The Kings avoid an image with Juan Carlos I and Doña Sofía upon arrival in London

In the midst of the national mourning for the death of Elizabeth II, the display around the heads and former heads of state who arrived in London goes unnoticed in a city, London, which is abuzz. When Felipe VI and Queen Letizia appeared at a quarter past four in the afternoon this Sunday (a quarter past five, Spanish peninsular time) on the balcony set up for the authorities, in the lobby of Westminster Hall, few of the citizens who paraded before the monarch’s coffin, exhausted after 14 hours in line, hardly noticed his presence. The King of Spain wore a black suit and tie. The Queen, a black dress with cape sleeves, up to the elbow, and a discreet application of flowers, also black. Just a minute, with a serious face, to offer her respects. He was accompanied by the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, and the Spanish Ambassador to the United Kingdom, José Pascual Marco.

The Kings have flown from Madrid, in an Army Falcon. They have been accompanied by Albares, and Queen Emeritus Sofía. At one in the afternoon, local time, they landed at Northolt Air Base, near London. Felipe VI and Doña Letizia will sleep this Sunday at the ambassador’s residence, in the Belgravia neighborhood. At the exit of the funeral chapel, they have coincided with the kings of Sweden, and with the speaker (Speaker) of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle.

Juan Carlos I has arrived in London directly from Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, where he resides. The first public image of him has emerged in the early afternoon, when the emeritus monarch has arrived at the reception offered by Carlos III at Buckingham Palace. With visible difficulty walking, he leaned on his cane with one hand while the other clung to the arm of an escort from his security team. Next to him, although at a certain distance, walked Queen Sofia. It had been almost three years since he had seen himself together with the couple. The last image of the two took place in January 2020, during the funeral for the infanta Pilar, sister of the king emeritus, in the Madrid town of El Escorial.

Felipe VI and Doña Letizia have also attended the reception of Buckingham Palace, and it is foreseeable that father and son have been seen inside there. The last time they met was in May, after the controversial visit to Sanxenxo by the king emeritus. The images offered by the institutional service of the BBC collected only the entrance to the palace of the more than 500 guests. It was the only opportunity that the two marriages had been able to show themselves together in public. They have avoided it. They have come separately.

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In the protocol arranged for the nearly 2,000 guests who will attend the state funeral for Elizabeth II this Monday, in Westminster Abbey, it is not contemplated that Felipe VI or Juan Carlos I occupy nearby positions. Incumbent heads of state will occupy a prominent position, after members of the British royal family and members of the UK Government and Parliament. The rest of the guests, and that includes the emeritus kings of Spain, will occupy the space reserved for them by those responsible for the organization. The possibility that father and son, or that the two marriages share a common image, or show some gesture of rapprochement, will depend exclusively on the will of each other, but above all of Felipe VI. The King has not put any impediment to his father’s decision to attend the funeral of Elizabeth II, with whom he had a family relationship, but neither has he shown any willingness to use a mourning event that has mobilized the governments of the middle world, and in which he attends as a representative of Spain, to resolve the internal tensions of his own Royal Family.

Juan Carlos I is facing a civil trial in the British courts these days, due to Corina Larsen’s lawsuit against him for alleged threats and intimidation, during the years after the love relationship they had. The process is still in a preliminary phase, and at no time has it been a risk for the emeritus king to set foot on British territory.