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Franco's precautions paid off. Juan Carlos was a serious, somewhat plodding student; he became fluent in five languages and conversant in two others. After a brief period of squiring Italy's high-living Princess Maria Gabriella, he settled down at 24 with a bride more suitable to his naturally subdued and by now almost melancholy temperament: Princess Sophia of Greece, a Girl Scout chief captain, amateur archaeologist and pediatric nurse. With their three children—Elena, 11, Cristina, 10, and Felipe, 7—the royal couple now live at state expense in the 20-room Zarzuela Palace, a modern residence surrounded by formal flower gardens and well protected by police.
For many years, Juan Carlos spent his mornings at the palace in briefing sessions with high-ranking government experts, following a curriculum for kingship devised by Franco. Economics was the subject on Monday, church matters and foreign policy on Tuesday, labor and industry on Wednesday, cultural affairs on Thursday, and military and scientific topics on Friday. Lately, his mornings have often been devoted to presiding at official functions, his afternoons to sports. The Prince hunts partridge, golfs, swims and water-skis ("I prefer one ski to two"). He holds a black belt in karate, a distinction he shares with his brother-in-law, former King Constantine of Greece. Juan Carlos was a member of the Dragon-class crew that sailed for Spain in the 1972 Olympics.
Since 1969, when Franco bypassed Don Juan by appointing Juan Carlos his official successor, the relationship between father and son has remained cordial but distant. The Prince and his family routinely visit Don Juan in Estoril, Portugal; reportedly, dynastic matters are tactfully avoided. Last June, however, Don Juan reasserted his right to the Spanish throne in a speech to several hundred supporters who had gathered at Estoril to celebrate his 62nd birthday. "I am not the head of any plot. I am not the rival of anyone," said Don Juan. But, he added, "I am the trustee of the centuries-old political treasure that the Spanish monarchy represents."
Will father and son become involved in a power struggle? That depends largely on whether Juan Carlos can convince Franco's long-suppressed political opponents that he is more than a programmed appendage of the old regime. Recent visitors to the Zarzuela Palace report that Juan Carlos has long wanted a more liberal political life for Spain, but that he could not say so publicly until General Franco stepped down or died. A successor to power only by Franco's sufferance, Juan Carlos had no choice but to accept his public image as a pliable sportsman-prince.
If the effort to break the mold cast by Franco comes too late, Juan Carlos will have at least one sympathizer. His brother-in-law Constantine has reportedly told Juan Carlos that if he had spoken out more forcefully against the military junta in Greece, he might still be reigning in Athens rather than living in the suburbs of London.