MADRID, Spain (AP) -- Maria de las Mercedes de Borbon y Orleans, the mother of Spain's King Juan Carlos, died Sunday in her residence on the Canary Island of Lanzarote, the royal palace reported. She was 89.
De Borbon, who was also the Countess of Barcelona, died at 3 p.m. in the La Mareta residence surrounded by her family, the Zarzuela Palace said in a statement.No details on the cause of death were immediately available. The countess had used a wheelchair for many years since suffering a stroke.
King Juan Carlos and the entire royal family had traveled to Lanzarote to celebrate the New Year at the residence.
The remains are to be flown to Madrid later Sunday and her body is to lie in state at the Oriente Palace in the Spanish capital, the national news agency Efe reported. She is to be buried Tuesday in the monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial on Madrid's western outskirts, the burial place for all Spanish royals including the countess' husband, Don Juan de Borbon y Battemberg.
The countess was mother to four children, including Juan Carlos, who took the throne in 1975 following an agreement between Don Juan and then-ruling Gen. Francisco Franco.
A known lover of bullfighting, art and music, the countess spent almost half her life, 1934-1976, in exile. She left Spain on the proclamation of the II Republic in 1934 and went to live first in Paris and later Estoril, Portugal.
She met here future husband in 1935 in Rome, where three years later she gave birth to Juan Carlos.
Opposition Socialist party spokesman Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba highlighted "the role she played alongside Don Juan de Borbon in keeping the image of the monarchy alive during (Franco's) dictatorship, something which was fundamental during the transition" to democracy.