- H.M. Queen Sofia presided over the presentation of the IV Spanish Orders History Award in a ceremony held today in the Salas Capitulares of the Royal Monastery of El Escorial. The ceremony was attended by the President of the Royal Council of the Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara and Montesa, H.R.H. Pedro de Borbón Dos Sicilias y de Orleans, Duke of Calabria, as well as prominent personalities from the academic, cultural and business world, both nationally and internationally.
- The historian and academic Carmen Iglesias addressed H.M. Queen Sofia at the beginning of her speech and thanked her for her presence by evoking an excerpt from Don Quixote: “I wanted to recall in my thanks the words that Cervantes puts in the mouth of Don Quixote, which express the emotion and the feeling of gratitude in a masterful way and vindicate a gratitude to the people who favor us and that should never be forgotten”.
- The International prize for History Spanish Orders is a recognized award that distinguishes the research career of a historian. Throughout its four editions, it has received nominations from more than 60 institutions around the world and is sponsored by leading organizations such as the Talgo Foundation, Ramón Areces Foundation, Valmenta and the Royal Association of Hidalgos of Spain.
October 27th, 2022. – The historian and academic Carmen Iglesias received this morning the IV Spanish Orders History Award from the hands of H.M. Queen Sofia, in the Chapter Rooms of the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. She is the first woman to receive this award, which in its four editions, has received more than 60 nominations from the most prestigious institutions around the world.
The ceremony began with the opening of the session by Her Majesty Queen Sofia, who gave the floor successively to H.R.H. Don Pedro de Borbón-Dos Sicilias; to the historian and jurist Feliciano Barrios, who gave the laudatio of the laureate, and to the secretary of the Spanish Orders of History Award, Alvaro Mariátegui, who read the minutes of the awarding of the prize.
Queen Sofia presented the diploma and a medal, made by the Royal Spanish Mint, to Carmen Iglesias.
The director of the Royal Academy of History expressed her deep gratitude for the awarding of this prize which, she said, “puts the value of History in the first place”. Iglesias then made a tour of Hispanic history and its projection in the world, stressing “that the history of the world cannot be understood without the history of Spain and America, of the Hispanic monarchy”. He also claimed the need to approach history with balanced objectivity, with “the truth of the facts” and encouraged to reflect on “the falsehoods and lies that produce realities, also false and dangerous, by fostering hatred, resentment, virtual war in any case”.
“Every Empire in history has had its “black legends”, but in our case of the Hispanic sphere, we find something unusual and that is that it is the Hispanics themselves who create or foster the bad reputation. All this is aggravated when significant sectors among the Spanish and Hispanic Americans themselves believe in these falsified generalities and assume them with a certain resignation and authentic inferiority complex.” “The Indies were never colonies. The Hispanic Monarchy was polycentric around the world; Mexico was the most important center of the Monarchy”, expressed with forcefulness the award winner.
Iglesias concluded her speech by vehemently affirming that “Universality, the equality of all on both sides of the Atlantic as subjects of the monarch, is a special seal of the Hispanic Monarchy, which had nothing to do -although nothing can be idyllic, but it does differentiate- with the misrepresentations and falsehoods even believed by Spaniards. Spain is the main protagonist of the first globalization of the world”.
Carmen Iglesias is an expert historian in the 18th century, without forgetting other moments in the history of Spain and its language. Professor of History of Ideas and Political Forms at the Complutense University, and then of Ideas and Moral and Political Ideas at the King Juan Carlos University, she has published more than two hundred works of historical research. Among these are: “El pensamiento de Montesquieu: ciencia y filosofía en el siglo XVIII”; “Nobleza y sociedad en la España Moderna”, I, II, III; “Razón, sentimiento y utopía”; “No siempre lo peor es cierto: estudios sobre historia de España”.
She has been a member of the Royal Academy of History since 1991, an institution she has headed since 2014, being the first woman to hold the position. She has also been a member of the Royal Spanish Academy since 2000.
Among her many awards are the Gran Cruz de Alfonso X el Sabio (1995), Premio Nacional de Historia (2000), and recently the Sophia Award for Excellence, promoted by the Queen Sofia Spanish Institute of New York. Likewise, in 2014 she received the title of Countess of Gisbert, granted by King Juan Carlos I, as “a token of His Royal appreciation for the brilliant and intense academic and teaching work at the service of Spain and the Crown”.
Her candidacy for the Spanish Orders History Award was presented by the Spanish University Foundation.
The Spanish Orders History Prize is an international award created by the Spanish Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara and Montesa. It is endowed with 60,000 euros and is supported by the Talgo Foundation, the Ramón Areces Foundation, Micaela Valdés, of Valmenta, and the Royal Association of Hidalgos of Spain.
Sir John H. Elliott, considered a master Hispanist, who passed away recently, was the winner of the First Edition. The prizes for the second and third editions went to the medievalist from Valladolid, Miguel Ángel Ladero, and the Mexican writer and essayist Enrique Krauze.
The jury is chaired by H.R.H. Don Pedro de Borbón Dos Sicilias y de Orleans, Duke of Calabria, president of the Royal Council of the Orders of Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara and Montesa. Vice Chairman: Juan Castillejo y de Oriol, Duke of San Miguel, Chairman of Grupo Somos. Members: Ana de la Cueva Fernández, president of Patrimonio Nacional; Hugo O’Donnell y Duque de Estrada, duke of Tetuán, censor of the R.A. de la Historia; Feliciano Barrios Pintado, secretary of the R.A. de la Historia; Luis Antonio Ribot García, academician of the R.A. de la Historia; Carmen Sanz Ayada, duke of Tetuán, censor of the R.A. de la Historia; Luis Antonio Ribot García, academician of the R.A. de la Historia; Carmen Sanz Ayada, duke of Tetuán. de la Historia; Carmen Sanz Ayán, academician of the R.A. de la Historia; Enrique Krauze Kleinbort, winner of the III Edition of the Premio de Historia Órdenes Españolas; Micaela Valdés y Ozores, censor of the Real Sociedad Económica Matritense de Amigos del País and correspondent of the R. A. of History; Carlos de Palacio Oriol, president of the Talgo Foundation; Raimundo Pérez-Hernández y Torra, director of the Ramón Areces Foundation; Manuel Pardo de Vera, president of the Royal Association of Hidalgos of Spain; Marcelino Oreja y Aguirre, marquis of Oreja, academician and honorary president of the R. A. of Moral and Political Sciences. A. of Moral and Political Sciences; Iñigo Moreno y de Arteaga, Marquis of Laserna, corresponding to the R.A. of History; Manuel Gullón y de Oñate, Count of Tepa, Gentleman of His Holiness. Secretary: Álvaro Mariátegui y Valdés. Treasurer Trustee of the Fundación Órdenes Españolas and of the Premio de Historia Órdenes Españolas: Iñigo de Churruca y Bonilla.
- Speech D. Pedro de Borbón Award History Orders 2022 – Download –
- Speech Ms. Carmen Iglesias IV Spanish Orders History Award – Download –
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