On 1 February 1973, Miguel Delibes was elected to the Royal Spanish Academy, occupying chair "E", which was left vacant after the death of Julio Guillén. That same year, in December, he was also elected to the Hispanic Society of America. Before the end of the year, he published" El príncipe destronado" (The dethroned prince), his eleventh novel. On 22 November 1974 his wife, Angela de Castro, died at the age of 50. Her death profoundly marked the writer for the rest of his life.