Count of Cervera
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The title Count of Cervera (Conde de Cervera) is currently held by Felipe, Prince of Asturias, heir to Juan Carlos of Spain. Cervera is the capital of the comarca of Segarra, in the province of Lleida, Catalonia.
The title was created in 1353 by Pedro IV of Aragon for his son and heir, the infante Juan, who was later Juan I of Aragon. The title, which Pedro claimed as Count of Barcelona, passed in the Crown of Aragon; it has been united with the Aragonese title Príncipe de Gerona since 1414, after which its history may be traced under that title.
The Crown of Aragon and its institutions were formally abolished after the War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1713) with the accession of the first Bourbon king of Spain, by the Nueva Planta decrees, under which all the lands of Aragon were incorporated, as provinces, into a united Spanish administration, as Spain moved towards a more centralized government under the new Bourbon dynasty.
By royal decree[1] from 21 January 1977, the hereditary titles of the former Crown of Aragon have been invested in Don Felipe de Borbón, naming him "Príncipe de Asturias y otros títulos vinculados tradicionalmente al sucesor de la Corona de España". In the question of succession the Spanish Constitution of 1978[2] indicates "El Príncipe heredero, desde su nacimiento o desde que se produzca el hecho que origine el llamamiento tendrá la dignidad de Príncipe de Asturias y los demás títulos vinculados tradicionalmente al sucesor de la Corona de España."
In 1996, on the occasion of an official visit to Cervera the Prince formally assumed the title in a popular public ceremony.
