FELIPE VI

European public. In Letizia he found a shared seriousness of purpose and a partner deeply conscious of the ways image and substance must align. The public watched the marriage with the hunger of a society that wanted its monarchs to feel both real and exemplary; the couple answered, carefully, with gestures that affirmed family, duty, and contemporary sensibilities.

Then there is the burden and blessing of timing. In 2014, as Spain grappled with scandals, economic uncertainty, and secessioni...