Editing Francisco Franco (section)

== Death and funeral ==
{{Main|Death and funeral of Francisco Franco}}
After a prolonged illness in his final years, Franco died on 20 November 1975 at the age of 82, according to a statement from the government, on the 39th anniversary of the death of [[José Antonio Primo de Rivera]], the founder of the [[Falange Española|Falange]]. Historian [[Ricardo de la Cierva]] claimed, however, that he had been told around 6&nbsp;pm on 19 November that Franco had already died.<ref>{{cite book |last=de la Cierva |first=Ricardo|author-link=Ricardo de la Cierva|title=Agonia y Muerte de Franco|language=es|trans-title=Agony and Death of Franco|publisher=Eudema Universidad|date=1996 |isbn=978-8477542179}}</ref>

As soon as news of Franco's death was made public, the government declared thirty days of official national mourning. On 22 November, Juan Carlos was officially proclaimed [[King of Spain]]. There was a public viewing of Franco's body at the chapel in the Royal Palace; a requiem mass and a military parade were held on 23 November, the day of his burial.{{sfnp|Ellwood|2014|pp=181–183, 217–219}} The mass was attended, among others, by Chilean leader [[Augusto Pinochet]] and the  First Lady of the Philippines, [[Imelda Marcos]].<ref name="Munoz2008">{{cite book |last1=Munoz |first1=Heraldo |title=The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet |year=2008 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-7867-2604-2 |page=98 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_qN1cY-MEwC&pg=PA98 }}</ref><ref name="Wheeler2020">{{cite book |last1=Wheeler |first1=Duncan |title=Following Franco: Spanish culture and politics in transition |year=2020 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=978-1-5261-0520-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mmgCEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT68 }}</ref> Major European governments, who condemned Franco's regime, declined to send high-level representatives to his funeral.<ref name="Whitehead 2001">{{cite book |last1=Powell |first1=Charles |editor1-last=Whitehead |editor1-first=Laurence |title=The International Dimensions of Democratization: Europe and the Americas |date=2001 |page=295 |url=https://charlespowell.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1996-International-aspects-of-democratization.-The-case-of-Spain.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518212302/http://charlespowell.eu/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/1996-International-aspects-of-democratization.-The-case-of-Spain.pdf |archive-date=18 May 2019 |url-status=live |chapter=International Aspects of Democratization: The Case of Spain}}</ref>

Franco's body was interred near the grave of Primo de Rivera at the [[Valley of the Fallen]] ({{lang|es|Valle de los Caídos}}), a colossal memorial built from forced labour by [[political prisoner]]s, ostensibly to honour the casualties of both sides of the Spanish Civil War.{{sfnp|Ellwood|2014|pp=181–183, 217–219}} He was the only person interred in the Valley who did not die during the civil war.<ref name="Seixas2021">{{cite book |last1=Seixas |first1=Xosé M. Núñez |title=Sites of the Dictators: Memories of Authoritarian Europe, 1945–2020 |year=2021 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-39702-4 |page=107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UxMtEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT107 }}</ref><ref name="Cazorla-Sanchez2013b">{{cite book |last1=Cazorla-Sanchez |first1=Antonio |title=Franco: The Biography of the Myth |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-44949-1 |page=223 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EdcdAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA223 }}</ref> As the [[cortège]] with Franco's body arrived, some 75,000 rightists wearing the [[Blueshirts (Falange)|blue shirts]] of the [[FET y de las JONS|Falangists]] greeted it with rebel songs from the civil war and [[Roman salute#Elsewhere|fascist salutes]].<ref name="Keefe1976">{{cite book |last1=Keefe |first1=Eugene K. |title=Area Handbook for Spain |year=1976 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |isbn=978-0-16-001567-0 |page=vi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6uSWE3EYvBkC&pg=PR6 }}</ref>

Following Franco's funeral, his widow, Carmen Polo, supervised the moving of crates of jewellery, antiques, artworks, and Franco's papers to the family's various estates in Spain or to safe havens in foreign countries. The family remained extremely rich after his death. Polo had a room in her apartment in which the walls were lined from floor to ceiling with forty columns of twenty drawers, some containing tiaras, necklaces, earrings, garlands, brooches and cameos. Others contained gold, silver, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, topazes, and pearls, but the most valuable jewels were kept in bank vaults.{{sfn|Preston|2020|p=406}}