Un día como hoy 22 de Julio de 1969 las Cortes españolas ratifican el nombramiento de Juan Carlos como sucesor a título de rey hecho por Franco en virtud de la Ley de Sucesión en la Jefatura del estado de 1947. Disposiciones ante las que el entonces joven príncipe prestaría juramento el mismo día de guardar y hacer guardar las Leyes Fundamentales del Reino y los principios del Movimiento Nacional, es decir, el ideario franquista. No obstante, se basó en las facultades que dichas leyes le otorgaban para impulsar el cambio de régimen y facilitar el advenimiento de la democracia. Siguiendo las reglas dinásticas, la sucesión hubiera debido recaer en su padre, Juan de Borbón y Battenberg, tercer hijo y heredero del rey Alfonso XIII. Sin embargo, las no muy cordiales relaciones entre Juan y Franco determinaron el salto en la línea de sucesión y el nombramiento de Juan Carlos como Príncipe de España, título de nuevo cuño con el que Franco pretendía salvar distancias con respecto a la monarquía liberal. Dicho salto fue aceptado por el príncipe Juan Carlos, creando un conflicto interno en la Casa Real de Borbón. El Conde Barcelona no renunciaría oficialmente a sus derechos sucesorios hasta 1977. Juan Carlos I asumió interinamente la jefatura del Estado entre el 19 de julio al 2 de septiembre de 1974 y después desde el 30 de octubre al 20 de noviembre de 1975 por enfermedades de Franco. El 9 de julio de 1974, Franco era ingresado por una flebitis en la pierna derecha. Antes de partir hacia el hospital, llamó al presidente del gobierno, Carlos Arias Navarro, y al presidente de las Cortes Españolas, Alejandro Rodríguez de Valcárcel, para que prepararan el traspaso interino de poderes al príncipe. Con todo, dos días más tarde, Juan Carlos, que no quería un traspaso interino por parte de Franco, intentó persuadir a Arias para que hiciera ver al dictador que debía traspasarle el poder de manera definitiva. Ante la negativa del presidente del Gobierno, el príncipe pidió a Franco que no firmara el decreto de traspaso. El 19 de julio, el estado del dictador se agravó, por lo que Arias acudió al hospital para que aprobara el traspaso. El yerno de Franco, Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú, intentó impedir que Arias entrara en la habitación del jefe del Estado. Finalmente consiguió acceder, tras lo cual convenció al dictador para que cediera el poder de manera interina, lo que provocó la furia del marqués de Villaverde y de la esposa del dictador, Carmen Polo. Juan Carlos asumía por primera vez la jefatura del Estado de manera interina. Tras un nuevo empeoramiento de la salud de Franco, el 23 de octubre de 1975, Valcárcel y Arias Navarro acudieron a La Zarzuela para proponer al Príncipe que asumiera de nuevo interinamente la jefatura del Estado. Juan Carlos se negó si la sustitución no era definitiva. El 30 de octubre, Franco padeció una peritonitis. Informado de la gravedad de su estado por el equipo médico que lo atendía, el dictador ordenó su sustitución por parte del príncipe Juan Carlos, lo que este aceptó, una vez tuvo la certeza de que la enfermedad del dictador era terminal.
Un día como hoy 22 de Julio de 1977 se celebra en el Congreso la ceremonia de la solemne inauguración de las Cortes Constituyentes españolas en la que el rey Juan Carlos I reconoce la soberanía del pueblo español. La Legislatura Constituyente de España comienza el 19 de junio de 1977, tras el triunfo por mayoría simple de la UCD en las Elecciones generales de 1977. El nuevo gobierno, presidido por Adolfo Suárez González, vendría a culminar el proceso de Transición española desarrollado en el país tras la muerte de Francisco Franco al propiciar la redacción de la Constitución española de 1978. Las nuevas Cortes se inauguraron por el rey Juan Carlos I un día como hoy 22 de julio de 1977. La I Legislatura es la posterior a la Legislatura Constituyente.
Felipe VI de España es el actual rey de España, desde su ascenso al trono el 19 de junio del 2014 tras la abdicación de su padre, Juan Carlos I, lo que le confiere, constitucionalmente, la jefatura ... Wikipedia
Nacimiento: 30 de enero de 1968 (edad 56 años), Madrid, España
To prepare for his future role as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, Felipe joined the Spanish Army in 1985. During the next two years, he completed his military training in the Navy and Air Force. After completing his civil and military studies, he undertook official duties representing his father in different social and institutional events, such as chairing charity foundations or attending inaugurations of Latin American leaders. At one of these events with the press, Felipe met TV news journalist Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, whom he married in 2004. They have two daughters, Leonor, Princess of Asturias, and Infanta Sofía.
Shortly after his birth Felipe was styledinfante. The dictator Francisco Franco died just over two months before Felipe's eighth birthday, and Felipe's father ascended the throne, as the latter had been appointed as Prince of Spain back in 1969. In his first official appearance, Felipe attended his father's proclamation as king on 22 November 1975.[11]
Juan Carlos, Prince of Spain (left), with his son Felipe and his brother-in-law Constantine II of Greece (right) with his son Pavlos, 1968
In 1977, Felipe was formally proclaimed Prince of Asturias.[15][16][17] In May, nine-year-old Felipe was made an honorary soldier of the 1st King's Inmemorial Infantry Regiment.[18] The occasion was marked on 28 May and was attended by the king, the prime minister and several other ministers in a ceremony at the infantry's barracks.[19][20] On 1 November the same year, he was ceremoniously paid homage as Prince of Asturias in Covadonga.[21] In 1981 Felipe received the Collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece from his father, the Chief and Sovereign of the Order.[14][22] On his 18th birthday on 30 January 1986, Felipe swore allegiance to the Constitution and to the King in the Spanish Parliament as required by the constitution, fully accepting his role as successor to the Crown.[11][23]
Instituida por Orden de SM el Rey D. Fernando VII, el día 24 de marzo de 1815.
La invasión napoleónica en España, no solo supuso un revulsivo interno en la política del Reino de España, sino que llevo las ganas de independencia de los criollos de las tierras de ultramar. Ellos, que eran los descendientes de los españoles que fueron descubriendo y civilizando aquellas tierras, dándoles su cultura y tradiciones, sintieron la falta de atención de la Península en los asuntos americanos, aunque si bien es cierto en modo, tampoco faltaban las ganas de aglutinar el poder ellos solos, dejando de lado a la metrópoli de la que venían todas sus heredades.
El desgobierno que había en España derivado de la Guerra de la independencia, fue utilizado por los separatistas, que se infiltraron en las Juntas autónomas creadas en las provincias españoles de ultramar. Con ello, se inicia una lucha por la independencia, que se alargará hasta finales del siglo XIX.
Al llegar al trono de Fernando VII, hubo que enfrentar a los separatistas. Puso todos los medios para conseguir la permanencia de las provincias bajo soberanía española, y con el ánimo de premiar a los españoles leales a su patria y al Rey, la «acrisolada lealtad, el celo y patriotismo, desprendimiento, valor y otras virtudes que tanto los individuos de la milicia como de todas las clases y jerarquías del Estado han mostrado y mostraren en adelante en favor de la defensa y conservación de aquellos remotos países» Fernando VII crea la REAL ORDEN AMERICANA DE ISABEL LA CATOLICA.
El nombre elegido fue el de su augusta Antepasada, a cuya iniciativa e impronta, se debió el descubrimiento de América. Con el fin de premiar la lealtad de tantos españoles que se mantenían fieles a sus raíces y su patria, y el mérito contratado en favor de la defensa y la conservación de aquellos dominios, crea la Orden, de carácter inicialmente militar, siguiendo la tradición española, bajo la protección de un Santo Patrono, en este caso a Santa Isabel, Reina de Portugal.
En sus primeros Estatutos se establecían tres categorías; Gran cruz, Caballeros de primera y de segunda clase; a todos ellos se les reconocía la nobleza personal.
Fernando VII dio los primeros pasos de la Orden nombrando 15 grandes cruces, 14 caballeros de primera clase y 3 de segunda. Nombró el Capítulo Supremo, presidido por el Duque de San Carlos. En aquella primera reunión, se propuso al Rey el cambio de clases, que quedaría de la siguiente manera: Gran Cruz, Comendador y Caballero. Para los indigenas americanos se estableció la medalla especial.
El Papa Pío VII expedía la bula Víros magnos ín regno, el 26 de mayo de 1816, aprobando y confirmando la nueva Orden Americana, y extendiendo a sus caballeros y ministros las mismas indulgencias y gracias espirituales que a los de la Orden de Carlos III. El 20 de enero de 1816 se escogió para sede de la Orden la iglesia de Santa María la Real de la Almudena.
La orden perdió su sentido inicial desde la perdida de las provincias americanas. Sin fondos y sin sentido, fue cayendo en el ostracismo.
En 1847, se acometió una importante reforma de las Órdenes Reales españolas. Los capítulos solemnes continuaron celebrándose en el reinado de Isabel II. La Real Orden de Isabel la Católica, dejó de denominarse Americana en virtud del Real Decreto de 15 de abril de 1889, y fue considerada la condecoración general y propia del mérito civil, entregándose desde ese momento, a los españoles que se distinguían por sus méritos al servicio de España.
La Real Orden de Isabel la Católica fue la única que no suprimió en 1931. Durante la guerra civil ambos bandos en lucha estuvieron entregando las condecoraciones.
Actualmente, la Orden se rige por el Real Decreto 2395/1998, de 6 de noviembre, mediante el cual han sido derogadas todas las normas anteriores, salvo los estatutos fundacionales. Según su artículo primero, la Real Orden de Isabel la Católica tiene por objeto premiar aquellos comportamientos extraordinarios de carácter civil, realizados por personas españolas y extranjeras, que redunden en beneficio de la Nación, o que contribuyan, de modo relevante, a favorecer las relaciones de amistad y cooperación de la Nación española con el resto de la comunidad internacional.
SM el Rey es el Gran Maestre de la Real Orden, y puede ostentar diariamente las insignias. Su sede y oficinas se encuentran en el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, ya que su Gran Canciller es el Ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, y la Canónica sigue estando en la Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Almudena.
Las categorías de la Real Orden de Isabel la Católica consta de las siguientes categorías comunes para ambos sexos:
Collar
Placa del Collar
Encomienda (lazo de dama opcional)
Encomienda
Placa de encomienda
Cruz (lazo de dama opcional)
Cruz
Placa de la Cruz
Oficial (lazo de dama opcional)
Oficial
Cruz de plata (lazo de dama opcional)
Cruz de Plata
Medalla de plata (lazo de dama opcional)
Medalla de plata
Medalla de bronce (lazo de dama opcional)
Medalla de bronce
El emblema de la Orden es una cruz de oro coronada con una corona olímpica o de cogollos de olivo, formada de cuatro brazos iguales, esmaltada de color rojo, conforme al pabellón español, e interpoladas con los brazos unas ráfagas de oro; En su centro habrá sobrepuesto un escudo circular en que se verán los esmaltes de las dos columnas y dos globos o mundos, que representarán las Indias, enlazados con una cinta, y cubiertos ambos con una corona imperial, llenando el campo del escudo los rayos de luz, que partiendo de los mismos globos se extienden en todos los sentidos. En su anverso, y sobre campo blanco, se leerá de letra de oro la siguiente leyenda: «A LA LEALTAD ACRISOLADA».
La cruz será la mismo pero en el anverso, con la diferencia de que en él habrá de leerse: «POR ISABEL LA CATÓLICA, FERNANDO VII».
Los collares, son propiedad de la Orden y deben ser devueltos tras el fallecimiento del titular de la mismas.
In 1924, the regime of Miguel Primo de Rivera granted Spanish citizenship to a part of the Sephardic Jewish diaspora.[8] The edict was formally and symbolically revoked on December 16, 1968,[9] following the Second Vatican Council, by the regime of Francisco Franco. This occurred a full century after Jews had openly begun to practice their religion in Spain and synagogues were once more legal places of worship under Spain's Laws of Religious Freedom.
Christopher Columbus landing in America with the Piuzon Brothers bearing flags and crosses, 1492.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images/Hulton Archive
SEVILLE, Spain — Conventional history states Christopher Columbus was from Genoa, Italy, but he may have been, in fact, a Sephardic Jew from the eastern Iberian Peninsula, according to a new documentary by Spain’s national broadcaster that also rekindles questions of religious persecution and the treatment of Indigenous communities.
Broadcast by Spanish national public network RTVE on Oct. 12, the day of Spain’s national holiday marking the arrival of Columbus’ expedition to the Americas, Colón ADN, su verdadero origen, or “Columbus’ DNA, his true origin,” follows forensic medical expert José Antonio Lorente as he studies multiple hypotheses regarding the origin of the famed explorer and contrasts the information with scientific and historical evidence.
The documentary concludes that the most plausible theory is one maintained by a Catalan architect who has dedicated many years trying to demonstrate that Cristóbal Colón — Columbus’ name in Spanish — was a Jewish man from the region of Valencia, on the Mediterranean coast of eastern Spain.
Some in the scientific community, however, have expressed skepticism about the methods and scientific rigor that Lorente employs, and highlight the fact that Lorente’s findings have not been presented for peer review yet.
Columbus’ origins come into question
Few things about Christopher Columbus can be stated as facts. Legend has it that at a party with noble Spaniards he demonstrated the possibility of the impossible by making an egg stand on its tip. There is a trick, of course: he flattened the edge of the egg without breaking it.
But there are some details that have not been questioned by most people through the years. Like the fact that Columbus came from Genoa, in Italy. That he persuaded Spain’s Catholic monarchs to sponsor an impossible voyage to the Indies traveling west instead of east from Spain.
Lorente, a forensic medical expert at the University of Granada, has researched Columbus’ origin for the past 22 years. In the documentary, he considers a number of theories about the origin of Columbus, examining them against DNA evidence and historical records.
Finally, Lorente arrives at the garden of Francesc Albardaner, a Catalan architect who authored the book La catalanitat de Colom. According to Albardaner, Columbus was a Sephardic Jew, part of the that Jewish diaspora associated with the Iberian Peninsula. Columbus would have followed Jewish traditions and customs, although in the public sphere he acted as Christian. He was born into a family of silk weavers from the Spanish city of Valencia, where there was a long tradition within the Jewish community of silk weavers.
But in order to determine Columbus’ ancestry, Lorente has to overcome a first hurdle, to shed light on the question of where the true remains of the sailor are.
People visit the tomb of Christopher Columbus at the Cathedral of Seville on October 11.
Cristina Quicler/AFP via Getty Images
Columbus’ disputed resting place
The mausoleum of Christopher Columbus here in Seville features four bronze heralds representing the four Spanish kingdoms before they came under a single rule, in 1469. On the heralds’ shoulders, a massive tomb that the Catholic Church and local authorities assure contains the remains of Columbus.
But Columbus’ resting place has been in dispute for centuries. The Columbus Lighthouse is a huge mausoleum monument to the explorer located in Santo Domingo, capital of the Dominican Republic. The monument was inaugurated in 1992 and, according to Dominican authorities, Columbus’ remains are inside the mausoleum.
There seems to be agreement among historians about the fact that the remains of Columbus, who died in Spain in 1506, were at one point taken back to Hispaniola, the Caribbean island containing the Dominican Republic and Haiti. But that's where historical agreement ends. Some claim the remains of Columbus made their way back to Spain, while others say the wrong bones were taken from Santo Domingo, and therefore Columbus remains in the Dominican Republic.
In Columbus’ DNA, his true origin, Lorente uses DNA from Hernando Colón, son of Christopher Columbus, and distant cousin Diego Colón to verify that the few bones that were housed at the Cathedral of Seville are indeed the true remains of the sailor.
Lorente’s conclusion is unequivocal: Christopher Columbus was of Jewish descent. That led to a process of deduction based on historical evidence. The documentary states that during Columbus’ time there were only an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 Jewish people living on the Italian peninsula. By contrast, there were about 200,000 Jewish people living in what is now Spain, an estimate that may be low, since tens of thousands of Jewish people had converted to Catholicism over the previous century, victims of constant persecution.
Also in the documentary, Albardaner, the Catalan architect, says Genoa had expelled its Jewish population in the 12th century. There were virtually no Jewish people living in Genoa in the times of Columbus, who lived from 1451 to 1506, and Jewish people doing business were only allowed to enter the city for three days at a time.
If the DNA evidence studied by Lorente suggests Columbus was a Jewish man, then it becomes highly improbable that he was from Genoa, according to Albardaner.
Forensic medical expert José Antonio Lorente examines DNA evidence in an image from the documentary Colón ADN, su verdadero origen.
Story Producciones
Why would Columbus lie about his heritage?
On Oct. 19, 1469, a young couple was married in Valladolid, Spain. Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand II, the Catholic monarchs, came to be known for a number of historical achievements, such as unifying the kingdoms that now comprise Spain, or the so-called reconquista (reconquering) of Al-Andalus, the vast region of southern Spain that had been under Muslim control for centuries. But during the Catholic monarchs’ rule the Spanish Inquisition also acquired unprecedented powers. A judicial institution linked to the Roman Catholic Church, the Inquisition sought to identify heretics and order Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism, using brutal methods.
But Muslims were not the only people living in the Iberian Peninsula that the Catholic monarchs seemed to want to get rid of. In 1492 the monarchs signed the Alhambra Decree, which ordered the expulsion of Jewish people, seeking to eliminate their influence on Spain's large population of converts, and to make sure its members did not revert to Judaism. The monarchs ordered the remaining Jews to convert or face expulsion from Spain.
Devin Naar, Sephardic studies program chair at the University of Washington, told the BBC's Newshour that escaping persecution in the times of the Catholic monarchs and the Spanish Inquisition was not as easy as simply converting to Catholicism:
“What the Spanish Inquisition did was that it targeted, not Jews as Jews and not Muslims as Muslims, but rather initially and specifically those who were of Jewish or Muslim origin, but who had converted to Catholicism. And there was the perception that they had continued to practice Judaism on one hand or Islam on the other hand in secret. The Inquisition used a variety of different means to try to coerce confessions. It used all of the different medieval tools that we might think about, including burning at the stake,” Naar said.
So Columbus may have been hiding his Sephardic origins to avoid stigmatization, persecution, or even death.
Naar adds that the claim that Columbus was of Spanish-Jewish origin or converso origin — conversos is what the Spanish called Jewish converts to Catholicism and their descendants — has been around for more than 100 years.
Disagreement from the scientific community
The release of the documentary on RTVE has sparked criticisms from the scientific community. Most notably, a recent article published by the Spanish newspaper El País has several experts questioning the process Lorente used to reach his conclusions.
"I don't understand how data that the scientific community has not yet endorsed is presented to society, which puts the data itself and the hypotheses proposed at risk," Antonio Alonso, a geneticist and former director of Spain’s National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences is quoted as saying.
Rodrigo Barquera, an expert in archaeogenetics at Germany’s Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, told El País he was surprised that Lorente’s findings had been shared without prior scrutiny from others in the scientific community.
Even the DNA angle is questioned by Antonio Salas, who directs the Population Genetics in Biomedicine group at the Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela, telling El País: “The documentary promised to focus on DNA analysis. However, the genetic information it offers is very limited.”
Lorente, in response, told El País that the documentaryisa film, not a scientific publication, and he promises scientific findings will be presented in the near future.
The evolving role of Columbus in history
Columbus’ actions, once regarded as accomplishments, have become a symbol to many as a starting point for a history of abuse. To others, Columbus, 1492, and what came after, are still worth celebrating.
To this day, Spain marks Oct. 12 as a national holiday, also widely known as Hispanic Heritage Day, to commemorate the arrival of Columbus’ expedition in the Americas. And to this day, Spain’s popular culture has not been able to shake up the use of the controversial term “Descubrimiento de América” (the discovery of America) to refer to that moment in history.
In Latin America and to many U.S.-based Latinos and Native Americans, the so-called “discovery of the Americas” was only the beginning of a cruel history of extermination, subjugation and colonization of its native people and lands. This continues to play a role in international diplomacy. Just last month, the recently elected first woman president of Mexico did not invite the Spanish king to her inauguration as part of an ongoing spat between the two countries over the history of Spanish colonization. Spain’s current government, led by the progressive Socialist Party, said that Mexico’s decision was unacceptable.
Protesters topple a statue of Christopher Columbus during a demonstration against government in Barranquilla, Colombia on June 28, 2021.
Mery Granados Herrera/AFP via Getty Images
The United States has recognized Columbus Day as a federal holiday since 1934, when President Roosevelt designated the standing. For many in the Italian American community, the presumed fact that Columbus was originally from Italy has been a reason for pride and celebration. In 2022, however, President Biden issued a proclamation on Indigenous Peoples Day, and both are observed on the second Monday of October, but most government websites continue to list “Columbus Day” as the federal holiday the nation celebrated this week.
Spain did take measures to remediate the harm done to Sephardic Jews. In 2015 the Spanish Parliament approved an act granting Spanish citizenship to Sephardic Jews with Spanish origins. Spain has not provided reparations to descendants of Spanish Muslims who once lived in the Iberian Peninsula.
Hagia Sophia (Turkish: Ayasofya; Ancient Greek: Ἁγία Σοφία, romanized: Hagía Sophía; Latin: Sancta Sapientia; lit.'Holy Wisdom'), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (Turkish: Ayasofya-i Kebir Cami-i Şerifi; Greek: Μεγάλο Τζαμί της Αγίας Σοφίας),[3] is a mosque and former church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively erected on the site by the Eastern Roman Empire, it was completed in AD 537. The site was an Eastern rite church from AD 360 to 1453, except for a brief time as a Latin Catholic church between the Fourth Crusade and 1261.[4] After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, it served as a mosque until 1935, when it became a museum. In 2020, the site once again became a mosque.
The current structure was built by the Byzantine emperorJustinian I as the Christian cathedral of Constantinople for the Byzantine Empire between 532 and 537, and was designed by the GreekgeometersIsidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles.[5] It was formally called the Church of God's Holy Wisdom (Greek: Ναὸς τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας, romanized: Naòs tês Hagías toû Theoû Sophías)[6][7] and upon completion became the world's largest interior space and among the first to employ a fully pendentive dome. It is considered the epitome of Byzantine architecture[8] and is said to have "changed the history of architecture".[9] The present Justinianic building was the third church of the same name to occupy the site, as the prior one had been destroyed in the Nika riots. As the episcopal see of the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, it remained the world's largest cathedral for nearly a thousand years, until the Seville Cathedral was completed in 1520. Beginning with subsequent Byzantine architecture, Hagia Sophia became the paradigmatic Orthodox church form, and its architectural style was emulated by Ottoman mosques a thousand years later.[10] It has been described as "holding a unique position in the Christian world"[10] and as an architectural and cultural icon of Byzantine and Eastern Orthodox civilization.[10][11][12]
The complex remained a mosque until 1931, when it was closed to the public for four years. It was re-opened in 1935 as a museum under the secular Republic of Turkey, and the building was Turkey's most visited tourist attraction as of 2019.[20]
In July 2020, the Council of State annulled the 1934 decision to establish the museum, and the Hagia Sophia was reclassified as a mosque. The 1934 decree was ruled to be unlawful under both Ottoman and Turkish law as Hagia Sophia's waqf, endowed by Sultan Mehmed, had designated the site a mosque; proponents of the decision argued the Hagia Sophia was the personal property of the sultan. The decision to designate Hagia Sophia as a mosque was highly controversial. It resulted in divided opinions and drew condemnation from the Turkish opposition, UNESCO, the World Council of Churches and the International Association of Byzantine Studies, as well as numerous international leaders, while several Muslim leaders in Turkey and other countries welcomed its conversion into a mosque.
The first church on the site was known as the Magna Ecclesia (Μεγάλη Ἐκκλησία, Megálē Ekklēsíā, 'Great Church')[21][22] because of its size compared to the sizes of the contemporary churches in the city.[13] According to the Chronicon Paschale, the church was consecrated on 15 February 360, during the reign of the emperor Constantius II (r. 337–361) by the Arian bishop Eudoxius of Antioch.[23][24] It was built next to the area where the Great Palace was being developed. According to the 5th-century ecclesiastical historian Socrates of Constantinople, the emperor Constantius had c. 346 "constructed the Great Church alongside that called Irene which because it was too small, the emperor's father [Constantine] had enlarged and beautified".[25][23] A tradition which is not older than the 7th or 8th century reports that the edifice was built by Constantius' father, Constantine the Great (r. 306–337).[23]Hesychius of Miletus wrote that Constantine built Hagia Sophia with a wooden roof and removed 427 (mostly pagan) statues from the site.[26] The 12th-century chronicler Joannes Zonaras reconciles the two opinions, writing that Constantius had repaired the edifice consecrated by Eusebius of Nicomedia, after it had collapsed.[23] Since Eusebius was the bishop of Constantinople from 339 to 341, and Constantine died in 337, it seems that the first church was erected by Constantius.[23]
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Fernando VII dio los primeros pasos de la Orden nombrando 15 grandes cruces, 14 caballeros de primera clase y 3 de segunda. Nombró el Capítulo Supremo, presidido por el Duque de San Carlos. En aquella primera reunión, se propuso al Rey el cambio de clases, que quedaría de la siguiente manera: Gran Cruz, Comendador y Caballero. Para los indigenas americanos se estableció la medalla especial.
