn his claim to the throne, but has long been in Franco's bad graces. Juan Carlos, married to Princess Sophie of Greece, is supported by Spain's grandees, higher clergy and bankers, but has little popular following in the country.

> Don Jaime Borbon y Battenberg, 55, twice-married oldest living son of Alfonso XIII and uncle of Juan Carlos, who looks every inch a king but once renounced his right of succession because he is a deaf-mute. Last week Don Jaime rescinded his renunciation and laid claim to the throne as head of the house of Borbon.

Though Generalissimo Francisco Franco has ruled Spain for 25 years, he has always insisted that the country is a monarchy, his own role merely that of a regent who would ultimately restore the king. Which one? Franco personally seems to incline toward Juan Carlos and reportedly intends to step down in 1968, when he will be 75 and Juan Carlos a mature 30. But Franco is also deeply indebted to the Carlists for their sturdy support in his war against the Spanish republic. Moreover, Prince Carlos Hugo's marriage to Princess Irene establishes a link, however tenuous, with a royal family that not only has a throne but is also the wealthiest in Europe.

Spurting Wine. Nonetheless, under pressure from the followers of Juan Carlos, and with his own chronic misgivings about anything that remotely threatens public order, Franco let Carlos and Irene know that it was his "wish" that they not attend the Carlist rally at Montejurra. Since his future depends on Franco's whim, Carlos meekly flew off with his bride to the Canary Islands instead. His younger sister Cecilia, wearing an ivory dress and red beret, went in his place. Priming their parched throats with spurts of red wine from goatskin botas, the Carlists cheered lustily for Carlos and shouted their contempt for Juan Carlos, whom they scornfully call "Juanillo." Proclaimed one Carlist banner: "We don't want Juanillo even if it's an order from El Caudillo.'"

With pretenders to the throne growing more numerous and more clamorous, Franco may well decide to sit tight and let the royal claimants fight it out. They have little else to do.

* The first (1833-39) was lost by the Carlists through the ineptitude of their pretender, Don Carlos V. During the second (1872-76), Don Carlos VII's forces at one point controlled most of Navarre, three Basque provinces and much of Catalonia before his indecision lost the day.

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