- Spanish Princess Leonor will begin military training in September, the government announced on Tuesday.
- Leonor will turn 18 in October and the palace said she “must receive military training, as her father His Majesty the King did”.
- Leonor is the eldest daughter of King Felipe VI; she will one day ascend the throne.
Spain’s Crown Princess Leonor will begin three years of military training in September as she prepares to one day ascend the throne, the government announced on Tuesday.
King Felipe VI’s eldest daughter, who turns 18 in October, will attend the Spanish Army’s General Military Academy in the northeastern city of Zaragoza during the 2023-24 academic year, said said Defense Minister Margarita Robles.
The heir to the Spanish throne will then spend a year at a navy school in the northwestern region of Galicia and a year at an air force school in the southeastern region of Murcia, said the minister during a press conference.
The Royal Palace believes she “must receive military training, as her father His Majesty the King did, and as is done in other parliamentary monarchies,” Robles said.
“In recent years, we have made a major effort to integrate women into the armed forces,” she added.
Princess Leonor is due to complete two years at UWC Atlantic College boarding school in Wales at the end of May, earning her International Baccalaureate.
If she follows in her father’s footsteps, she will go to university in Spain once her military training is complete, then complete a master’s degree abroad.
King Felipe studied law at Complutense University in Madrid and then obtained a master’s degree in international relations at Georgetown University in Washington.
The Spanish royal palace said that “it is a widely observed and shared tradition in European parliamentary monarchies that future heads of state develop a military career”.
He recalled in a statement that under the Spanish constitution, Princess Leonor will become the head of the armed forces when she ascends the throne.
