Royal Academy of History

Its official publication is the Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia.

Recorded constituent parts are member of the Real Academia de la Historia. It is associated with Spain. The record gives 1738 as its date of establishment or first appearance. It forms part of Institute of Spain. Its recorded founders are Philip V of Spain. Its recorded seat is Nuevo Rezado and Palace of the Marquis of Molins.

Since 1836 the academy has occupied an 18th-century building designed by the neoclassical architect Juan de Villanueva. The building was originally occupied by the Hieronymites, a religious order. It became available as a result of legislation in the 1830s confiscating monastic properties (the ecclesiastical confiscations of Mendizábal).

The Academy is in constant communication with similar corporations in Ibero-America. Academia Nacional de la Historia de Venezuela (1888) Academia Colombiana de Historia (1902) Academia Mexicana de la Historia (1919) Academia Nacional de la Historia del Perú (1920) Academia Salvadoreña de la Historia (1922) Academia de Geografía e Historia de Guatemala (1923) Academia Nacional de la Historia de Ecuador (1928) Academia Nacional de la Historia de la República Argentina (1929) Academia Panameña de la Historia (1931) Academia Chilena de la Historia (1933) Academia Paraguaya de la Historia (1937) Instituto Histórico y Geográfico del Uruguay (1949) Academia Boliviana de la Historia (1959) Academia Puertorriqueña de la Historia (1960) Academia Dominicana de la Historia (1984) Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro (1996) Academia de Geografía e Historia de Costa Rica (2006)

In 2011 the Academy published the first 20 volumes of a dictionary of national biography, the Diccionario Biográfico Español, to which some five thousand historians contributed. The publicly funded publication has been subject of controversy for failing to achieve the standards of objectivity associated with, for example, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The British Dictionary restricted itself to persons who were deceased, and the historian Henry Kamen has argued that it was a mistake for its Spanish equivalent to include living figures among entries. However, while there was criticism of entries for some living people (such as the politician Esperanza Aguirre), the main allegations of bias concern articles relating to Francoist Spain. A notable example was the entry on Francisco Franco, written by Luis Suárez Fernández, in which Franco is defined as an autocratic head of state rather than a dictator. In contrast, the dictionary reportedly defames individuals such as Juan Negrín, the last prime minister of the Second Republic. The dictionary sparked an outcry. Most objections came from voices on the left such as the party United Left and the newspaper Público. For his part, Green party senator Joan Saura asked for publication of the dictionary to be stopped and the offending volumes withdrawn. There was also a call for corrections from the Ministry of Education. The academy announced in June 2011 that amendments would be made to the text online and in future paper editions. In 2012, when the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, made a statement on the subject of the dictionary, it was still not clear whether the academy was willing to describe Franco as a dictator. Carmen Iglesias, director of the academy, vowed to modify the online version in 2015. In 2018 a ceremony was held at El Pardo to launch the online edition, Diccionario Biografico Electronico. Franco's status as a dictator was confirmed.

In 2015 the academy entered into an initiative in collaboration with Metro de Madrid to provide information about people who have given their names to metro stations. Stations named after people include Concha Espina and Paco de Lucia. Display panels have been placed in the stations in question.

Per article 6 of its statutes, the Real Academia de la Historia is composed of a maximum of 36 "numbered academics" who must be Spanish citizens. There are also academics of honour and academic correspondents, who may be of any nationality. The director since 2014 has been Carmen Iglesias. The Numbered Academics are (after the number of chair): Vicente Pérez Moreda Hugo O'Donnell y Duque de Estrada Vacant Vacant Feliciano Barrios Pintado José Manuel Nieto Josefina Gómez Mendoza José Remesal Rodríguez María del Pilar León-Castro Alonso Octavio Ruiz-Manjón Martín Almagro Gorbea Elena E. Rodríguez Díaz Jaime Salazar y Acha Francisco Javier Puerto Sarmiento Juan Pablo Fusi Aizpurúa Antonio Cañizares Llovera Amparo Alba Cecilia José Antonio Escudero López Luis Antonio Ribot García Vacant José Ángel Sesma Muñoz Enriqueta Vila Vilar María del Carmen Iglesias Cano Fernando Marías Franco Miguel Ángel Ladero Quesada Serafín Fanjul García Miguel Ángel Ochoa Brun Luis Alberto de Cuenca y Prado José Luis Díez García Carmen Sanz Ayán Enrique Moradiellos García Carlos Martínez Shaw María Jesús Viguera Molins Juan Francisco Fuentes Aragonés Xavier Gil Puyol Luis Agustín García Moreno

Some Spanish historians have considered it an obsolete misogynist institution, that still considers history as a matter of kings and battles. However, the image has changed since Carmen Iglesias, the first female director, took over in 2014 from Gonzalo Anes. By some authors RAH is considered a "thoroughly undemocratic" institution "unrepresentative of Spanish historical profession" and a hotbed of historical revisionism.

In 2020 the academy issued a statement "deploring" recent attacks on statues of figures from Spanish history, such as Christopher Columbus, which had taken place as part of the George Floyd protests. It reaffirmed its "commitment to the knowledge of Spain’s actions in America, beyond the falsification, the distortion and the partisan manipulation.”