Princess Cristina of Spain (pictured) and her husband, Inaki Urdangarin, the former Duke of Palma, are now on trial for allegedly committing a slew of corruption and money-laundering offences.

Spain has been the venue for many corruption scandals involving 'politically exposed persons' over the last few years, but this one has rocked the monarchy to its depths, contributing to the abdication of King Juan Carlos in 2014 in favour of his son, King Felip VI, who lost no time in forbidding members of his family from working for private firms, submitting palace accounts to external auditors and stripping the embattled royal couple of their titles as duke and duchess of Parma. They are are suspected of embezzling €6.2 million ($6.7 million) from a charity (the Noos Institute) into which two regional governments placed taxpayers' money. The charity put on sporting and other events. Court records state that the couple did not declare various company expenses as income tax when (the prosecutors claim) they should have done.

The princess' husband was once a handball player. He was chairman of the institute in the 'noughties' and allegedly re-routed some of its money into a firm called Aizoon which he and the princess owned. This company then allegedly funded a lavish lifestyle for the couple, paying for parties, holidays and renovations to their properties. The offences, if they occurred, are presumably too far in the past to have come to light as a result of suspicious transaction reports made by the couple's bankers to the authorities. A friend of the former duke's is claiming that King Juan Carlos and his advisors monitored the charity's activities very closely - an assertion that is hardly likely to redound to the monarchy's credit. The Spanish public is, so far, greeting the elite's efforts to turn over a new leaf with disdain.