Should Leonor ascend to the throne as expected, she will be Spain's first queen regnant since her fourth great-grandmother Isabella II,[c] who reigned from 1833 to 1868.
Leonor was born on 31 October 2005 at 01:46, three weeks before her due date, to Felipe and Letizia, then the Prince and Princess of Asturias, 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.[2] As the daughter of the heir apparent, she was an infanta and the second in the line of succession to the Spanish throne.[3] Her birth was announced by the royal family to the press via SMS.[4]
Leonor left the Ruber International Hospital with her parents on 7 November 2005.[5][6] She was baptised in the Zarzuela Palace by the archbishop of Madrid, CardinalAntonio Rouco Varela, on 14 January 2006.[7] 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.[8] Her godparents were her paternal grandparents, King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía.[9] She received the name of Leonor de Todos los Santos.[10][11]
During her early months, she developed a small angioma, a benign tumor of blood vessels, on her nose. The angioma, which was visible during her baptism, was initially mistaken for a scratch. According to medical sources, such angiomas are common in newborns and typically disappear within a year or year and a half without the need for surgery. Despite media speculation about potential surgery, sources close to the Royal Family confirmed that no such procedure was ever considered, and the angioma disappeared within months.[12]
Leonor's education began at Escuela Infantil Guardia Real, the daycare for the children of the Spanish Royal Guard.[13] She began her first year of primary school on 15 September 2008 at the Santa María de los Rosales School in Aravaca, Madrid.[14] Leonor was reported to have good grades during her studies in Rosales.[15] In September 2021, Leonor began studying a 2-year International Baccalaureate program at the UWC Atlantic College in the Llantwit Major, Wales.[16] She completed her secondary education in May 2023.[17] Leonor also attended summer camps in the United States.[18] She is fluent in Spanish, Catalan and English (the latter learnt from her British nanny and also from her grandmother, Queen Sofía)[19] and has studied French, Galician, Basque, Arabic and Mandarin.[18][20][21]
On 17 August 2023, she started her first year of training at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza.[27] She received the officer's sabre on 19 September 2023.[28] Leonor swore an oath of allegiance to the Spanish flag at the General Military Academy on 7 October 2023, in the presence of her parents.[29][30] In January 2024, Leonor participated in the 24th Sports Championship of Military Academies for Officers, competing in fencing and volleyball as one of the representatives of the General Military Academy.[31] Her team won a silver medal in the mixed team fencing competition.[32] In June 2024, she closed the maneuver practices of the army training in the mountains of Navaleno and San Leonardo de Yagüe in Soria province.[33] She was trained by Colonel José Gonzálvez Vallés and Lieutenant Colonel Margarita Pardo de Santayana.[34] Leonor was promoted to the rank of Cadet Ensign and awarded the Grand Cross of Military Merit by her father King Felipe VI on 3 July 2024.[35]
On 23 July 2024, the Council of Ministers appointed her as Midshipman, preliminary step to join the Naval Military School at the end of August.[36][37] On 29 August 2024, she started her naval training at the Naval Military Academy in Marín.[38]
In May 2014, Leonor made her first official visit to the San Javier Air Force base in Murcia.[14] 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.[39] In October 2014, a wax figure of Leonor was unveiled at the Museo de Cera in Madrid.[40] On 20 May 2015, Leonor received First Communion as per Catholic custom.[41][42]
According to the Spanish constitution of 1978, the succession to the Spanish throne is under a system of male-preference cognatic primogeniture,[43] 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.[14] There have been discussions[44][45][46] 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,[47] as of 2024 no legislation has been passed affecting the succession to the throne.
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.[53] 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.[54] The speech coincided with the 40th anniversary of the Constitution and her 13th birthday.[55] She made her first significant speech at Premio Princesa de Asturias on 18 October 2019.[56] She made her first speech on 4 November 2019 at the Princess of Girona Foundation awards in Barcelona,[57] in which she spoke in Spanish, Catalan, English and Arabic.[58]
Leonor carried out her first public solo engagement on 24 March 2021 by attending a ceremony to mark the 30th anniversary of the Instituto Cervantes.[59] Leonor made her first official international trip on 16 July 2022. 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.[60][61] 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.[62]
The Royal Household made public on 22 September 2023 that, as required under the Spanish Constitution, the princess would swear allegiance to the Constitution and the King upon reaching the age of majority.[63] This declared her as the heir to the Spanish throne.[64] 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.[65]
On 6 January 2024, Leonor attended the Pascua Militar for the first time, a more than two-centuries-old Spanish military celebration.[70] She attended the event not just as the heir to her father, but also as member of the Armed Forces.[71] In May 2024, she attended the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the oath of allegiance to the Spanish flag of the 44th promotion of the General Military Academy.[72]
On 12 July 2024, Leonor made her first official foreign visit. She was invited by Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to visit the country.[73] In this trip, Leonor, who was accompanied by the Portuguese leader, the Spanish foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, and the private secretary to the king, Camilo Villarino,[74] focused her activities on environmental protection and ocean conservation, visiting the Lisbon Oceanarium and attending a debate on ocean protection.[75] She also visited the Jerónimos Monastery, where she paid tribute to the poet Luís de Camões, and later went to Belém Palace, where delegations from both countries met and had a lunch, and where President Rebelo de Sousa awarded Leonor the Grand Cross of the Military Order of Christ.[75]
On 25 October 2024, she attended, as usual, to the Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony. It was the sixth awards ceremony she attended and the first one as an adult, which is why she was in charge of giving the speech to the winners and, later, declaring the event closed and convening the awards for its next edition.[76][77]
Since then, Leonor is generally styled as "Her Royal Highness The Princess of Asturias", although depending on the province of the country, another title may be added. For example, when visiting the territories of the former Crown of Aragon, she is usually titled "Her Royal Highness the Princess of Asturias and Girona" and, in Navarre, she is referred as "Her Royal Highness the Princess of Asturias and Viana".[81][82]
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.[83][84]
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.[92]
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.
Aragonese: Alionor de Totz os Santos de Borbón y Ortiz;
Asturian: Lleonor de Tolos Santos de Borbón y Ortiz;
Basque: Santu Guztien Leonor Borboikoa eta Ortiz;
Catalan: Elionor de Tots els Sants de Borbó i Ortiz;
Galician: Leonor de Todos os Santos de Borbón Ortiz;
Occitan: Leonor de Tots los Sants de Borbon Ortiz.
^Leonor will become Spain's second queen regnant; or fourth, considering the dynastic unification of Spain's separate Crowns during the reigns of Isabella I and Joanna of Castile before Spain was formally unified under the latter's son, Carlos I of Spain. The female monarchs of the constituent kingdoms of Spain – including Leonor's namesake, Queen Leonor of Navarre – are hereby not considered, as they reigned before the unification of Spain.
^Marcos, Charo; Cernuda, Olalla (31 October 2005). "Letizia Ortiz da a luz una niña". El Mundo (in Spanish). Mundinteractivos. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
^Martínez-Fornés, Almudena (30 October 2020). "Una Princesa en tiempos difíciles" [A Princess in Hard Times]. ABC España. Archived from the original on 18 July 2024. Retrieved 18 July 2024.
^"Mérito, confianza y futuro". El País (in European Spanish). 1 November 2023. Archived from the original on 1 November 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023.