The Kings, with Leonor, their first day in kindergarten, 2007. ULY MARTÃ N
A young woman with light eyes and straw-blonde hair, dressed in an 1882 uniform, leaves her position in the military formation and arms herself with an old Mauser with a fixed bayonet hanging from her right arm (she is left-handed); With his forehead raised, he crosses the parade ground of the General Military Academy in Zaragoza. The eyes of those present, almost 3,000 people and 409 cadets, are on her. Spain is checking it. 2,507,000 viewers will at some point witness the broadcast of this scene on the public channel, which will be repeated ad nauseam on social networks. The next day it will be on the cover of all newspapers and magazines. And protagonist of editorials and opinion columns.
She is 17 years old and is not a celebrity, influencer or Instagrammer. She is Leonor de Borbón Ortiz, the heir to an ancient European throne, who graduated from the International Baccalaureate near Cardiff in Wales five months ago and is already giving her opinion and scribbling her ideas on the few speeches she has given also in the last Awards of the Princess of Asturias, this month in Oviedo.
Today, in the general, the princess – calm, thoughtful but also determined, say those who know her – is aware that she must not make mistakes. It is an important institutional moment in her journey as constitutional heir to the throne of Spain. He entered this military center and became a soldier because his father, the King and above all the government decided to do so through Royal Decree 173/2023 of March 14. The Council of Ministers also decided what the next three years will look like. Six-month journey on board the naval brig Elcano and learning to fly in the Pilatus air force training. Study of industrial engineering subjects with closed courses, training and physical education.
Princess Eleanor, at her school in Wales, in August 2021.Handout (Getty Images)
Standing at the sound of the bugle in Zaragoza at 6:30 a.m.; The lights go out at 11 p.m. Push-ups, dips and running for breakfast. Minimal room for maneuver; Even the pajamas have to be regulation. And she shared her room, bare and spartan, with seven comrades. Within an institution, the military, where only 13% are women. After the academies, the powers of the state will guide their university education. It will be legal and economic in nature, with an emphasis on administrative, constitutional and public law, so you will know the institutional dimension of the state.
Although nothing is written, everything is planned. Nothing is left to chance. Communication between the President of the House of Representatives, Jaime Alfonsín, and the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños (previously Secretary General of the Presidency alongside Pedro Sánchez), has been continuous for five years. We must not forget that all of Zarzuela’s words are confirmed in Moncloa. And the government supports all of the king’s actions. Your education is a state matter. The constitution states that one day, as Captain General, she will be commander-in-chief of the armed forces and at the same time the highest representative of the Kingdom of Spain in international relations. And it should be the symbol of the unity and stability of the state. It’s no joke, but she doesn’t get more stressed than necessary, her relatives say. “He does not look far away, he lives without fear or anxiety; He sets himself small and, above all, narrow goals.” First of all, the swearing in of the constitution before the state authorities this Tuesday. A moment of supreme symbolism for his father.
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In the presidential gallery, his parents, the Kings, visibly moved, preside over the event amid a swarm of uniformed men and surrounded by their staff. The emotion comes not only from the institutional significance of the act, but also from the fact that Leonor, who has endured so many weeks of tension since joining the academy on August 17, performs it flawlessly, sources close to it say. “They were proud that she managed to be so orderly and strict at the ceremony and at the same time be the center of attention: alone and cappella. And just as importantly, they were looking forward to seeing her enjoy this moment she had to live.”
And that is the crux of the question about the Princess of Asturias. According to those around her, she was raised to accept an inevitable fate, but also with the aim of being happy. It has a responsibility to embody a kind of public service around the clock, to be useful – according to the same sources – and to try to make things better for the 48 million people in Spain. A person close to him says: “He is doing what he should do, but not as a victim, but with normality and mental stability.” If not, she would go crazy. It is strange that a 17-year-old girl, who comes from a liberal background and is not a super athlete (although she is good at volleyball), confesses to her family a few months later that she enjoys taking part in the maneuvers in San Gregorio. And the fact that you are also interested in this conglomerate of engineering subjects that you have to study in three years… represents an important skill to face radical change. Leonor accepts, understands and will take advantage of her fate because that is the only way she can be happy.”
Princess Leonor takes the oath on October 7th at the Military Academy of Zaragoza in the presence of her parents, Kings Felipe VI. and Letizia, the flag. Samuel Sanchez
In April 2022, he attended a conference on youth and cybersecurity at the Jules Verne School in Leganés (Madrid) along with 400 students his age. His neighbor asked him what he should call her. He answered briefly: “Leonor.” Those who know her well say that the Princess of Asturias does not go through life with fear, although she does so calmly and, from a young age, observes and analyzes who approaches her and why. She doesn’t want, it is said, to be treated better or worse than anyone else; neither courtiers nor haters. “But he doesn’t let up; “She is aware that a photo in a random bar at work would take its toll on her and her sister Sofía, 16, so they had to make do with it and strategize about their lives,” explains a source close to them. “But she’s not the little princess and the pea, she’s not in a cherry, she cares about climate change and the environment; Feminism, the social impact of work, otherness, diversity, mental health; He checks everything on the networks and watches the news on TV. Like his generation. Connect with your time,” he concludes.
In this sense, she also feels comfortable in more complex situations, be it with Ukrainian refugees, the children of an integration project in a neighborhood devastated by unemployment and drugs, or with children with disabilities on a school farm. And relax in perfect Catalan in Girona (Galician and Basque are also spoken) or at the European Women’s Football Championship in London. Or at Rosalía or Harry Styles concerts. Much more discreet are the trips with her mother and sister through Europe or the three of them’s adventures through the most forgotten districts of Madrid. The dozens of theater afternoons, from the royal to the most alternative in the capital, with the Queen. And cinema, always. Their parents really wanted them not to grow up isolated.
“Leonor is not Teresa of Calcutta, but she is sensitive, empathetic and immediately feels and understands the pain of others,” explains a source close to her. Question: And are you going to party too? Answer: “She has gone to parties a thousand times and she likes it, but she is not crazy about life.” Question: Do your parents worry about couples? Answer: “Of course it keeps them awake and the four of them talk about things like drugs, sex and rock and roll.” They worry about their emotional future. “What people are going to let get to her emotionally when the media and networks won’t leave her alone for a minute.”
The daughters of kings did not attend religious schools; They do not participate in parades or hunts; nor to regattas, golf or fashionable ski resorts; You do not enter Sotogrande or the Puerta de Hierro club. “They are feminists, they consider the principle of equality between women and men to be indisputable and they do not consider maintaining traditional roles in society and the family,” says a close source. “They don’t live unemployed, in endogamous environments and with a superficial expression because they have their lives in front of them,” he emphasizes.
One of the most obvious consequences of his father’s marriage to a divorced Asturian journalist; Neither a believer nor a non-believer (rather non-denominational, like the constitution) and from an abolished middle class, a product of scholarships and social advancement, the life of Borbón Ortiz has remained in these 20 years further removed from the universe of very conservative Madrid High society in which Prince Felipe frequented. And especially his aunts and first cousins, who are more prominent in the media. They lived close to the ground, to reality, through their mother’s family and the diverse friends of their parents, many of whom come from Ortiz and not a few are parents from their school in Madrid, they assure those around them: “They have grown together with people who have to get up early, make ends meet regularly and ask for help for their children; They’re lesbian or gay or gender fluid, and they’re moving because their rent went up. And the girls’ school in Wales has 400 students from 60 nationalities, three quarters of whom receive scholarships.”
Aware that their situation is exceptional, that they live in the headquarters of the head of state and are constantly watched and judged, the Borbón-Ortiz couple have struggled – they explain – to create an atmosphere of normality within this exceptional situation. Their home (far from the most representative part of the Zarzuela Palace) is a sanctuary where no one officially enters and where they live as a family. However, with more square meters. The Queen raised her daughters without nannies or teachers; They wake them up every morning at 7:15 a.m., take them to school (with or without the king), and get up at night if they are sick.
The King and Leonor at the Instituto Cervantes in Madrid, on the day the Princess turned 13. Luis Sevillano
They both did their homework with them, read books to them in bed, did sports and cooked together. Those who know them say that they are a pineapple. More of a team. And this is what they experienced, for example, during the Corona crisis, for nine weeks; The four of us alone at home. With the father on alert as head of state due to the tragedy of the pandemic, and the girls who give him cervical massages (he has had back pain since he was a teenager), or a lot of heat in the worst moments of the conflict between Felipe VI. and his father, King Juan Carlos. A grandfather they haven’t seen since he left for Abu Dhabi three years ago. Grandma Sofía is regularly visited in Zarzuela when the three of them are in Madrid.
Sisters and accomplices
Leonor and Sofia are close. The little girl’s support for the older girl is complete, sources close to the matter point out. To the point of knowing his speeches. Sofía – they emphasize – is Leonor’s complement and vice versa. They are accomplices. Compared to Leonor’s diplomatic, thoughtful, calm and strategic tone, Sofía is more direct, quick and impatient; He questions the orders even more and finds out everything. After spending some time at school in Wales, you might consider taking a gap year (a sabbatical between high school and university) to do some volunteer work. Will you attend military academies? It will be what she decides, she assures those around her.
Leonor de Borbón is not supervised or monitored by anyone. As a link between Zarzuela and the academies, the Kings have appointed Margarita Pardo de Santayana, 48 years old, lieutenant colonel of artillery, graduate of the General Staff and experienced helicopter pilot (she was stationed in Afghanistan), who goes back and forth between Madrid and Zaragoza. “But Marga is here to help,” says a close friend, “she is there to mediate, connect and, above all, communicate with Leonor: to find out how she feels, [contar] how he sees her. But Leonor is the one who decides.”
Perhaps one of the moments that Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía remember most movingly from the B side of their lives – they tell those around them – is when, in 2018, their mother discreetly invited 25-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad to join them to visit home. Murad, of Yazidi descent, was one of the 7,000 women the Islamic State raped, kidnapped and enslaved in northern Iraq in the summer of 2014. Murad managed to escape her captors and brought ISIS’s atrocities to the attention of the world. That afternoon, in the zarzuela, the four of them ate some cookies baked by Leonor and Sofía and listened to the Nobel Prize winner’s terrible story. Until you cry. To calm the scene, the mother encouraged the daughters to sing songs in Arabic (the language they are learning, the language they use, and a culture they are very interested in) with Murad. He went from crying to laughing. The four saw that there was hope.
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