Queen Sofia of Spain has been presented with one of Spain\u2019s
\nhighest honours by her son, King Felipe VI, as the country\u2019s royals
\nmark 50 years since the restoration of the monarchy.<\/p>\n
King Felipe appeared emotional as he pinned the honour on to his
\nmother\u2019s shoulder in a moving ceremony in the Royal Palace in
\nMadrid.<\/p>\n
Earlier, he had spoken of Queen Sofia\u2019s integral role in
\nre-establishing the monarchy and the processes that followed which
\nwould see the country become a democracy after decades of fascist
\ndictatorship.<\/p>\n
There was a prolonged ovation for Queen Sofia after the
\npresentation of the Toison de Oro which is one of Spain\u2019s most
\nimportant awards.<\/p>\n
However, there was also controversy as her husband, King Juan
\nCarlos, wasn\u2019t invited to the ceremony which also saw the country\u2019s
\nfirst socialist Prime Minister, Felipe Gonzalez, recognised with
\nthe same honour.<\/p>\n
It was Juan Carlos who was proclaimed King of Spain on November
\n22 1975, two days after the death of the dictator, Francisco
\nFranco, and questions have been asked as to why someone who played
\nsuch a crucial role in the country\u2019s path to democracy has been
\nleft out of the celebrations of its half century.<\/p>\n
Other noticeable absences from the guest list were Queen Sofia\u2019s
\ntwo daughters, Infanta Elena and Infanta Cristina, and their
\nchildren. In the end, only King Felipe and his daughters, Princess
\nLeonor and Infanta Sofia, saw their grandmother receive the
\nprestigious honour.<\/p>\n
![\"Queen](\"https:\/\/royalcentral.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Queen-Sofia-in-the-Royal-Palace-of-Madrid-1024x683.jpg\")
\nRey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
It was a moment of history for another reason, too. Sofia is the
\nfirst queen consort of Spain to be made a member of the Toison de
\nOro.<\/p>\n
The Spanish queen made her own nod to history with her choice of
\noutfit. Queen Sofia wore a pale pink suit with full length skirt.
\nOn the day her husband was proclaimed King of Spain in 1975, she
\nwore a full length pink dress.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also believed that the diamond and ruby bracelet she wore
\nfor the presentation of the Toison de Oro was another nod to
\nhistory as it is thought to have belonged to Queen Victoria
\nEugenia, the last queen consort of Spain before the Civil War of
\n1936 -1939 which resulted in Franco taking power.<\/p>\n
Queen Sofia later posed for photos with her son, granddaughters
\nand daughter-in-law, Queen Letizia, who also wore pale pink for the
\noccasion.<\/p>\n
Following the ceremony, King Felipe, Queen Letizia and their
\ndaughters attended a debate about the role of the Crown in
\nSpain.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understood that King Juan Carlos will attend a private
\nfamily lunch which marks the honour given to Queen Sofia and the 50
\nyears of monarchy in Spain.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source royalcentral.co.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Queen Sofia of Spain has been presented with one of Spain\u2019s highest honours by her son, King Felipe VI, as the country\u2019s royals mark 50 years since the restoration of the monarchy. King Felipe appeared emotional as he pinned the honour on to his mother\u2019s shoulder in a moving ceremony in the Royal Palace in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2170501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Spains-Queen-Sofia-given-rare-honour-as-country-marks-historic.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2170502,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170500\/revisions\/2170502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2170501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}