It was Holy Monday in 2012, and Infanta Elena’s eldest son, Felipe Juan Froilán de Todos los Santos de Marichalar y Borbón, was at the family estate in Garray, Soria, spending a few days with his father, Jaime de Marichalar, after skiing in Baqueira Beret with his mother and sister.
What happened that afternoon was quite controversial: the young boy had shot himself in the right foot with a 36-gauge double-barrel shotgun. The shot passed through his foot from side to side at the level of the second metatarsal bone. All the pellets exited together, resulting in the loss of soft tissue, and the pain must have been considerable. Froilán was 13 years old.
In Spain, the minimum legal age to handle this type of firearm, with a special permit and accompanied by a licensed adult, is 14.
The Royal Family’s statement pointed the finger directly at Froilán’s father. The statement that the Royal Household sent to newsrooms in the early hours of the morning was brief and quite direct in its wording: the accident had occurred while Froilán was “accompanied by his father.”
When Infanta Elena arrived at the Quirón Clinic in Madrid, where her son was admitted to have the pellets removed and the damaged tissue repaired, her first words to journalists were equally clear: “I don’t know how the accident happened. He was with his father.”
If anyone was responsible in this story, the last name was Marichalar, not Borbón. The Civil Guard opened a case file to investigate what had happened.
Froilán was initially treated at a health center in Soria, but the severity of his injury required immediate surgery. The family traveled to Madrid, where he underwent surgery at the Quirón Clinic. The first to appear was Queen Sofía, who left the facility with Elena, providing reassuring news: “He’s fine; he was playing.
We know that children recover quickly.”
The scare remained just that: a scare. But the question on everyone’s mind remained: What was a 13-year-old boy doing handling a firearm when he was legally too young to do so?
The Bourbon family’s firearms tragedy
What makes this episode more than just an anecdote is the way it echoes another, much darker family story.
During Holy Week in 1956, Infante Alfonso, Juan Carlos’s younger brother, died from an accidental gunshot at the age of 14.
It was also during school break, there was also a firearm in the hands of teenagers, and it was also Easter Week. The revolver belonged to Don Juan and was kept locked in his study, to which their mother had given them access that afternoon.
The shot was accidental and accurate. Alfonso never turned 15. Fifty-six years later, the Bourbons came close to repeating the tragedy. This time, luck was on their side, but the question left by Froilán’s accident is quite uncomfortable for a family with that history behind them.