King Juan Carlos abdicates: Monarch 'made his decision in January'

The Monarch said at the time that he had thought this momentous decision through 'very carefully', but that it had 'nothing to do with his health', nor with 'any other issues' – referring to his falling popularity of late.

Scenes of the former WWF chairman posing with an elephant he had shot in Botswana, and the criminal charges against his son-in-law Iñaki Urdangarín for public fund fraud – which the King's younger daughter, the Infanta Cristina, may not escape from – have led to calls for Spain to go back to being a republic as it was 39 years ago after the death of dictator General Francisco Franco.

When HRH Juan Carlos made his declarations to Rajoy and, a few days later, to Rubalcaba, he did not state his reasons, which sparked a flood of speculations.

Both party leaders have kept the news a secret for two months, but this morning at 09.30hrs, the Monarch sent out an 'urgent call' to reporters that the president would appear in the Moncloa – Spain's answer to 10 Downing Street – within the hour.

Rumour were rife, since nobody knew what Rajoy was going to announce, and many questioned whether this would involve a change in government – which appeared unlikely, since the head of State had already insisted after the PP's poor election results that he did not intend to revamp his cabinet.

This gave way to speculations as to whether Catalunya's independence was about to become a reality, a process was due to be put in place to overhaul the Spanish Constitution, or that the announcement had onerous international connections.