Luis Díez del Corral, university professor and academic, was born in Logroño on the 5th July 1911. He studied in the Law and Arts faculties of the Central University of Madrid, gaining the exceptional graduation prize in Law. He later extended his studies at the universities of Berlin and Freiburg.

In 1936 he passed the selection examination for the post of Legal Advisor to the Council of State, and in 1947 to the chair of History of Political Forms and Ideas at the University of Madrid.

In 1954 he published "El rapto de Europa", a historical interpretation of our times and a work which has been translated into English, German, French, Dutch, Japanese and Italian. Along similar lines, in 1957 he published "La función del mito clásico en la literatura contemporánea". For three years he held the post of cultural concierge at the Spanish Embassy in Paris.

Since 1965, he has been a numerary member of the Royal Academy of Political and Moral Sciences, of which he is currently chairman. He entered the Royal Academy of History in 1973 and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in 1977, with a lecture on Velázquez and the political background of the painter´s period.

An advisory counsellor for "Revista del Occidente", Díez del Corral has given many lectures and courses at a number of European, American and Japanese cultural centres and universities. An outstanding example is the course he gave in 1950 at the Humanities Institute, directed by José Ortega y Gasset, on "The mixed regime as an idea and as a political form," as well as the 1968 course at Notre Dame University, USA on "The political formation of Tocqueville," and that given in the College of France on "The Spanish monarchy in European political thought: From Machiavelli to Humbolt" (1966).

Other works of his are: "Mallorca", winner of the 1942 National Literature Prize, "El liberalismo doctrinario" (1945), "Ensayos sobre arte y sociedad" (1955), "Del Nuevo al Viejo Mundo" (1963), "La mentalidad política de Tocqueville con especial referencia a Pascal" (1965), "La Monarquía española en el pensamiento político europeo. De Maquiavelo a Humbolt" (1976), "Velázquez, la Monarquía e Italia" (1979) and "El pensamiento político de Tocqueville" (1989).

The works of Díez del Corral, of international importance, have made an exceptional contribution to a greater understanding of the history of political forms and ideas.

He is a doctor "honoris causa" of the University of the Sorbonne, Paris, and holds the Gold Medal of Rioja.