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'Heir Force': Crown Princess Leonor's new military career uncovered
05/05/2023
BIG changes are afoot for Spain's future Queen, with major new challenges in her path – and, although young Leonor is proof that being major Royalty means few privileges and limited choices, the demands on her at a tender age have not yet taken the wind out of her sails as she soldiers on with a smile.
Even though Princess Leonor's father, King Felipe VI, is only in his 50s – so, if he never decides to abdicate, his eldest daughter may not reach the throne for another 40-plus years, all being well – the Hallowe'en-born student has been in preparation for her future job practically since the cradle.
This preparation has been quite tough enough so far – her first public speech on her 13th birthday, spending summer holidays at camp in the USA perfecting her English, travelling the country during half-term for official engagements and, just two months before turning 16, moving abroad, without her parents, to go to school.
In accordance with the Spanish Constitution – signed in December 1978 and still valid in its original version – the reigning monarch is always automatically the supreme head of the national Armed Forces.
As per Article 62, Leonor's granddad, King Juan Carlos I, was the highest-ranking military leader in the country until he abdicated in June 2014, after which his son, Felipe VI, would take over this status as well as that of King and Head of State.
Princess Leonor, then, will become Spain's top Forces figure when she is crowned Queen.
Even though compulsory military service was disbanded in Spain in March 2001, the heir to the throne was never going to be excused from it – being head soldier is not simply a token title, which means Leonor will have to join the Army.
Still, after moving abroad alone and living life in a foreign language at the impressionable age of 15, learning to fight for her country possibly isn't as daunting for the brave young Royal as it sounds.
Infanta Sofía to follow elder sister to sixth-form in Wales
Back in summer 2021, HRH Leonor passed a series of stiff exams, sat anonymously, to gain entrance to the United World College of the Atlantic in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales, where she would spend two years as a full-time boarder working on her sixth-form qualifications.
The international baccalaureate Leonor has been studying is taught in English, and she has spent this time among students from all over the world – over 70% of them on full scholarships and ranging from European Royalty to youngsters from the poorest countries on earth – with mandatory extra-curricular activities involving community service and sports.
Naturally, Princess Leonor is one of the 30% whose families pay the full fee of nearly €80,000 for her education, but in accordance with UWC Atlantic policies, has been living in a sparsely-furnished, shared house with students from different cultural backgrounds and languages – this is deliberate on the part of the college, to encourage cross-community integration - and they are all expected to do their own domestic chores and laundry.
Her younger sister, the Infanta Sofía – who turned 16 last week – will follow in Leonor's footsteps this coming September after having passed the stringent entrance exams.
The girls will not be at UWC Atlantic together, though – Leonor's final sixth-form exams are due in the coming weeks, and the next stage in her long-mapped-out career will be back in Spain.
Three years, three Forces, and 'fast-track' training
Supporters and critics of the monarchy alike have expressed mixed views on Leonor's next chapter, which involves a condensed and intensive training in the three main military disciplines. Although the Princess will have known all her life that she was never going to be able to follow a career of her own choice, and is said to be very keen to get started on the new leg of her journey, there is a sense among the general public that it would not matter either way – she might love it, or she might hate it, but she's still going to have to do it.
Many have said that if Leonor ends up hating her Forces experience, the three years she will spend training will be far too long; by contrast, if she loves it, then three years will not be enough.
Starting this September, the Princess will join the Territorial Armed Forces, or Land Army, at the military academy in Zaragoza, Aragón, where her father Felipe VI trained. Here, she will stay for one academic year, but her military education will be fast-tracked: By summer 2024, Leonor will have reached the stage of a second-year graduate, or 'passing out'.
The next academic year, from September 2024 to summer 2025, Leonor will move to the far north-western region of Galicia to spend a year training with the Navy in Marín (Pontevedra province).
Here, she will go straight in as a third-year student and, after completing her studies at this level, will go offshore, training on the water on the Juan Sebastián de Elcano, a Naval academy ship named after the Spaniard who completed the first-ever round-the-world voyage.
Year three – from September 2025 to summer 2026 – will take HRH Leonor to the opposite end of the country, to San Javier (Murcia). She will join the Air Force Academy in this south-eastern coastal region, going straight in as a fourth-year student.
Although her training will be considered complete after these three years, Leonor will automatically rise through the military ranks alongside her colleagues over the fourth year, from September 2026 to summer 2027, when they will all – the Princess included – graduate.
'Lieutenant Leonor' to combine university with military
This 'express' training route across three disciplines, designed jointly by the Royal family and defence minister Margarita Robles, will mean Leonor reaches the level of Sub-Lieutenant in the Navy, and Lieutenant in the Army and the Air Force.
A Sub-Lieutenant – or, in the case of a frigate, Midshipman – in the Navy is equivalent to that of Lieutenant in the Armed Forces or the Air Force, and is the ranking below that of Captain.
During her year in Zaragoza, HRH Leonor will combine her Land Army training with university studies, although it is not clear how she will continue with her academic career after summer 2024 – whether her second and subsequent years will be deferred until after her military education, or whether she will be able to carry on with it at least part-time, dovetailing her law degree with the Navy and Air Force.
Leonor, and also her sister Sofía, will both be expected to take a university degree, and will probably go onto post-graduate higher education studies, too, although this is likely to be optional.
Princess waives right to €417-a-month salary
It has already been confirmed the Princess has waived her right to the allowance, or salary, normally paid to students in the three military disciplines. Set at 60% of the so-called 'sub-group C2' in the first year, she would have received just over €417 a month, rising to €668 by the end of her training.
King Felipe VI explains that his eldest daughter will not be paid during these years, because her Forces education is not aimed at an eventual career as a soldier, unlike that of her colleagues.
Even though both Princess Leonor and the Infanta Sofía are members of the Royal family – much reduced since Felipe VI's coronation and now only encompassing the girls, their parents, and King Felipe's parents Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía – neither of the monarch's daughters receives an allowance from the State.
Their mum, dad and paternal grandparents do, but according to reports back in 2019, each of the teenagers were given €30 a week by their parents for buying clothes, going out with friends, or other general hobbies or activities.
This amount may have increased with their age, but King Felipe and his wife, Queen Letizia, have raised their daughters to see their Royal status as a career, not a privilege. The sisters have been actively involved in charity work along with their parents, and educated on the reality of life for the wider community, with their upbringing being as austere as can be in their unique situation.
Europe's military princesses
In reality, teenage princesses being sent into the Army is not just a Spanish concept. HRH Leonor is one of a number of young Royal girls who will go, or who have gone, down this path.
Little attention is paid publicly when young princes do so – nobody questioned it when Prince William and Prince Harry of Great Britain joined the military – which raises the uncomfortable question of gender stereotypes.
But the current generation of future Royal leaders has grown up in world where men and women are considered equal, and would be surprised if the duties and opportunities that a military education brings them were to be denied them purely because their female predecessors may not have taken the same route.
Princess Elisabeth of Belgium was only due to spend a very short time at Brussels Royal Military Academy, but she enjoyed the first year so much that she volunteered to continue for a second.
She is now aged 21 and studying history and politics at Lincoln College, Oxford University, in the UK.
Belgium and Spain are the only two countries whose female heirs to the throne were set to undergo official training in the Forces, although in others, princesses have had exposure to them, knowing that the military will be under their command when they finally reign.
Princess Amalie of The Netherlands has not gone into military training, although she spent several months of last year in the Air Force, Army and Navy to find out first-hand how these operated.
In the case of Princess Victoria of Sweden, her military training was just three months, and took place after she had graduated from university, in 2003, at the age of 26.
One Royal heir, one military discipline...usually
Princess Leonor is, however, unique insofar as she will be undergoing formal training in all three Forces, and her situation is rare in going straight to the military from sixth-form college.
Even the UK's direct heir to the throne, Prince William, spent less time training in the military than Leonor will, and at an older age. After graduating from university in 2005, the then 23-year-old son of King Charles III trained for 44 weeks. But he did actually intend to exercise this profession, given that at the time, he was second in line to the throne – his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, reigned right up until her death in September 2022. As a consequence, Prince William spent three years working as a search and rescue pilot in Squadron 22 of RAF Valley of Anglesey.
And like Prince William, other European Royals have only focused on training in one Forces discipline. Prince Haakon of Norway, now 49, graduated from the country's Royal Naval Academy in 1995, even though he is now General in the Army and Air Force as well as Admiral in the Navy; in any case, military service remains compulsory in the Scandinavian nation. And Prince Frederik of Denmark, now 54, trained with the Royal Guards Regiment in 1986, reaching the level of Commander.
Prince Frederik eventually went on to train with the Navy and the Air Force, albeit much later on. He now holds the rank of Commander in the Navy and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and Air Force.
Princess Mary of Denmark also went through military training – but through personal choice. She is not direct heir to the throne, although her marriage to Prince Frederik will mean she becomes Queen Consort once her husband is crowned. In light of this, she chose to take part in Forces training to give her a close-up view.
'Willing, interested and excited'
Despite concerns from a number of quarters, there is no suggestion Princess Leonor would really be obliged to undertake Forces training if she was dead set against doing so. All reports seem to show she is looking forward to it, and will have been given the benefit of insider knowledge from her father, based upon his own experiences.
King Felipe VI has always been very keen for Leonor to have a 'direct involvement' with the Forces, given that the training is 'highly valuable' as it 'reinforces the sense of duty and commitment' she will need to have as Queen one day.
According to Margarita Robles, King Felipe and Queen Letizia are 'pleased' to see that their eldest daughter seems 'very willing, interested and excited' about her forthcoming military education, even though she is 'fully aware of the sacrifices involved' and of the 'demanding way of life' in the Forces.
Leonor is 'very conscious' of the 'honour' that 'training and serving alongside the men and women in Spain's Armed Forces' supposes, the Royal Household shares.
“Military education provides a very thorough technical and human training, ideal for guaranteeing and encouraging commitment and permanent service to the Spanish public,” the family says.
“[The Princess], through this training, will gain specific knowledge and skills in the military world, whilst her education will expressly encourage virtues such as loyalty, discipline, courage, and teamwork, as well as principles like responsibility, austerity and setting a good example.
“It's a very widely-followed tradition in European Royal Households for future monarchs to develop both a military career and a university education.”
The 'honour' the Princess is credited with recognising is even greater in her case, since she will be a trailblazer for her gender: Once she is eventually crowed Queen of Spain, Leonor will be the first woman in the country's history ever to hold the highest-ranking position in the Forces.
Princess Leonor's day-to-day in Army Academy
As for the 'sacrifices' and 'demanding way of life', though, Leonor will have some serious adjusting to do. She is used to sharing a dormitory with people she has never met before, thanks to UWC Atlantic, meaning being in a bedroom with anything from two or four to 12 others during her military training will not come as a culture shock.
Being totally forbidden from leaving the premises, and only being given a permit to do so when strictly necessary and with proof that this is so, could be another matter.
Combat training will feature heavily, and Leonor and her fellow students will spend several weeks of their year as interns in Army units.
They will practise assault courses, target-shooting, handling simulation firearms, marching drill, land surveillance, and individual fighting instruction, which will take place overnight as well as in daylight, and in all weathers.
Students have to be extremely physically fit, so a heavy focus is placed on sports – horse-riding, pentathlon, shooting patrols, complete with tournaments and championships.
Princess Leonor spent her pre-Wales years at the same school in Madrid, where pupils attend in uniform – not a typical practice in Spain, except at private education centres – and spends a lot of her non-school time making public appearances; to this end, the requirement to wear uniform at all times, correctly buttoned and impeccably turned out, will be nothing she isn't already used to.
Despite training being harsh and difficult, the plus side is that Leonor will probably make some of her closest and longest-running friendships over the next three years. Brigadier-General and director of the Zaragoza Armed Forces Academy Manuel Pérez López says camaraderie is crucial, even at student level, so the team can keep each others' spirits up.
“Cadets [trainees] create close bonds with their colleagues which last for life,” he explains.
“They spend so much time together and in such unusual conditions that they forge unbreakable ties and friendships that stay with them forever.”
Related Topics
BIG changes are afoot for Spain's future Queen, with major new challenges in her path – and, although young Leonor is proof that being major Royalty means few privileges and limited choices, the demands on her at a tender age have not yet taken the wind out of her sails as she soldiers on with a smile.
Even though Princess Leonor's father, King Felipe VI, is only in his 50s – so, if he never decides to abdicate, his eldest daughter may not reach the throne for another 40-plus years, all being well – the Hallowe'en-born student has been in preparation for her future job practically since the cradle.
This preparation has been quite tough enough so far – her first public speech on her 13th birthday, spending summer holidays at camp in the USA perfecting her English, travelling the country during half-term for official engagements and, just two months before turning 16, moving abroad, without her parents, to go to school.
In accordance with the Spanish Constitution – signed in December 1978 and still valid in its original version – the reigning monarch is always automatically the supreme head of the national Armed Forces.
As per Article 62, Leonor's granddad, King Juan Carlos I, was the highest-ranking military leader in the country until he abdicated in June 2014, after which his son, Felipe VI, would take over this status as well as that of King and Head of State.
Princess Leonor, then, will become Spain's top Forces figure when she is crowned Queen.
Even though compulsory military service was disbanded in Spain in March 2001, the heir to the throne was never going to be excused from it – being head soldier is not simply a token title, which means Leonor will have to join the Army.
Still, after moving abroad alone and living life in a foreign language at the impressionable age of 15, learning to fight for her country possibly isn't as daunting for the brave young Royal as it sounds.
Infanta Sofía to follow elder sister to sixth-form in Wales
Back in summer 2021, HRH Leonor passed a series of stiff exams, sat anonymously, to gain entrance to the United World College of the Atlantic in the Vale of Glamorgan, south Wales, where she would spend two years as a full-time boarder working on her sixth-form qualifications.
The international baccalaureate Leonor has been studying is taught in English, and she has spent this time among students from all over the world – over 70% of them on full scholarships and ranging from European Royalty to youngsters from the poorest countries on earth – with mandatory extra-curricular activities involving community service and sports.
Naturally, Princess Leonor is one of the 30% whose families pay the full fee of nearly €80,000 for her education, but in accordance with UWC Atlantic policies, has been living in a sparsely-furnished, shared house with students from different cultural backgrounds and languages – this is deliberate on the part of the college, to encourage cross-community integration - and they are all expected to do their own domestic chores and laundry.
Her younger sister, the Infanta Sofía – who turned 16 last week – will follow in Leonor's footsteps this coming September after having passed the stringent entrance exams.
The girls will not be at UWC Atlantic together, though – Leonor's final sixth-form exams are due in the coming weeks, and the next stage in her long-mapped-out career will be back in Spain.
Three years, three Forces, and 'fast-track' training
Supporters and critics of the monarchy alike have expressed mixed views on Leonor's next chapter, which involves a condensed and intensive training in the three main military disciplines. Although the Princess will have known all her life that she was never going to be able to follow a career of her own choice, and is said to be very keen to get started on the new leg of her journey, there is a sense among the general public that it would not matter either way – she might love it, or she might hate it, but she's still going to have to do it.
Many have said that if Leonor ends up hating her Forces experience, the three years she will spend training will be far too long; by contrast, if she loves it, then three years will not be enough.
Starting this September, the Princess will join the Territorial Armed Forces, or Land Army, at the military academy in Zaragoza, Aragón, where her father Felipe VI trained. Here, she will stay for one academic year, but her military education will be fast-tracked: By summer 2024, Leonor will have reached the stage of a second-year graduate, or 'passing out'.
The next academic year, from September 2024 to summer 2025, Leonor will move to the far north-western region of Galicia to spend a year training with the Navy in Marín (Pontevedra province).
Here, she will go straight in as a third-year student and, after completing her studies at this level, will go offshore, training on the water on the Juan Sebastián de Elcano, a Naval academy ship named after the Spaniard who completed the first-ever round-the-world voyage.
Year three – from September 2025 to summer 2026 – will take HRH Leonor to the opposite end of the country, to San Javier (Murcia). She will join the Air Force Academy in this south-eastern coastal region, going straight in as a fourth-year student.
Although her training will be considered complete after these three years, Leonor will automatically rise through the military ranks alongside her colleagues over the fourth year, from September 2026 to summer 2027, when they will all – the Princess included – graduate.
'Lieutenant Leonor' to combine university with military
This 'express' training route across three disciplines, designed jointly by the Royal family and defence minister Margarita Robles, will mean Leonor reaches the level of Sub-Lieutenant in the Navy, and Lieutenant in the Army and the Air Force.
A Sub-Lieutenant – or, in the case of a frigate, Midshipman – in the Navy is equivalent to that of Lieutenant in the Armed Forces or the Air Force, and is the ranking below that of Captain.
During her year in Zaragoza, HRH Leonor will combine her Land Army training with university studies, although it is not clear how she will continue with her academic career after summer 2024 – whether her second and subsequent years will be deferred until after her military education, or whether she will be able to carry on with it at least part-time, dovetailing her law degree with the Navy and Air Force.
Leonor, and also her sister Sofía, will both be expected to take a university degree, and will probably go onto post-graduate higher education studies, too, although this is likely to be optional.
Princess waives right to €417-a-month salary
It has already been confirmed the Princess has waived her right to the allowance, or salary, normally paid to students in the three military disciplines. Set at 60% of the so-called 'sub-group C2' in the first year, she would have received just over €417 a month, rising to €668 by the end of her training.
King Felipe VI explains that his eldest daughter will not be paid during these years, because her Forces education is not aimed at an eventual career as a soldier, unlike that of her colleagues.
Even though both Princess Leonor and the Infanta Sofía are members of the Royal family – much reduced since Felipe VI's coronation and now only encompassing the girls, their parents, and King Felipe's parents Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía – neither of the monarch's daughters receives an allowance from the State.
Their mum, dad and paternal grandparents do, but according to reports back in 2019, each of the teenagers were given €30 a week by their parents for buying clothes, going out with friends, or other general hobbies or activities.
This amount may have increased with their age, but King Felipe and his wife, Queen Letizia, have raised their daughters to see their Royal status as a career, not a privilege. The sisters have been actively involved in charity work along with their parents, and educated on the reality of life for the wider community, with their upbringing being as austere as can be in their unique situation.
Europe's military princesses
In reality, teenage princesses being sent into the Army is not just a Spanish concept. HRH Leonor is one of a number of young Royal girls who will go, or who have gone, down this path.
Little attention is paid publicly when young princes do so – nobody questioned it when Prince William and Prince Harry of Great Britain joined the military – which raises the uncomfortable question of gender stereotypes.
But the current generation of future Royal leaders has grown up in world where men and women are considered equal, and would be surprised if the duties and opportunities that a military education brings them were to be denied them purely because their female predecessors may not have taken the same route.
Princess Elisabeth of Belgium was only due to spend a very short time at Brussels Royal Military Academy, but she enjoyed the first year so much that she volunteered to continue for a second.
She is now aged 21 and studying history and politics at Lincoln College, Oxford University, in the UK.
Belgium and Spain are the only two countries whose female heirs to the throne were set to undergo official training in the Forces, although in others, princesses have had exposure to them, knowing that the military will be under their command when they finally reign.
Princess Amalie of The Netherlands has not gone into military training, although she spent several months of last year in the Air Force, Army and Navy to find out first-hand how these operated.
In the case of Princess Victoria of Sweden, her military training was just three months, and took place after she had graduated from university, in 2003, at the age of 26.
One Royal heir, one military discipline...usually
Princess Leonor is, however, unique insofar as she will be undergoing formal training in all three Forces, and her situation is rare in going straight to the military from sixth-form college.
Even the UK's direct heir to the throne, Prince William, spent less time training in the military than Leonor will, and at an older age. After graduating from university in 2005, the then 23-year-old son of King Charles III trained for 44 weeks. But he did actually intend to exercise this profession, given that at the time, he was second in line to the throne – his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, reigned right up until her death in September 2022. As a consequence, Prince William spent three years working as a search and rescue pilot in Squadron 22 of RAF Valley of Anglesey.
And like Prince William, other European Royals have only focused on training in one Forces discipline. Prince Haakon of Norway, now 49, graduated from the country's Royal Naval Academy in 1995, even though he is now General in the Army and Air Force as well as Admiral in the Navy; in any case, military service remains compulsory in the Scandinavian nation. And Prince Frederik of Denmark, now 54, trained with the Royal Guards Regiment in 1986, reaching the level of Commander.
Prince Frederik eventually went on to train with the Navy and the Air Force, albeit much later on. He now holds the rank of Commander in the Navy and Lieutenant Colonel in the Army and Air Force.
Princess Mary of Denmark also went through military training – but through personal choice. She is not direct heir to the throne, although her marriage to Prince Frederik will mean she becomes Queen Consort once her husband is crowned. In light of this, she chose to take part in Forces training to give her a close-up view.
'Willing, interested and excited'
Despite concerns from a number of quarters, there is no suggestion Princess Leonor would really be obliged to undertake Forces training if she was dead set against doing so. All reports seem to show she is looking forward to it, and will have been given the benefit of insider knowledge from her father, based upon his own experiences.
King Felipe VI has always been very keen for Leonor to have a 'direct involvement' with the Forces, given that the training is 'highly valuable' as it 'reinforces the sense of duty and commitment' she will need to have as Queen one day.
According to Margarita Robles, King Felipe and Queen Letizia are 'pleased' to see that their eldest daughter seems 'very willing, interested and excited' about her forthcoming military education, even though she is 'fully aware of the sacrifices involved' and of the 'demanding way of life' in the Forces.
Leonor is 'very conscious' of the 'honour' that 'training and serving alongside the men and women in Spain's Armed Forces' supposes, the Royal Household shares.
“Military education provides a very thorough technical and human training, ideal for guaranteeing and encouraging commitment and permanent service to the Spanish public,” the family says.
“[The Princess], through this training, will gain specific knowledge and skills in the military world, whilst her education will expressly encourage virtues such as loyalty, discipline, courage, and teamwork, as well as principles like responsibility, austerity and setting a good example.
“It's a very widely-followed tradition in European Royal Households for future monarchs to develop both a military career and a university education.”
The 'honour' the Princess is credited with recognising is even greater in her case, since she will be a trailblazer for her gender: Once she is eventually crowed Queen of Spain, Leonor will be the first woman in the country's history ever to hold the highest-ranking position in the Forces.
Princess Leonor's day-to-day in Army Academy
As for the 'sacrifices' and 'demanding way of life', though, Leonor will have some serious adjusting to do. She is used to sharing a dormitory with people she has never met before, thanks to UWC Atlantic, meaning being in a bedroom with anything from two or four to 12 others during her military training will not come as a culture shock.
Being totally forbidden from leaving the premises, and only being given a permit to do so when strictly necessary and with proof that this is so, could be another matter.
Combat training will feature heavily, and Leonor and her fellow students will spend several weeks of their year as interns in Army units.
They will practise assault courses, target-shooting, handling simulation firearms, marching drill, land surveillance, and individual fighting instruction, which will take place overnight as well as in daylight, and in all weathers.
Students have to be extremely physically fit, so a heavy focus is placed on sports – horse-riding, pentathlon, shooting patrols, complete with tournaments and championships.
Princess Leonor spent her pre-Wales years at the same school in Madrid, where pupils attend in uniform – not a typical practice in Spain, except at private education centres – and spends a lot of her non-school time making public appearances; to this end, the requirement to wear uniform at all times, correctly buttoned and impeccably turned out, will be nothing she isn't already used to.
Despite training being harsh and difficult, the plus side is that Leonor will probably make some of her closest and longest-running friendships over the next three years. Brigadier-General and director of the Zaragoza Armed Forces Academy Manuel Pérez López says camaraderie is crucial, even at student level, so the team can keep each others' spirits up.
“Cadets [trainees] create close bonds with their colleagues which last for life,” he explains.
“They spend so much time together and in such unusual conditions that they forge unbreakable ties and friendships that stay with them forever.”
Related Topics
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