On 2 November 2005, José Antonio Escudero, Director of the Institute for the History of Intolerance, and the Director of the Rafael del Pino Foundation, signed an agreement with the aim of carrying out the research entitled El Rey. This research has materialised in the publication of the book entitled "El Rey. Historia de la Monarquía", published in three volumes by the publishing house Planeta. The first volume was published in 2007. The second and third volumes were published in 2008.
All of them make up a complete study, carried out by 33 academics and coordinated by Professor José Antonio Escudero, on the figure of the monarch and on the institutional entity that this figure embodies. The first volume addresses the following issues: the medieval antecedents -from the Visigothic elective monarchy to the hereditary one-; the prince-king; the titles of the kings of Spain; the queen; and, finally, the central government of the monarchy in the Ancien Régime.
The second volume focuses primarily on the modern and contemporary eras. It analyses: the role of the king in the government of the territories of the monarchy; matters of grace and mercy; the king as head of the armies; the Court and the King's Household; and the king in the history of Spanish Constitutional Law. The third volume deals with the King's relations with the Cortes, religion and the Church, international politics, subjects and citizens, and culture. The last two chapters are devoted, respectively, to the loss of the Crown, both in the violent medieval dethronements and in the abdications and renunciations in more advanced times; and to death and succession to the Crown.
