King Juan Carlos of Spain Shown On a 2006 hunt with an elephant he shot in Botswana.
The Bourbon family of Spain is one of the oldest royal families.  It has survived wars, a takeover by Napoleon,  impotent rulers, and Hitler's overrunning the country during World War II.  But it could finally be taken down by, of all things, an elephant....or hunting one that is.
When newspapers reported on April 17 that King Juan Carlos had, while on a private elephant hunt in Botswana, broken a hip during a fall on stairs and would be returned to Madrid for surgery, reaction was swift and brutal from the Spanish people.
They expressed anger over the king's hunting the animal, which is legal in Botswana in spite of the fact that in other places in Africa the elephant is in danger of extinction.  The king, an avid hunter, has also made treks to Africa to pursue the water buffalo and other wild game.

Newspapers printed editorials on that as well as on the fact that Spain's economy is in dire straits with unemployment at 23 per cent.  They severely criticized the king for thoughtlessly spending the state's money, which, they asserted, was in total disregard for his country and the people's plight.
Until the king broke his hip, no one, according to reports,  knew that he was out of the country on a trip that was reportedly costing over $50,000 a day.  Though part of the hunt was privately funded, at least half the cost apparently fell to the state. Later, newspapers reported that the head of Spain's civil government did, in fact, have prior knowledge of the king's trip.
As indignation mounted, the king, in an unprecedented move, apologized to the Spanish people,  "I made a mistake," he confessed.  "It won't happen again." 
The apology came on the heels of demands that he immediately step down as head of the World Wildlife Federation in Spain, which has long condemned hunting elephants and other endangered species in the Bush, as well as increasing cries that he abdicate.
The monarch has been always popular in Spain for establishing a democracy when he came to the throne in his youth.
The king's wife, Sophia, who is an avid preservationist and vegetarian, refused to cancel her own trip abroad on behalf of Spain in order to be by the king's side for the 74-year-old's surgery, a process that can be life-threatening for the elderly.  The two have  been estranged in recent years, rarely traveling together. 
This is not the first time for the royal family to be in the news this year.  One of the king's son-in-laws is currently under investigation for fraud and one of his grandsons accidentally shot himself in the foot in December, although it is illegal for youth in Spain to have firearms.