The historians María and Laura Lara Martínez dismantle in ‘Lies of the historical past of Spain’ (Espasa) legends of the previous which have reached our daysThe writers deny that the origin of parliamentarism is in Great Britain and place it in León in 1188 underneath the reign by Alfonso IXThe Italians who got here to Spain to combat within the Civil War thought that they had come to take part as extras in a movie about Scipio the African
Neither Juana, the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, was loopy nor did her mom promote the jewels to finance Columbus’ journey to America -when he recorded the eruption of the volcanoes within the Canary Islands-, nor had been the English the inventors of Parliament however fairly it was born in León, all of them legends that the historians María and Laura Lara Martínez dismantle in an essay.
Mentiras de la historia de España, revealed by Espasa, is the title of the e-book during which these writers and historians, who’re additionally sisters, uncover a number of the clichés which have survived all through time.
For instance, the historical past of Isabel la Católica, historians level out, is peppered with lies, such because the rumor that she determined to not change her garments till the seize of Granada or the speculation that the invention of America was made due to her promoting her jewellery.
It is true that he supplied them as collateral for a mortgage to cowl the voyage of Columbus, however the notary public and moneylender Luis de Santángel didn’t enable it and took over a big a part of the bills.
Juana I used to be not loopy
But she discovered a subterfuge within the presumed insanity: when Felipe el Hermoso died, she ordered her corpse to be unearthed “not out of attachment to her viscera, however as a result of on this approach she prevented being remarried.” Because there was a practice in Castile {that a} widowed queen couldn’t remarry if her husband was unburied.
Was the British the primary Parliament?
Generally, the historians clarify, when one thinks concerning the origin of parliamentarism, the picture of Great Britain involves thoughts. However, the milestone is in León in 1188, when Alfonso IX convened a royal council there, setting the precedent for a Cortes. The assembly was attended by representatives of the the Aristocracy and the clergy, but in addition representatives elected by the folks. Within this framework, the Decree of León was drawn up, the oldest proof of the participation of the folks in decision-making, whereas in different European nations this didn’t happen till the thirteenth century.
Neither was Felipe IV a shocked king nor was Carlos II bewitched as his nicknames recommended, say the writers. Charles II, to whom inbreeding wreaked havoc, maintained his sense of dignity and tried to counteract his weak point with kindness, mercy, and ethical rectitude. Those virtues, nonetheless, had been overshadowed by his penchant for idleness and his outbursts of anger. He is the one Spanish king who died, on November 1, 1700, with out seeing the ocean.
The so-called “Spanish flu”
They additionally as soon as once more make clear the origin of what was known as the “Spanish flu” in 1917, a time period coined when, confronted with the silence of the contending nations within the First World War, the place censorship was utilized in order to not create alarm, a lot was stated within the Spanish press of the pandemic that stayed with that final identify for hundreds of years.
In the Civil War, the authors stopped recruiting outdoors the Spanish borders to assist either side. This was the case, for instance, with the Italians, who had been advised that they’d journey to Spain to take part as extras in a movie about Scipio the African and, upon disembarking in Cádiz, they came upon that they had been going to an actual warfare.
Visit of Evita Perón
Another of the anecdotes collected within the e-book is the one which occurred when Evita Perón, the Argentine first girl, visited Spain in 1947. From Barcelona, Evita stated goodbye with an deal with broadcast by Radio Nacional de España and the State honored her with a salvo of 21 weapons.
Although he was about to not communicate as a result of diplomacy didn’t perceive Franco’s order nicely. The dictator had stated: “Avoid, let her communicate”, however the journalist didn’t place the comma appropriately and thought that they need to prohibit the primary girl of Argentina from passing the microphone.