Page 5, 17th April 1981
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CERTAIN Spanish bishops have protested against the possible encouragement, through excessive militarism, of "backward-looking" elements in their society which have never accepted democratic reforms. The government reacted angrily but few outside Spain have any idea of just how strong these "backward-looking" elements still are.
Meanwhile, in north London, some observant Massgoers spotted a gracefully majestic figure in an adjoining pew. It was the Queen of Spain, on a short visit to England to stay with her brother the ex-king of Greece.
It was of course a private visit. The hoped-for exchange of state visits between Great Britain and Spain still awaits some breakthrough on the Gibraltar deadlock.
The presence of a Queen of Spain at Mass in London has awakened long memories for some. There was a time in the thirties, when the then Queen of Spain was a familiar sight in London's Farm Street Church during her many sojourns in England.
The Queen in question was Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Victoria Eugenie, better known by her last name, Ena, who was married to Alfonso XI[l of Spain. The latter never abdicated but fled from Spain exactly fifty years ago this week after a public admission that he had lost the love of his people.
He was spirited out of the country leaving his wife and family behind. The next day, April 14, 1931, the Queen struggled across the frontier — her ailing son, the heir to the throne. being carried on a stretcher — to be reunited with her husband in Paris.
Soon afterwards, however, he left her, and the first ten years of her long exile were spent in estrangement from the King who died in 1941. Her visits to London — and Farm Street — were happy interludes during a period of sadness for herself and of gradual subversion of a democratic government in Spain culminating in a bloody rehearsal for the Second World War.
The subverting was done by those same "backward-looking" elements which are alive and well today. The brunt of the battle against then is being borne by Queen Ena's idealistic and incredibly brave grandson, King Juan Carlos. But his struggle is often a lonely one.
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