La Zarzuela is still a barracks

General Franco ate the rancho del Pardo daily (abundant in sopicaldo and pescadilla de enroscar), surrounded by his military aides, a trio of grim and silent colonels in uniform and adorned with ornate gold cords;

he fished, hunted and played mus, dominoes and tresillo with his old comrades in arms and battlefield, Camilo Alonso Vega, his cousin Pacón Franco Araujo, Martín Alonso and

Nieto Antúnez, and appointed most of his ministers (from technicians to repressors) depending on their proven military pedigree.

His own personal team (even his driver, his altar boy or his valet) was always made up of soldiers from the three armies.

Starting with Luis Carrero Blanco.

And Fernando Fuertes from Villavicencio.

The Palacio del Pardo always looked more like a barracks than a modern state headquarters.

Already as a prince, his successor, Juan Carlos de Borbón, swept the uniformed assistants from the Zarzuela family lunch, but kept a

purely military, both in advice and security, and in administrative control.

As a lonely teenager and with his parents in Estoril, all of his teachers had been soldiers, from the artilleryman Duque de la Torre to the aviator Emilio García-Conde Ceñal.

And when he finally created an embryo of his own House, he placed it in the hands of those soldiers who were very close to his family, deeply conservative, ultra-Catholic, generally coming from the aristocracy and who protected and guided him in the territory of Francoism, sown with mines, but to whom they professed veneration: the Marquis of Mondéjar, the later coup leader Alfonso Armada and some aides with the most vibrant surnames of the regime: Dávila, Valenzuela or Juan Bautista Sánchez.

They were all trustworthy.

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Leonor de Borbón, supreme chief of armies with only 13% women

In his four years of military academies (one year more than his son Felipe and his granddaughter Leonor), Juan Carlos de Borbón understood that those young comrades in arms from poor Spain at the end of the 50s were going to serve him in two ways: as friends of doglike fidelity and unhealthy discretion (whether it was hunting, partying, regatta or various errands), and as a quarry for the key positions of his House.

In addition, he did not have to account to anyone for his decisions.

The armored constitution in article 65 appoints him: "The King freely appoints and relieves the civil and military members of his House."

And what is more important, article 62 of the Constitution affirms that it corresponds to him, "the supreme command of the Armed Forces".

Among the "professionals" the most useful and advanced in ideas was General Sabino Fernández Campo,

The first group, that of the military "friends", have accompanied him to the end.

And when they were too old to follow the hunt and restaurant march, the payroll was swelled with new generations of soldiers, 20 years younger than King Juan Carlos.

Almost all of them came from the position of "camp assistants" (purists say aides-de-camp), an ambiguous, delicate position, of maximum confidence, which can be everything or nothing and is always a meter behind the King carrying a leather briefcase. black and the royal coat of arms that no one knows what it contains.

One of the last assistants was the colonel of the Air Force Nicolás Murga, who managed an opaque credit card of the monarch at the service of his daughters and grandchildren.

Others, like Commander Agustín Muñoz-Grandes,

In 1981, it led to an "honorable" departure of the coup leaders of 23-F, never fully explained.

Even today the last companies of the King emeritus in Abu Dhabi belong to the military stratum.

There he is usually visited by the four-star general Félix Sanz Roldán, a friend for everything and former director of the CNI (and faithful messenger in the

), as before it was Lieutenant General Emilio Alonso Manglano (authentic staff in the Bárbara Rey affair).

And like another secret agent of the CNI (then Cesid), Guillermo Quintana-Lacaci Ramos, who controlled the security of the Zarzuela for a decade.

The Kings and their daughters, in Santiago, on July 25. Carlos Álvarez (Getty Images)

In the group of "professionals", the military have always controlled the security of the Zarzuela, a position that has invariably rotated between an officer of the Army and the Civil Guard and who directs several hundred escorts of the Civil Guard and (in some lesser extent) of the National Police Force.

The heads of some rolled mercilessly, they knew too much.

In the current staff, of the 11 high positions, seven are military, and they control from security, to the Protocol, the agenda and the administration.

Also communications and medical services.

Even a military archbishop with the job of division general (Juan Antonio Aznárez) takes care of the spiritual affairs of the House.

Without forgetting, the Military Quarter, commanded by a lieutenant general,

It is installed in the Palacio de Oriente (as the Special Police Station of the Royal House) and commands the thousand or so men and women of the Royal Guard who pay homage to the monarch.

Security is the responsibility of Brigadier General of the Civil Guard Miguel Ángel Herráiz who has been at his side for more than 20 years, since he was commander.

With Felipe de Borbón the history of his ancestors was repeated.

When he entered the General Military Academy of Zaragoza in 1985 (in the XXXXI promotion), and later in Marín and San Javier, he discovered a human material very different from that of the Madrid high bourgeoisie, full of surnames of the aristocracy and the plutocracy, the ones he was used to.

Some would become great friends with him;

anonymous, middle-class friends with whom he meets regularly at promotional dinners, who keep him closely linked to the military institution and some of whom have already reached the generalship.

In preparing his agenda, the King always insists on visiting military units and regularly receives colonels, generals and admirals at the Palacio de Oriente.

The person who keeps his agenda, Brigadier General Emilio Tomé de la Vega,

It was that young captain who helped him take his first steps at the Zaragoza Academy and until recently, the head of the Military Quarter, Admiral Juan Ruiz Casas, was previously his assistant.

The Queen's Secretary is Division General José Manuel Zuleta and the Chief of Protocol is Colonel of the Cavalry Francisco (Curro) Lizaur.

The number two of the King's team is the Lieutenant General of the Civil Guard Diego Martínez Palomo.

La Zarzuela is no longer a barracks like El Pardo was, but the military element continues to set the atmosphere, rhythm and sobriety of the Headquarters of State.

When Leonor de Borbón steps on the parade ground of the General Military Academy at the end of the summer and occupies her bare cabin with a fellow cadet, nothing about her will come as too much of a surprise.

Neither the uniforms, the insignia, the songs nor the rites.

Neither did many of the last names of her comrades.

From the academies she will come out with the two lieutenant stars.

When she is queen she will wear the five stars of captain general.

Meanwhile, she has to learn.

Someday those teammates will likely be part of her team and her emotional landscape.

Some will protect her.

And they will be her umbilical cord with the Armed Forces.

After the invasion of Ukraine,

the Army (thanks also to the work of some units such as the UME) is more fashionable than ever since the death of the dictator Franco.

And Leonor is going to be part of that ecosystem.

The King, on the 8th, received a group of major non-commissioned officers in audience at the Royal Palace of Madrid.Alberto Ortega (Europa Press)

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