María del Carmen Iglesias Cano, 1st Countess of Gisbert, is a Spanish historian. She is the Director of the

Real Academia de la Historia The Royal Academy of History (, RAH) is a Spanish institution in Madrid that studies history "ancient and modern, political, civil, ecclesiastical, military, scientific, of letters and arts, that is to say, the different branches of life, of c ...

. In this role she has been responsible for the launch of the electronic version of Spain´s dictionary of national biography, the '' Diccionario biográfico español''. She is also a member of the

Royal Spanish Academy The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanophon ...

, which regulates the Spanish language. She holds the non-hereditary title Countess of Gisbert, which was bestowed on her by

King Juan Carlos King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a constitutional monarch if his power is restrained by f ...

.In a decree dated May 2014 the King stated:

Biography

Education

Iglesias studied at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

Career

Iglesias is a specialist in 18th-century history, and her publications include work on the French philosopher

Montesquieu Charles Louis de Secondat, baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher. He is the principal so ...

. Iglesias was elected to ''medalla nº 23'' of the

on 16 June 1989 and took up her seat on 4 November 1991. She has been director of the Academy since 2014, and is the first female director of that institution. She was elected to Seat ''E'' of the

Real Academia Española The Royal Spanish Academy (, ; ) is Spain's official royal institution with a mission to ensure the stability of the Spanish language. It is based in Madrid, Spain, and is affiliated with national language academies in 22 other Hispanopho ...

on 13 April 2000, she took up her seat on 30 September 2002.

Royal House

Iglesias has been a close friend of the

Spanish royal family The Spanish royal family constitutes the Spanish branch of the House of Bourbon (), also known as the House of Bourbon-Anjou (). The royal family is headed by King Felipe VI and currently consists of the King; Queen Letizia; their children, Leono ...

since the 1980s. In 1984, a year after obtaining the professorship at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, she was appointed tutor to the

Infanta Cristina Infanta Cristina (Cristina Federica Victoria Antonia de la Santísima Trinidad de Borbón y de Grecia, born 13 June 1965) is the younger daughter of King Juan Carlos I and his wife, Queen Sofía. She is sixth in the line of succession to the S ...

in the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology. Later, between the late 1980s and 1993, she was the private teacher of

Felipe, Prince of Asturias Felipe VI (; Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Grecia; born 30 January 1968) is King of Spain. In accordance with the Spanish Constitution, as monarch, he is head of state and commander-in-chief of the Spanish Armed F ...

Bibliography

''El pensamiento de Montesquieu: política y ciencia natural''. 1984, republished 2005
(link to lecture on Montesquieu)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iglesias, Carmen 1942 births Nobility from Madrid 20th-century Spanish historians Spanish women historians Complutense University of Madrid alumni Members of the Real Academia de la Historia Members of the Royal Spanish Academy Spanish countesses Living people 21st-century Spanish historians