Carmen Iglesias

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Iglesias and the second or maternal family name is Cano.

María del Carmen Iglesias Cano, 1st Countess of Gisbert, is a Spanish historian. She is the Director of the Real Academia de la Historia. 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.^[1] She is also a member of the Royal Spanish Academy, which regulates the Spanish language.

The Most Excellent Carmen Iglesias Countess of Gisbert
Born	María del Carmen Iglesias Cano (1942-03-16) 16 March 1942 (age 82) Madrid, Spain
Seat E of the Real Academia Española
Incumbent
Assumed office 30 September 2002[a]
Preceded by	Gonzalo Torrente Ballester

She holds the non-hereditary title Countess of Gisbert, which was bestowed on her by King Juan Carlos.^[2]

Biography

Education

Iglesias studied at the Complutense University of Madrid.

Career

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

Iglesias was elected to medalla nº 23 of the Real Academia de la Historia on 16 June 1989 and took up her seat on 4 November 1991.^[3] She has been director of the Academy since 2014, and is the first female director of that institution.^[4] She was elected to Seat E of the Real Academia Española on 13 April 2000, she took up her seat on 30 September 2002.^[5]

Royal House

Iglesias has been a close friend of the Spanish royal family 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 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.^[6][7]

Bibliography

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

Notes

1. Elected on 13 April 2000

References

1. "La historia se conecta a la era tecnológica con el Diccionario Biográfico Electrónico". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 2018.
2. In a decree dated May 2014 the King stated:

   «La brillante e intensa labor académica y docente de doña María del Carmen Iglesias Cano, al servicio de España y de la Corona, merece ser reconocida de manera especial, por lo que, queriendo demostrarle mi Real aprecio,
   Vengo en otorgarle, con carácter vitalicio, el título de Condesa de Gisbert
   Juan Carlos R.»

   — Real Decreto 354/2014, de 13 de mayo. Publicado en el «BOE» núm. 117, de 14 de mayo de 2014, páginas 37786.

3. "Mª del Carmen Iglesias Cano, Condesa de Gisbert" (in Spanish). Real Academia de la Historia. Archived from the original on 10 December 2019.
4. "Carmen Iglesias se convierte en la primera mujer directora de la Real Academia de la Historia". 20minutos (in Spanish). 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
5. "Carmen Iglesias". Real Academia Española (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 18 July 2019.
6. Alberola, Miquel (2016-06-15). "La preceptora del Rey y la Infanta siente pena del desgarro familiar por Nóos". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 2023-01-19.
7. "Carmen Iglesias: "En las clases que di al Príncipe me encontré con una persona excepcional" | Onda Cero Radio". www.ondacero.es (in Spanish). 2014-06-03. Retrieved 2023-01-19.