Leonor, Princess of Asturias, is the heir presumptive to the Spanish throne and the elder daughter of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. Since the day she was born, her life has followed a path shaped almost entirely by the fact that she is expected, one day, to become Spain’s next monarch. Her titles, her schooling, her military service, and now her university education have all been arranged with that eventual role in mind. This article brings together, in one place, everything currently known about Leonor: her family background and childhood, the full list of titles she holds and what each one means, her education in Spain and abroad, her three years of military training across all branches of the armed forces, her formal coming of age as heir, her growing calendar of public duties, and her position in Spain’s line of succession, together with a look at how her path compares with previous heirs to the Spanish crown.
Quick Facts: Leonor, Princess of Asturias
| Fact | Detail |
| Full name | Leonor de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Ortiz |
| Born | 31 October 2005, Madrid, Spain |
| Age | 20 (as of 2026) |
| House | Bourbon-Anjou |
| Father | King Felipe VI |
| Mother | Queen Letizia |
| Sibling | Infanta SofÃa (younger sister, born 2007) |
| Position | Heir presumptive to the Spanish throne |
| Main title | Princess of Asturias (since 19 June 2014) |
| Style | Her Royal Highness |
| Secondary education | Santa MarÃa de los Rosales School, Madrid |
| International Baccalaureate | UWC Atlantic College, Wales, United Kingdom |
| Military service | Spanish Armed Forces, 2023–2026 (Army, Navy, Air and Space Force) |
| University | Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), Political Science |
Family Background and Early Life
Leonor was born on 31 October 2005 in Madrid, at a time when her grandfather, King Juan Carlos I, still sat on the Spanish throne and her father held the title Prince of Asturias. She is the elder of two daughters born to then-Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano, a former journalist who married into the royal family in 2004. Leonor’s younger sister, Infanta SofÃa, was born on 29 April 2007 and has grown up alongside her as the two most visible young members of the Spanish royal family.
As the daughter of the heir to the throne, Leonor was born with the title Infanta of Spain, the honorific traditionally given to the children of the reigning monarch or of the Prince or Princess of Asturias. That status changed dramatically less than a decade later, when Juan Carlos I abdicated in June 2014 and her father became King Felipe VI. Overnight, Leonor moved from being an Infanta several steps removed from the crown to being the direct heir presumptive, a shift that reshaped the entire trajectory of her upbringing.
Spanish media has often noted the contrast between Leonor’s public visibility as a small child, when she frequently appeared at official engagements alongside her parents, and the more controlled, education-focused years that followed as the royal household worked to give her a relatively normal school life despite her position.
Full Name and Titles
Leonor’s full legal name is Leonor de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Ortiz. Following her father’s proclamation as king on 19 June 2014, she was granted the complete set of titles traditionally reserved for the heir to the Spanish Crown. These are not simply ceremonial add-ons; each one has its own regional and historical origin, dating back centuries to the various kingdoms that eventually unified into modern Spain.
- Princess of Asturias: the principal title of the heir, first created in 1388 for Henry III of Castile, making it one of the oldest heir titles still in continuous use anywhere in Europe.
- Princess of Girona, a title tied to territories that once formed part of the Crown of Aragon.
- The Princess of Viana inherited from the tradition of the former Kingdom of Navarre.
- Duchess of Montblanc, a Catalan ducal title created in 1387, specifically tied to the heir of the former Principality of Catalonia.
- Countess of Cervera linked to the town of Cervera in the Lleida province of Catalonia.
- Lady of Balaguer, another historic territorial title associated with the old Crown of Aragon.
Leonor is formally addressed as Her Royal Highness and, in Spanish contexts, often referred to as Su Alteza Real. Together, this collection of titles reflects Spain’s fragmented mediaeval past, when the peninsula was made up of separate kingdoms – Castile, Aragon, Navarre, and others – each of which contributed its own heir title to what eventually became a single, unified set of honours for the heir to a unified Spanish Crown.
Education in Spain and Abroad
Primary and Secondary Schooling
Leonor attended Santa MarÃa de los Rosales School in Madrid, the same school her father, King Felipe VI, attended decades earlier as a child. The choice was widely seen as a deliberate continuation of family tradition and an attempt to give Leonor as ordinary a school experience as possible, despite her position. She completed her secondary education there in May 2023.
International Baccalaureate in Wales
After finishing secondary school in Madrid, Leonor moved to the United Kingdom to study for the International Baccalaureate at UWC Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales. UWC Atlantic College is part of the United World Colleges network, known for its international student body and emphasis on values such as service, sustainability, and cross-cultural understanding. The move marked Leonor’s first extended period living away from her immediate family and outside Spain, and it placed her, for the first time, in an educational environment not shaped around her royal status in the way Spanish institutions inevitably were.
University: Political Science at UC3M
Following the completion of her military training in 2026, Leonor began a four-year bachelor’s degree in political science at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, a public university on its Getafe campus south of the Spanish capital. The programme covers political theory, law, economics, sociology, history, and international relations, offering the kind of broad governance-focused education generally seen as fitting preparation for a future head of state. Her father, King Felipe VI, followed a similar logic decades earlier, choosing to study law at another public institution, the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Military Training: 2023 to 2026
On 17 August 2023, Leonor joined the General Military Academy in Zaragoza to begin a three-year military education, following a long-standing tradition in which heirs to the Spanish throne undergo training across the country’s armed forces before taking up a fuller public role. Her basic training placed her alongside fellow cadets performing standard drills, and she was seen in the same beret and fatigues worn by any other officer candidate, receiving a ceremonial sword as part of the programme.
Over the following three years, her training rotated through all three branches of the Spanish Armed Forces — the Army, the Navy, and the Air and Space Force — a structure intended to give her direct, hands-on exposure to each part of the military rather than specialising narrowly in one. This mirrors the training path her father completed before her, and it is widely understood as one part of a long-standing effort to give Spanish monarchs credibility as ceremonial commanders-in-chief of the armed forces.
Throughout her training, Leonor made regular appearances at official military events, most notably the annual Pascua Militar, or Military Easter, ceremony held every 6 January in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace in Madrid. The tradition dates back to the 18th century, established by King Charles III to mark the Franco-Spanish recapture of the Menorcan town of Mahón from British forces in 1782. Leonor made her debut at the ceremony in January 2024, shortly after beginning her Army training, and has returned for it in the years since, appearing in military uniform alongside her parents.
Her training concluded in 2026, clearing the way for her to move into university study while continuing to hold her military rank and periodically participate in armed forces events.
Coming of Age: The Constitutional Oath
Leonor’s 18th birthday, on 31 October 2023, was marked by one of the most significant public milestones of her life so far: a formal ceremony in the Spanish Parliament in which she swore allegiance to the Spanish Constitution. Held at the Palacio de las Cortes in Madrid, the ceremony is a coming-of-age tradition specifically reserved for the heir to the Spanish throne, distinct from any birthday celebration held by other members of the royal family.
During the ceremony, Leonor received the medals of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate, and she was joined by Queen Letizia and Infanta SofÃa, along with senior figures in Spanish government. The occasion was not without controversy: reporting at the time noted that some left-leaning and pro-independence politicians chose to boycott the ceremony, reflecting the broader political divisions in Spain over the role of the monarchy itself, even as most of the political establishment treated the event as an important state occasion.
The oath carries symbolic rather than legal weight. Leonor’s status as heir presumptive does not change as a result of it, but it is widely treated in Spanish media and by the royal household as the moment a future monarch’s public role formally begins to take shape, coinciding with the start of her military training and marking her transition into more visible royal duties.
Public Duties and Growing Royal Role
Since turning 18, Leonor has taken on a steadily increasing number of official responsibilities. Perhaps the most prominent of these is her role presiding over the Princess of Asturias Awards, an annual series of prizes presented every October at the Teatro Campoamor in Oviedo, the capital of the Principality of Asturias. The awards, first established in 1981 as the Prince of Asturias Awards and renamed following Leonor’s father’s accession, recognise achievement across eight categories, including the Arts, Literature, Social Sciences, Technical and Scientific Research, International Cooperation, Sports, and Concord.
As honorary president of the Princess of Asturias Foundation, a position her father held before her, Leonor now presides over the ceremony each year, presenting laureates with a diploma, a sculpture created for the foundation by the Spanish artist Joan Miró, an award pin, and a monetary prize. In October 2023, only weeks after turning 18, she presided over the ceremony for the first time, awarding recipients that year that included the Hollywood actress Meryl Streep and the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami and telling those present that she fully understood the duties and responsibilities her position entailed.
Beyond the Awards, Leonor has continued to appear at state and military functions, including national day parades and further Pascua Militar ceremonies, gradually building the kind of public visibility expected of a working member of the royal family, all while continuing her military training and, more recently, her university studies.
Leonor’s Position in the Line of Succession
As heir presumptive, Leonor stands first in line to succeed her father as monarch of Spain. Under Article 57 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, the line of succession follows a system known as male-preference cognatic primogeniture: succession passes through the monarch’s children by birth order, with a male sibling traditionally taking precedence over an elder sister within the same generation. Because Leonor has no brothers, this clause has no practical effect on her own standing, and she remains unambiguously first in line, followed by her younger sister, Infanta SofÃa.
The male-preference element of the succession law has been the subject of periodic political debate in Spain, with various governments raising the possibility of reforming it to full absolute primogeniture, under which birth order alone would determine succession regardless of sex. No such constitutional reform has been carried out, in part because changes to the Constitution’s succession provisions are subject to an unusually demanding amendment process. Should Leonor eventually become queen, she would be Spain’s first reigning queen since Isabella II, who ruled in the 19th century. The country has had several queens consort in the modern era, including her own mother, but not a queen holding the crown in her own right for well over a hundred years.
How Leonor’s Preparation Compares to Previous Heirs
Much of Leonor’s path echoes that of her father. King Felipe VI also attended Spanish schooling before going abroad, also completed military training across multiple branches of the armed forces, and also chose to study at a public rather than a private university. The continuity is widely seen as deliberate: by following a similar sequence of schooling, international exposure, military service, and then a governance-focused university degree, the royal household appears to be reinforcing a model of preparation that has proven acceptable to the Spanish public over the previous generation, rather than experimenting with a substantially different approach for its next heir.
At the same time, Leonor’s path differs from her father’s in some respects. Her international schooling took her to Wales rather than keeping her education entirely within Spain, giving her earlier and more sustained exposure to a non-Spanish environment than her father had at the same age. Her military training also unfolded under far greater media scrutiny than her father’s did decades earlier, reflecting the scale of modern royal coverage and the greater public interest in a young, photogenic heir who happens to be the first woman in over a century likely to inherit the Spanish throne in her own right.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Leonor’s full name?
Leonor de Todos los Santos de Borbón y Ortiz.
When and where was Leonor born?
She was born on 31 October 2005 in Madrid, Spain.
What is Leonor’s main title?
Princess of Asturias, the traditional title of the heir to the Spanish Crown, has been held since 19 June 2014, alongside five other historic titles, including Princess of Girona and Duchess of Montblanc.
Where did Leonor go to school?
She attended Santa MarÃa de los Rosales School in Madrid for her primary and secondary education, then completed the International Baccalaureate at UWC Atlantic College in Wales.
Did Leonor complete military training?
Yes. She joined the General Military Academy in August 2023 for a three-year programme spanning the Army, Navy, and Air and Space Force, concluding in 2026.
What is Leonor studying at university?
A four-year bachelor’s degree in political science at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, covering law, economics, sociology, history, and international relations alongside political theory.
Is Leonor first in line to the Spanish throne?
Yes, she is the heir presumptive, ahead of her younger sister, Infanta SofÃa, under Spain’s constitutional line of succession.
What role does Leonor have with the Princess of Asturias Awards?
She serves as honorary president of the Princess of Asturias Foundation and presides over the annual awards ceremony in Oviedo each October.
Conclusion
Leonor, Princess of Asturias, has spent her entire life preparing, step by step, for a role that very few people in the world will ever hold: heir to a modern European throne. From her early years as an infanta in Madrid, through her schooling in Spain and Wales; her formal coming-of-age oath before parliament; three years of military training across every branch of the Spanish Armed Forces; and now a university degree built around governance and public affairs, each stage of her life has added another layer to a long, carefully sequenced preparation for becoming Spain’s next monarch. As she continues her studies while balancing an expanding calendar of public duties, Leonor remains, by a wide margin, the most closely watched young royal in Spain and, in time, is set to become the country’s first reigning queen in more than a century.
