A 17-year-old Spanish Princess Leonor who is the inheritor assumptive to the Spanish throne will undergo three years of military training starting in August, Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on Tuesday.
The Spanish monarchy is working to improve its impression after a series of scandals over the past decade, especially connected to the former king Juan Carlos who resigned in 2014 in favor of his son, King Felipe.
As in all parliamentary monarchies (the heir) has to have a military background and a military career.”
Robles said after a cabinet meeting.
Felipe’s elder daughter Leonor, who will complete her two-year high school course at UWC Atlantic College in Wales in a few months, turns 18 in October. She is first in the sequence of succession unless a male successor is born, followed by her sister Sofia.
In due course, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces will be a woman, and in recent years we have been making a very important effort to incorporate women into the armed forces.”
Robles said.
The princess will receive her first year of training at the Army Military Academy in Zaragoza, then move to a naval school, which contains sailing the Juan Sebastian Elcano training tall ship, and completing her studies at the General Air Academy.
The state and the Royal House have agreed her “very intense” military training will precede university studies, following in the footsteps of her father in the 1980s.
Juan Carlos resigned amid a tax fraud case involving members of the royal family and following a scandal over his elephant-hunting trip in Africa at a time when Spain was going through a serious recession.
The former ruler has been living in Abu Dhabi since August 2020, when he left Spain after several investigations were opened in Spain and Switzerland into alleged fraud. The investigations have later been dropped.
