Leonor, Princess of Asturias

Leonor
Princess of Asturias (more)
Leonor in 2023
Born (2005-10-31) 31 October 2005 (age 18)
Madrid, Spain
Names
Leonor de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Ortiz
HouseBourbon-Anjou
FatherFelipe VI
MotherLetizia Ortiz Rocasolano
ReligionRoman Catholic
SignatureLeonor's signature
Military career
Allegiance Spain
Service/branch Spanish Army
Years of service2023–present
RankOfficer cadet

Leonor, Princess of Asturias (Leonor de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Ortiz; born 31 October 2005) is the heiress presumptive to the Spanish throne. She is the elder daughter of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia.

Leonor was born during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King Juan Carlos I. She was educated at Santa María de los Rosales School, the same school as her father; after finishing her secondary studies, she studied an International Baccalaureate at the UWC Atlantic College in Wales, United Kingdom. On 17 August 2023, Leonor joined the General Military Academy to start her 3-year military education.

In 2014, when her father ascended the throne after the abdication of her grandfather, Leonor was granted all the traditional titles of the heir to the Spanish crown, these are Princess of Asturias, Princess of Girona, Princess of Viana, Duchess of Montblanc, Countess of Cervera and Lady of Balaguer. Leonor was formally proclaimed heiress before the Cortes on 31 October 2023, her 18th birthday.

Should Leonor ascend to the throne as expected, she will be Spain's first queen regnant since Isabella II, who reigned from 1833 to 1868.

Birth

Leonor was born to Felipe and Letizia, then the Prince and Princess of Asturias, on 31 October 2005 at 01:46, during the reign of her paternal grandfather, King Juan Carlos I, in the Ruber International Hospital in Madrid using a caesarean section necessitated by non-progression of labour. As the daughter of the heir apparent, she was an infanta and the second in the line of succession to the Spanish throne. Her birth was announced by the royal family to the press via SMS.

Leonor left the Ruber International Hospital with her parents on 7 November 2005. She was baptised in the Zarzuela Palace by the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela, on 14 January 2006. Like her father, Leonor was baptized – with water from the Jordan River – in a Romanesque baptismal font that has been used to christen Spanish princes since the 17th century.

Her godparents were her paternal grandparents, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía. She received the name of Leonor de Todos los Santos.

Education and military training

Leonor's education began at Escuela Infantil Guardia Real, the daycare for the children of the Spanish Royal Guard. She began her first year of primary school on 15 September 2008 at the Santa María de los Rosales School in Aravaca, just outside Madrid. Her father is an alumnus of the private school and her younger sister, Sofía, is also enrolled there. In September 2021, she began studying a 2-year International Baccalaureate program at the UWC Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. She graduated in May 2023, having completed her studies. Leonor is fluent in both Spanish and English (the latter learnt from her British nanny and also from her grandmother, Queen Sofía) and has studied Mandarin.

In March 2023, it was announced by Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles that the government had approved a royal decree for Leonor to begin a 3-year military training education program. On 17 August, she started her first year of training at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza. In preparation for her role as Spain's commander-in-chief, she will follow her father's footsteps with two further years of naval and air force training at the Naval Military Academy in Marín and the General Air Academy in Murcia, respectively. Whilst attending the military academies, Leonor will renounce her salary and any money that cadets receive. Leonor is using both her parents' surnames "Borbón Ortiz" in her military career.

Princess of Asturias

In May 2014, Leonor made her first official visit to the San Javier Air Force base in Murcia. On 18 June 2014, King Juan Carlos signed the Abdication Act, and the following day at the stroke of midnight (18–19 June 2014) Leonor's father ascended the throne becoming King Felipe VI, and Leonor became his heir presumptive and Princess of Asturias. In October 2014, a wax figure of Leonor was unveiled at the Museo de Cera in Madrid. On 20 May 2015, Leonor received First Communion as per Catholic custom.

According to the Spanish constitution of 1978, the succession to the Spanish throne is under a system of male-preference cognatic primogeniture, meaning that Leonor, as the elder of Felipe's two daughters, is first in line to inherit the throne. Under the current law, however, if her father has a legitimate son while still king, Leonor would be displaced in the line of succession and again become an infanta of Spain. There have been discussions about changing the succession law to absolute primogeniture, allowing for the inheritance of the eldest child, regardless of sex; however, the birth of Leonor, followed by that of her younger sister Sofía, stalled these plans. Despite a change from male-preference to absolute primogeniture for Spanish titles of nobility in 2009, as of 2024 no legislation has been passed affecting the succession to the throne.

Princess Leonor with her father, the King, during the 2018 Golden Fleece award ceremony at the Royal Palace.

On a day before her 10th birthday, she was granted the Order of the Golden Fleece by her father. In addition, the Council of Ministers approved the design of her personal standard and guidon. Coinciding with the 50th birthday of King Felipe, in January 2018, the King officially gave Leonor the collar of the Golden Fleece in a ceremony at the Royal Palace of Madrid.

In September 2018, Leonor conducted her first public engagement outside the palace by accompanying her parents to Covadonga to celebrate the 1,300th anniversary of the Kingdom of Asturias. On 31 October 2018, Leonor gave her first public speech, held at the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid, where she read the first article of the Constitution of Spain. The speech coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Constitution and her 13th birthday. On 18 October 2019, she made her first significant speech at Premio Princesa de Asturias.

Princess Leonor with her family and the main Spanish civil and military authorities during the 2019 National Day festivities.

On 4 November 2019, she made her first speech at the Princess of Girona Foundation awards in Barcelona, in which she spoke in Spanish, Catalan, English and Arabic.

She carried out her first public solo engagement on 24 March 2021 by attending a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the Instituto Cervantes.

On 16 July 2022, she made her first official international trip. She did it without the presence of her parents, although she was accompanied by her younger sister, Infanta Sofía. Together, they attended a match between Spain and Denmark at the UEFA Women's Euro 2022. In December 2022, Leonor visited the Spanish Red Cross headquarters in Madrid where she met young volunteers of The Red Cross Youth, the youth section of the Spanish Red Cross.

On 7 October 2023, the Princess swore allegiance to the Spanish flag at the Military Academy, in the presence of her parents.

Heir's oath

Princess Leonor in a Spanish royal family Rolls-Royce Phantom IV during her 18th birthday parade in October 2023.

On 22 September 2023, the Royal Household made public that, as required under the Spanish Constitution, the princess would swear allegiance to the Constitution and the King upon reaching the age of majority. This declared her as the heir to the Spanish throne. At about 11:00 (CET) on 31 October 2023, her 18th birthday, the ceremony started when the royal family left the Palace of Zarzuela and was escorted by the Royal Guard through the streets of Madrid. At the Palacio de las Cortes the royal family received state honors, and the Princess of Asturias took her oath before a joint session of the Spanish Parliament, which received her oath with an ovation of more than four minutes.

After this ceremony, the royal family and the main authorities of the country went to the Royal Palace, where her father, King Felipe, awarded her with the Collar of the Order of Charles III, the highest civil honor in Spain. After a lunch at palace, the institutional event was over; the Royal Family held a private celebration at the Royal Palace of El Pardo. The entire paternal and maternal family attended this private event, as well as the Greek royal family, represented by Queen Anne-Marie and Princess Alexia and her husband, some members of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies including Prince Pedro, Duke of Calabria, representatives of the Bulgarian royal family, and Princess Miriam Ghazi.

On 6 January 2024, Leonor attended the Pascua Militar for the first time, a more than two-centuries-old Spanish military celebration. She attended the event not just as a heiress to her father, but also as member of the Armed Forces.

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Princess Leonor and her parents with the prime minister (left) and the president of the Congress of Deputies (right) in November 2023.

Leonor was initially styled "Her Royal Highness Infanta Leonor of Spain". Upon her father's accession to the throne, she became known as "Her Royal Highness The Princess of Asturias" as heir presumptive. She also holds the titles Princess of Girona, Princess of Viana, Duchess of Montblanc, Countess of Cervera and Lady of Balaguer.

She is currently as of 2023 an officer cadet in the General Spanish Military Academy.

Honours

As heir to the throne, she is the nominal chairwoman of the Princess of Asturias Foundation and the Princess of Girona Foundation. However, until she became 18, those functions were assumed by her father.

Also, as traditional for the first line to the throne, her father created her a knight. He invested her with the insignia (Collar, Medal and Bow) of the Order of the Golden Fleece (awarded 30 October 2015, presented 30 January 2018). On 10 October 2023, she was created a Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Charles III (10 October 2023, presented 31 October 2023). On 31 October 2023, the Congress of Deputies and the Senate granted her the Gold Medals of the Spanish parliament.

Arms

Coat of arms of Leonor, Princess of Asturias
Notes
In 2015, one day before the Princess of Asturias' birthday, she was granted the Order of the Golden Fleece. Since then, she has been able to use the coat of arms of the heir to the Spanish throne with the collar of the order. The government officially gazetted her use of the arms and standard by Royal Decree on her birthday.
Crest
The crown of the Princess of Asturias
Escutcheon
The arms are divided into four quarters, blazoned as follows:

1st, Gules a castle three-towered Or, masoned Sable ajoure Azure (for Castile); 2nd, Argent a lion rampant Purpure, armed Gules and crowned Or (for León); 3rd, Or four pallets Gules (for Aragon); 4th, Gules a cross, saltire and orle of chains all linked Or, an emerald Proper for Navarre; Enté en point, Argent a pomegranate Proper seeded Gules, supported, sculpted and leafed in two leaves Vert (for Granada); Inescutcheon, Azure with three fleurs-de-lys Or, bordured Gules (for Bourbon).

Other elements
The whole is differenced by a blue label of three points azure.
Banner
The Princess' Standard comprises a light blue (the colour of the Flag of Asturias) square flag displaying the coat of arms of the heir to the Spanish throne in the centre.

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-03-24 16:16 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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