The Queen's royal visits to the south of Spain and Gibraltar

Nearly seventy years ago, in 1954, the young Queen visited Gibraltar with her husband and her children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne who were just four and three years-old.

However, although Queen Elizabeth II and Spain's former King Juan Carlos were cousins, it wasn't until October of 1988 that she visited mainland Spain. This was the first visit ever by a British monarch to the country.

The couple stayed for five days in the royal Palace El Pardo in Madrid and visited Seville and Barcelona during their visit. The press at the time proudly boasted that this was the longest visit that the Queen had made to a country outside of the Commonwealth.