Leonor, Princess of Asturias

• 1. Introduction

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  Leonor, Princess of Asturias, turned 18 on the 31st of October 2023 and spent the day swearing allegiance to the Spanish Constitution and to her father, King Felipe VI. She took the oath before a joint session of the Spanish Parliament. The members answered with an ovation that lasted more than four minutes.

  Her full name is Leonor de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Ortiz. She is the heir presumptive to the Spanish throne and the elder daughter of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. Few teenagers have a public oath written into their country's constitution. Fewer still spend the following years training with the army, the navy and the air force.

  So how does a schoolgirl come to carry six royal titles? Why did she learn seamanship, fencing and flying in the years after finishing school? And why does Spanish law still leave a question mark beside her place in line?

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• 2. A Birth Announced by Text

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  The news of Leonor's birth reached the Spanish press as a text message. She was born at 01:46 on the 31st of October 2005, three weeks before her due date, at the Ruber International Hospital in Madrid. Doctors performed a caesarean section because labour had not progressed. Her parents were then the Prince and Princess of Asturias, and her grandfather Juan Carlos I was still king. As the daughter of the heir apparent, she was born an infanta and stood second in the line of succession.

  Shortly afterwards, her umbilical cord stem cells were sent to a blood bank in Tucson, Arizona. The choice sparked public debate in Spain, because the bank was private and located abroad.

  On the 7th of November 2005, Leonor left the hospital with her parents. On the 14th of January 2006, Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela, the archbishop of Madrid, baptised her in the Zarzuela Palace. The water came from the Jordan River. The Romanesque font was the same one her father had used, and Spanish princes have been christened in it since the 17th century. Her godparents were her paternal grandparents, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía, and she received the name Leonor de Todos los Santos.

  In her first months, a small angioma appeared on her nose. This is a benign tumour of blood vessels, and it was visible at the baptism. At first it was mistaken for a scratch. Medical sources say such marks are common in newborns and usually vanish within a year or a year and a half without surgery. The press speculated about an operation, but people close to the royal family said none was ever considered. The mark disappeared within months, long before school photographs began.

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• 3. Classrooms and Languages

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  In 2007, Leonor's schooling began at the Escuela Infantil Guardia Real, a daycare for the children of the Spanish Royal Guard. On the 15th of September 2008, she started pre-school at the Santa María de los Rosales School in Aravaca, Madrid. She began primary school there in September 2011. Her father had attended the same school, and reports describe her grades there as good.

  In September 2021, she moved to Wales. At the UWC Atlantic College in Llantwit Major, in the Vale of Glamorgan, she began a two-year International Baccalaureate programme. She completed her secondary education in May 2023. She had also attended summer camps in the United States.

  Spanish, Catalan and English are the languages she speaks fluently. She picked up English from her British nanny and from her grandmother, Queen Sofía. She has also studied French, Galician, Basque, Arabic and Mandarin.

  On the 27th of April 2026, it was announced that she would attend the Charles III University of Madrid. Starting in September 2026, she will take a four-year bachelor's degree in political science. The course also covers the humanities, law, sociology, economics and international relations.

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• 4. Heir by Midnight

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  At the stroke of midnight between the 18th and the 19th of June 2014, Leonor's father became King Felipe VI. King Juan Carlos had signed the Abdication Act on the 18th of June. Leonor instantly became heir presumptive and Princess of Asturias. In October 2014, the Museo de Cera in Madrid unveiled a wax figure of her. On the 20th of May 2015, she received her First Communion, following Catholic custom.

  Six titles came with the change. She became Princess of Asturias, Princess of Girona, Princess of Viana, Duchess of Montblanc, Countess of Cervera and Lady of Balaguer. She is the 36th person to hold the title of Princess of Asturias, which dates from 1388. Before 2014 she had been styled Her Royal Highness Infanta Doña Leonor. Now she is generally Her Royal Highness The Princess of Asturias. In the lands of the former Crown of Aragon, Girona is added to the style. In Navarre, it becomes Asturias and Viana.

  The Constitution of 1978 sets out male-preference cognatic primogeniture. As the elder of Felipe's two daughters, Leonor stands first in line. Yet if her father had a legitimate son while still king, she would be displaced and become an infanta again. Talk of switching to absolute primogeniture, where the eldest child inherits regardless of sex, was stalled by her birth and then by that of her younger sister, Sofía. Titles of nobility moved to absolute primogeniture in 2009. As of 2025, no law has changed the succession to the throne.

  If Leonor does ascend as expected, she will be Spain's first queen regnant since her fourth great-grandmother Isabella II, who reigned from 1833 to 1868.

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• 5. A Public Apprenticeship

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  The day before her 10th birthday, Leonor was granted the Order of the Golden Fleece by her father. The Council of Ministers also approved the design of her personal standard and guidon. In January 2018, to coincide with King Felipe's 50th birthday, he gave her the collar of the Golden Fleece at the Royal Palace of Madrid.

  In September 2018, she made her first public appearance outside the palace. She went with her parents to Covadonga to mark the 1300th anniversary of the Kingdom of Asturias. On the 31st of October 2018, her 13th birthday, she gave her first public speech at the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid. She read the first article of the Spanish Constitution, in the year of its 40th anniversary.

  On the 18th of October 2019, she made her first significant speech, at the Princess of Asturias Awards. On the 4th of November 2019, she addressed the Princess of Girona Foundation awards in Barcelona. She spoke in Spanish, Catalan, English and Arabic.

  On the 24th of March 2021, Leonor carried out her first public engagement alone, at a ceremony for the 30th anniversary of the Instituto Cervantes. On the 16th of July 2022, she made her first trip abroad on official business without her parents. Her younger sister, Infanta Sofía, went with her to watch Spain play Denmark at the UEFA Women's Euro 2022. In December 2022, she visited the Spanish Red Cross headquarters in Madrid and met young volunteers of the Red Cross Youth. In July 2025, the two sisters returned to a Women's Euro stand, this time for England against Spain.

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• 6. Three Academies

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  In March 2023, the defence minister, Margarita Robles, announced that the government had approved a royal decree for a three-year military education for Leonor. The aim was to prepare her for her future role as commander-in-chief, as her father had done. The training moves between the General Military Academy in Zaragoza, the Naval Military Academy in Marín and the General Air Academy in Murcia. She uses both parents' surnames, Borbón Ortiz, in her military career. She also gives up her salary and any money cadets receive.

  On the 17th of August 2023, she began training at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza. She received the officer's sabre on the 19th of September 2023. On the 7th of October 2023, she swore an oath to the Spanish flag in front of her parents. In January 2024, she represented the academy at the 24th Sports Championship of Military Academies for Officers, in fencing and volleyball. Her team took silver in the mixed team fencing event. In June 2024, she closed the army maneuver practices in the mountains of Navaleno and San Leonardo de Yagüe, in Soria province. Her instructors included Colonel José Gonzálvez Vallés and Lieutenant Colonel Margarita Pardo de Santayana. On the 3rd of July 2024, her father promoted her to Cadet Ensign, or Alférez, and awarded her the Grand Cross of Military Merit.

  On the 23rd of July 2024, the Council of Ministers appointed her a Midshipman, or Guardiamarina. She began naval training at Marín on the 29th of August 2024. That September, she and other students practised seamanship in the Pontevedra Estuary. On the 8th of January 2025, she boarded the training ship Juan Sebastián de Elcano. Three days later, a five-month voyage began on which she trained as a sailor. It took her to many Latin American countries and to New York City. After leaving the ship in New York, she flew home and spent a month aboard the frigate Blas de Lezo, taking part in naval maneuvers with live fire. She rejoined the training ship on the 2nd of July and finished the voyage in mid-July. On the 16th of July 2025, her father promoted her to Midshipman of 2nd grade and gave her the Grand Cross of Naval Merit.

  The San Javier Air Force base in Murcia had hosted Leonor's first official visit, back in May 2014. On the 1st of September 2025, she returned there to begin her third and final year at the General Air and Space Academy. On the 18th of December 2025, she flew solo for the first time, in a Pilatus PC-21. She was the first woman of the Spanish royal family to pilot a solo flight. On the 25th of April 2026, she paddled in a mixed-team event at the 25th Inter-University Canoeing Regatta on the Mar Menor, and her team won silver. On the 30th of May 2026, she attended her first Armed Forces Day, in Vigo.

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• 7. Oath Day

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  On the 22nd of September 2023, the Royal Household announced the plan for her coming of age. The Constitution requires the heir to swear allegiance to it and to the King on reaching majority. The oath also formally declared her the heir.

  At about 11:00 on the 31st of October 2023, the royal family left the Zarzuela Palace. The Royal Guard escorted them through the streets of Madrid. At the Palacio de las Cortes, they received state honors before the session began.

  Back at the Royal Palace, King Felipe presented her with the Collar of the Order of Charles III, the highest civil honor in Spain. She had been created a Dame of the Collar on the 10th of October 2023. That same day, the Congress of Deputies and the Senate granted her the Gold Medals of the Spanish parliament. A lunch at the palace ended the official part of the day.

  The private celebration took place at the Royal Palace of El Pardo. Her paternal and maternal families attended. The Greek royal family came, represented by Queen Anne-Marie, Princess Alexia and her husband. Guests also included members of the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, among them Prince Pedro, Duke of Calabria. Representatives of the Bulgarian royal family and Princess Miriam Ghazi were there as well.

  The Royal Mint of Spain marked the day by minting a gold-silver coin bearing her image. In 2025, a collector's coin followed to commemorate her second year of naval training.

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• 8. An Adult Agenda

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  On the 6th of January 2024, Leonor attended the Pascua Militar for the first time. The celebration is more than two centuries old. She came not only as her father's heir but also as a member of the Armed Forces. In May 2024, she attended the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the oath to the flag taken by the 44th promotion of the General Military Academy.

  On the 12th of July 2024, Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa invited her to Portugal for her first official foreign visit. The Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, and the king's private secretary, Camilo Villarino, travelled with her. She focused on environmental protection and ocean conservation. She toured the Lisbon Oceanarium and attended a debate on protecting the oceans. At the Jerónimos Monastery, she paid tribute to the poet Luís de Camões. At Belém Palace, the two delegations met over lunch, and the president awarded her the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Christ.

  On the 4th of August 2025, Leonor and Sofía attended the annual reception at Marivent Palace for authorities and prominent citizens of the Balearic Islands. King Felipe, Queen Letizia and Queen Sofía were there. It was the first such reception for the sisters. On the 26th and the 27th of September 2025, Leonor travelled with her parents to Navarre. The trip marked 600 years since the creation of the title of Princess of Viana, held by the heir to the ancient Kingdom of Navarre. They visited Pamplona, Viana and Tudela, the Monastery of Leyre and the Royal Palace of Olite.

  On the 25th of October 2024, Leonor attended the Princess of Asturias Awards as an adult for the first time. It was the sixth ceremony she had attended. She spoke to the winners, declared the event closed and convened the awards for their next edition. On the 24th of October 2025, she presided over the seventh edition. At the Exemplary Town Award in Valdesoto, she was the only person to give a speech.

  As heir, she is the nominal chairwoman of the Princess of Asturias Foundation and the Princess of Girona Foundation. Before she turned 18, her father held those roles. A collector's stamp now pairs her with King Felipe. It commemorates 50 years since the end of the dictatorship of Francisco Franco.

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