Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona

Juan was born at the Palace of San Ildefonso. His father was forced into exile when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931. Owing to the renunciations in 1933 of his brothers Alfonso, Prince of Asturias, and Infante Jaime, Duke of Segovia, Infante Juan became next in line to the defunct Spanish throne. He thus received the title Prince of Asturias when he was serving with the Royal Navy in Bombay.

In March 1935, he was appointed honorary sub-lieutenant[3] and passed his naval exams in gunnery and navigation, which would have entitled him to a lieutenant’s commission in the Royal Navy if he gave up his Spanish nationality. This, however, he refused to do.

He met his future wife at a party hosted by Victor Emmanuel III of Italy on the day before his sister (Infanta Beatriz) was to be married. He married Princess María de las Mercedes of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1910–2000), known in Spain as Doña María de las Mercedes de Borbón Dos-Sicilias y Orleans, in Rome on 12 October 1935.

Just before the birth of the Infante Juan Carlos, the Count of Barcelona decided to go hunting, with the doctor telling him and his wife that the future king would not be born for weeks. When he was told of the birth, he drove to the hospital so quickly that he broke an axle spring.

Portrait by Philip de Laszlo, 1927

In 1931, Juan was subject to dynastic negotiations between the Alfonsists and the Carlists, concluded in so-called Pact of Territet; it has never been implemented. Juan became heir apparent to the defunct Spanish throne after the renunciations of his two older brothers, Alfonso and Jaime, in 1933. To assert his claim to the throne, following his father's death he used the title of Count of Barcelona, a sovereign title associated with the Spanish crown.

In 1936, his father sent him to participate in the Spanish Civil War but he was arrested near the French border, and sent back by General Emilio Mola.

On 19 March 1945, he announced a manifesto in Lausanne, demanding he replace Franco:

Today, six years after the Civil War, the regime established by General Franco, inspired from the start by the totalitarian systems and the Axis powers, so contrary to the character and tradition of our people, is fundamentally incompatible with the circumstances, which the present war is creating in the world. The foreign policy followed by the regime is compromising the future of the nation. Spain runs the risk of being dragged into a new fratricidal conflict and of finding itself totally isolated from the world. The present regime, however hard it tries to adapt to the new situation, is responsible for this double danger. Moreover, a new republic, however moderate in its beginnings and its intentions, will not be long in shifting to one of the extremes, thus strengthening the other and finishing up in a new civil war. Only the traditional monarchy can be an instrument of peace and concord to reconcile Spaniards; it alone can obtain respect from abroad, by means of an effective state of law, and realize a harmonious synthesis of that order and freedom upon which is based the Christian concept of the state. Millions of Spaniards of the most varied ideologies are convinced of this truth and see in the monarchy the only saving institution.[4]

When General Francisco Franco declared Spain a monarchy in 1947, he characterized it as a "restoration". However, Franco was afraid that Juan would roll back the Spanish State because he favoured constitutional monarchy, which would restore parliamentary democracy. As a result, in 1969, Franco passed over Juan in favour of Juan's son, Juan Carlos, who Franco believed would be more likely to continue the dictatorship after his death. Juan Carlos later surprised many by his support of democratising Spain. Franco and Juan did not have a good relationship, with the latter constantly pressing Franco to restore the monarchy. Relations soured further when Juan called Franco an "illegitimate usurper".

Juan formally renounced his rights to the Spanish throne eight years after being displaced as recognised heir to the throne by Franco, and two years after his son, Juan Carlos, had become king. In return, his son officially granted him the title of Count of Barcelona, which he had claimed for so long.

After his death in 1993, he was buried with honours due a king, under the name Juan III (his title if he had become king) in the Royal Crypt of the monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial, near Madrid.[2] His wife survived him by seven years.

He was fond of the sea, and joined the Naval School at San Fernando, Cádiz, and had tattoos of a marine theme from his time in the British Royal Navy.