The heir to the Spanish throne pledged her allegiance to the Spanish flag, crown, and constitution on Saturday, marking the completion of her first phase of military training.
The Princess of Asturias, Leonor de Borbón, is following almost exactly in the footsteps of her kingly father in preparation for one day holding the title of supreme commander of Spain’s armed forces.
The princess started at the country’s military academy for the Army in August. Like her father, she will follow a special three-year course through the three branches of the military—the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force—before taking up university studies. By law, the monarch must have training in all three branches of the military.
But her first step in moving up the ranks to capitán general was completing basic training and pledging to defend the Spanish people and their constitutional monarchy. In Saturday’s moving ceremony, repeated in military barracks throughout the country, Leonor and her class of newly trained soldiers sealed their pledge with a kiss of the Spanish flag. In pledging the Spanish flag with other cadets, Lenor slightly departed from the path of her father, King Phillip VI, who took his first step into his military rank in his own ceremony.
Nevertheless, her father, presiding over the ceremony with Queen Letizia, Leonor’s mother, reminded the princess of her special responsibility.
“Dear Leonor, remember that the commitment you have made entails the greatest responsibility towards Spain. You know well, as an heir princess, that the Crown symbolizes its unity and permanence,” he said, taking a moment in the address to all the new soldiers to speak directly to his daughter.
More than a symbolic ceremony, he added, kissing the flag meant taking up “a personal, moral, and legal duty that has no expiration date.”
Of her and her fellow soldiers, he asked that their integrity, honesty, and rectitude “be constant.”
“They are capital virtues in the military, as well as in public service to the Spanish people, and are an essential guide for your behaviours and attitudes,” he said. “I encourage you to constantly strive to maintain the hope you have today; to improve your knowledge and skills ambitiously, and to practice these values so that your dedication always aims at the best service to Spain.”
On Monday, Leonor started the second part of her specific three-year program, which continues in Zaragoza with several more months of training in the Army. She will then go on to study at the Marín Naval School in Pontevedra. Finally, during the third year, she will complete Air Force training at the General Academy of Air and Space in San Javier in the region of Murcia.
