Princess Leonor of Spain will be celebrating her 18th birthday on Tuesday marking a big milestone as she will begin working as a senior royal.
The Princess of Asturias – as she is formally known – will mark her birthday by swearing allegiance to the Constitution before receiving the medals of Congress and the Senate at a formal ceremony in the Spanish Parliament.
On the same day, a reception will be held in the Royal Palace in Madrid, followed by a family gathering in the El Pardo palace.
The Spanish Royal Family released a series of throwback snaps of the princess.
In them, Leonor can be seen on her first day of school, with the World Cup trophy after Spain’s men’s football team won in 2010, and others with her younger sister Sofia.
In Spain there is already talk of “Leonormania” in light of the interest in her rising profile.
The Princess of Asturias has been keeping busy this year as she graduated from UWC Atlantic in Wales last May, where she studied for the International Baccalaureate
She went on to complete her basic training at an army academy in Zaragoza, where she began a three-year officer’s course.
Royal biographer Carmen Remírez de Ganuza said that “Leonor will need her own narrative” and that she “will have to connect with her own digital generation”.
Leonor last week attended her own Princess of Asturias awards and described the oaths swearing as an honour: “I very well understand and am aware of what my duty is and what my responsibilities entail.”
Leonor was born on October 31, 2005 at the Ruber International Hospital in Madrid.
She is the eldest daughter of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain.
If she ascends, she will be Spain’s first queen regnant since her fourth great-grandmother Isabella II, who reigned from 1833 to 1868. She will be only the second Queen in the history of unified Spain.
