Queen Sofía of Spain


Sofía is a member of the Spanish royal family who served as Queen consort of Spain during the reign of her husband, King Juan Carlos I, from 1975 to 2014. Born Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark, she is the first child of King Paul of Greece and Frederica of Hanover. As her family was forced into exile during the Second World War, she spent part of her childhood in Egypt, returning to Greece in 1946. She completed her secondary education in a boarding school in Germany before returning to Greece where she specialised in childcare, music and archaeology.
She became queen upon her husband's accession in 1975. On 19 June 2014, Juan Carlos abdicated in favor of their son Felipe VI.

Early life

Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark was born on 2 November 1938, at Tatoi Palace in Psychiko, Athens, Greece, the eldest child of King Paul and his wife, Queen Frederica. Sofia is a member of the Greek branch of the Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg dynasty. Her brother is the deposed King Constantine II and her sister is Princess Irene.
Princess Sophia spent some of her childhood in Egypt where she took her early education in El Nasr Girls' College in Alexandria. She lived in South Africa during her family's exile from Greece during World War II, where her sister Irene was born. They returned to Greece in 1946. She finished her education at the prestigious Schloss Salem boarding school in Southern Germany, and then studied childcare, music and archeology in Athens. She also studied at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. She was a reserve member, alongside her brother Constantine, of Greece's gold medal-winning sailing team in the 1960 Summer Olympics.

Marriage and family

Sofía met her paternal third cousin the then Infante Juan Carlos of Spain on a cruise in the Greek Islands in 1954; they met again at the wedding of the Duke of Kent, her paternal second cousin, at York Minster in June 1961.
bride's gown was made by Jean Dessès and she was attended by her sister Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark, the groom's sister Infanta Pilar of Spain, and Sofía's future sister-in-law Princess Anne-Marie of Denmark, along with Princess Irene of the Netherlands, Princess Alexandra of Kent, Princess Benedikte of Denmark, Princess Anne of Orléans and Princess Tatiana Radziwill.
The couple married on 14 May 1962, at the Catholic Cathedral of Saint Dionysius in Athens. The
Sofia converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism to become more palatable to Catholic Spain, and thus relinquished her rights to the Greek throne. Along with this, the usual Latinisation of her Greek name was changed from Sophia to the Spanish variant, Sofía.]
Sofía was in Greece on a private visit to her brother, King Constantine II, when the 1967 Greek military coup took place. Since then, he has been stripped of his title, citizenship and property in Greece. Except for a brief stay for the funeral of her mother in 1981, Queen Sofía would not visit the Hellenic Republic until 1998.
In 1969, Infante Juan Carlos, who was never Prince of Asturias, was given the official title of "Prince of Spain" by the Francoist dictatorship. Juan Carlos acceded to the throne in 1975, upon the death of Francisco Franco.
The couple has three children: Elena ; Cristina ; and Felipe. They were born at Our Lady of Loreto Nursing Home in Madrid. Their four grandsons and four granddaughters are Felipe and Victoria de Marichalar y de Borbón, Juan, Pablo, Miguel and Irene Urdangarín y de Borbón, and Leonor, Princess of Asturias and Sofía, all of whom are in the line of succession to the Spanish throne.
Sofia is also a great-granddaughter of the last German emperor, Wilhelm II and second cousin of Charles, Prince of Wales. She is also a great-great granddaughter of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom.

Activities

Besides accompanying her husband on official visits and occasions, Queen Sofía also has solo engagements. She is executive president of the Queen Sofía Foundation, which in 1993, sent funds for relief in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and is honorary president of the Royal Board on Education and Care of Handicapped Persons of Spain, as well as the Spanish Foundation for Aid for Drug Addicts.
She takes special interest in programs against drug addiction, travelling to conferences in both Spain and abroad. The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is named after her, as is Reina Sofía Airport in Tenerife.
Queen Sofia is an Honorary Member of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts and of the Spanish Royal Academy of History. She has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Rosario, Valladolid, Cambridge, Oxford, Georgetown, Evora, St. Mary's University, and New York.
A keen supporter of sport, Queen Sofia also attended the final match of the 2010 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles where she watched Spanish tennis champion Rafael Nadal win for a second time, as well as the 2010 FIFA World Cup where the Spanish team was crowned as world champion.
Queen Sofía has been honorary president of the Spanish Unicef Committee since 1971. She has been working closely with Dr. Muhammad Yunus on his Grameen Bank, which offers microcredits to women across the world. Queen Sofía has travelled to Bangladesh, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador and Mexico to support the activities of the organization led by Yunus. Queen Sofía has also been a strong supporter of Somaly Mam's efforts and of the NGO she founded—Agir pour les Femmes en Situation Précaire —in combatting child prostitution and slavery in Cambodia. In 1998, Mam was awarded the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in her presence.
In July 2012, Queen Sofia visited the Philippines for a fourth time. She inspected several development projects around the former Spanish colony that her country's government is funding via the Agencia Española de Cooperacion Internacional para el Desarollo. She visited the National Library, National Museum and the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, which had the oldest extant university charter in Asia and housed the world's largest collection of suyat scripts. She also met with Spanish nationals residing in the Philippines, and attended a reception at the Spanish Embassy. She also attended a state dinner in her honour at Malacañan Palace hosted by President Benigno Aquino III, and thanked the president for promoting the Spanish language in the Philippine educational system.

Later activity

Following the abdication of her husband as King in 2014, Sofía focused on her sponsoring activities, spending her time between La Zarzuela and, in the Summer months, the Marivent Palace in Palma de Mallorca.
In April 2018, the video of a tense interaction between Sofía and her daughter-in-law Letizia following the Easter Mass at Palma Cathedral made headlines. The rumours of a conflict between the two dates back to 2008. Letizia who was reportedly "dismayed" with the rumors, was spotted a few days later with Sofía arriving at La Moraleja Hospital to visit King Juan Carlos. The amicable interactions between the two put an end to the rumours.

Views

She has expressed opinions on policy including her criticism of the military intervention in Afghanistan, where Spanish troops were taking part at the time, her defence of religious education in schools, and her conviction that gender violence publicity will encourage new cases to occur. Her opinions were subjected to lively criticism by LGBT associations and Spanish intellectuals due to her criticism of homosexual activity, a violation of human rights and dignity as expressed by the United Nations. Also responding were Spanish republican political parties like IU and ERC. The governing PSOE decided to keep silent, while the conservative opposition PP also did so, after initial criticism of the Queen from one of its representatives.
A biography published in May 2012 claims that the Queen is a vegetarian who dislikes bullfighting.
On the occasion of her 70th birthday, she made a number of conservative ideological statements on issues then being debated in Spanish society. These statements were published by the Opus Dei journalist Pilar Urbano, and included Queen Sofía's rejection of same-sex marriage, rejection of Gay Pride celebrations, her opposition to abortion, and her defence of religious education in schools. Her opinions produced great unrest among progressive sectors of Spanish society, and prompted criticism of her for getting involved in partisan opinions against her constitutional mandate.

Notable published works

Titles and honours

Queen Sophia was awarded the Order of the Queen of Sheeba by Emperor Haile Sillasie of Ethiopia in 1973 upon her and her husband King Juan's visit to the capital Addis Ababa.
Sofía was appointed to the Grand Cross of The Royal and Distinguished Order of Charles III on 10 May 1962 and to The Royal Order of Queen Maria Luisa on 14 May 1962. The Queen of Spain was appointed to the Collar of the Royal and Distinguished Order of Charles III as dame on 31 October 1983. Since then, Queen Sofía has received different appointments and decorations by more than 40 foreign states.