Princess Leonor, 19-year-old eldest daughter of King Felipe VI and future Queen of Spain and head of the royal armed forces, boarded a training ship which will leave this January 11 for a 6-month journey at sea.
Travel forms youth, said Montaigne. After training in the army at the General Military Academy of Zaragoza (north-east), Leonor, Princess of Asturias, who enrolled at the naval military school of Marín last September, this Wednesday , like the approximately 75 other students in his class (including only nine young girls), took up residence aboard a ship which will set sail for a 6-month expedition.
She arrived on Wednesday at the port of Cádiz for a ceremony attended by her parents, King Felipe VI – who, like her father King Juan Carlos I, himself made the trip during his own military training – and Queen Letizia , attended.
During his speech dedicated to his troops this January 6 during Pascua Militar (an event which marks the start of the military year in Spain), King Felipe VI mentioned the departure of his eldest daughter with emotion. “This experience, dear Leonor, will remain, as it was for me and for your grandfather, among your best memories of military training. We hope that you and your companions will benefit from the learning and the maritime and human experience that this trip offers you, because it will serve you, as it has served me, for the rest of your life,” he declared.
The future queen was greeted by the captain, facing whom she stood to attention before shaking his hand and joining the other sailors. She was then photographed climbing to the top of one of the masts of the Elcano, an emblematic schooner of the Spanish fleet which is due to travel to Latin America, where it will dock in seven countries: Brazil, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Panama, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. The famous ship will then make a stopover on the American coast before returning to Cádiz where departure is scheduled for January 11 at 12:30 p.m.
“The training of midshipmen on board the training ship Juan Sebastián de Elcano began today,” the royal household published on social networks.
Since she took the oath to the Constitution on her 18th birthday, Princess Leonor has been the official heir to the Spanish throne. “I swear to faithfully fulfill my functions, to protect and ensure protection of the Constitution and the laws, to respect the rights of citizens and autonomous communities, and to be faithful to the king,” she declared before being applauded during several minutes by the hemicycle and embraced by the sovereign. His military training must last three years. As AFP points out, if the princess follows the same path as her father, she will later study at a Spanish university (Felipe VI has a law degree from the Complutense University of Madrid) then will follow a master’s degree abroad ( his father studied international relations at Georgetown University in Washington).
