The Queen of Spain and Gibraltar
Baku, May 17 (AZERTAC). Word has it that Sophia, Queen of Spain and sister to the exiled King of Greece, has been advised not to go to London to join the British royal family in celebrating Elizabeth II`s sixty years on the throne of Great Britain. The reasons given are political.
Here we see a badly mixed cocktail; three parts of royal connection (and very old friendship), plus one part of squabble do not gel into an acceptable and creamy mix. Queen Sophia is Greek, descended from the Danish royal family, as well as Queen Victoria. The King of Spain`s grandmother was English. When a group of radically-inclined colonels threw their crowned King Constantine out of his own palace and confiscated his possessions (not very many, but Mother Frederika had left something) the young man and his family went immediately to London, where they have been domiciled to all intents and purposes every since. Doña Sophia is and always has been very close to her exiled brother.
Now the Madrid Government tells Sophia not to join Elizabeth, a cousin, in her anniversary of sixty years on the throne.
Then again, Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales made Gibraltar part of their honeymoon itinerary, another shambolic error. But the worst part of this infantile behaviour on the part of both foreign offices, governments and royal families is that it is entirely unnecessary.
In the fifteenth century, after years of wars between Moor and Spaniard, Gibraltar became Spanish again (1642). During the irritating and disaster-strewn War of the Spanish Succession (1704) the fortress of Gibraltar surrended to the commander of a large Anglo-Dutch fleet, and was later awarded to the British at the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). This enormously important treaty was of course signed by Spain, as well as other countries involved in the war of succession.
Despite the signing, frequent attempts were made by Spain following Utrecht to re-capture `The Rock`, often with the help of the French, always ready and willing when political or military attacks are made on Britain. In 1779 Gibraltar withstood a very long siege by superior Franco/Spanish ships and land forces. Treaty or no treaty the Spanish were determined to recover that Rock.
But it stayed British, and vital as a naval base during both World Wars. It still is a Dependency, with its own elected government, and this insistence on remaining British is supported by the majority of its population, many of whom are Italian, or indeed Spanish, as well as Maltese and Portuguese.
General Franco patriotically closed the land borders in 1969, which was a thorough nuisance, but again diplomacy intervened and an agreement was signed in Brussels in 1984. The borders were opened in 1985. British military forces were withdrawn in 1991, though the Royal Navy looms in Gibraltar to this day, and repairs to British warships made at the Rock infuriate the Spanish press every now and again, especially if the reparations are made to nuclear-powered (and armed) submarines.
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