The Future is Royal! 👑

King Charles and Queen Camilla have one of the first real tests of their reign, as they begin their foreign tour of Kenya

Nov 01, 2023

Royal watching is about to get a whole lot more fun, as we have more young people entering the working royal fold! In the last four years, we’ve had six royals turn 18 and begin to take on more engagements, including three young ladies who have graced us with more than one tiara appearance.

On October 31, Spain commemorated the 18th birthday of their future Queen, Princess Leonor, The Princess of Asturias. It’s just a couple of weeks after Prince Christian of Denmark’s 18th birthday celebrations on October 15, when a royal gala, with a bit of unexpected Cinderella flare, was thrown in his honor. Earlier this year, it was Princess Alexia of the Netherlands turn, who is the second daughter of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima. A couple years before that it was Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands and Princess Elisabeth of Belgium.

Over the next ten years or so, we’ll see many if not all of these royals fall in love, get married and perhaps even have children, in addition to making mistakes, generating gossip, suffer fashion successes and disasters and other royals rites of passage.

So in honor of all these young royals making their official debut, here’s a couple of facts about the royal future of Europe:

Princess Leonor, The Princess of Asturias

The young Princess will one day become the Queen of Spain. Born on October 31, 2005, she holds the titles of Princess of Asturias, Princess of Girona, Princess of Viana, Duchess of Montblanc, Countess of Cervera and Lady of Balaguer. She spent her high school years in Wales at the UWC Atlantic College, so she is fluent in Spanish, English and knows Catalan. As the future Queen, she is currently participating in a 3-year military training program at the General Military Academy in Zaragoza. Her parents started the Prince and Princess of Asturias Foundation while they were the heirs, and Leonor assumed the position after her father’s ascension to the throne in 2014. When she eventually becomes Queen, she will be the first to hold the role in her own right since the 1800s.

Prince Christian of Denmark

The future King of Denmark was born on October 15, 2005 to Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary. The oldest of their four children, Christian has grown up underneath the royal spotlight with his siblings. He does not have any additional titles yet, except for the Count of Monpezat, which is a reference to his paternal grandfather’s title. The young prince attended secondary school in Denmark, beginning at Herlufsholm, though he transferred to Ordrup Gymnasium during his last year after allegations of bullying, sexual abuse and violence surfaced about Herlufsholm. For his 18th birthday, he received a special gift, his grandfather’s Order of the Elephant, which is the highest order in Denmark. His grandfather, Prince Henrik, passed away in 2018. Additionally, he received the Order of St. Olaf from King Harald of Norway. He appears to enjoy running and has decided not to take an allowance from the state, yet. The future king did already hit a bit of the gossip radar, as he was tied to Princess Maria Chiara of Bourbon Two Sicilies.

Princess Alexia of the Netherlands

The middle child of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima of the Netherlands was born on June 26, 2005. She also attended the UWC of the Atlantic in Wales, along with Princess Leonor. In 2016, Alexia broke her right femur bone while skiing in Austria. The accident happened in roughly the same area that her uncle was caught in an avalanche. Sadly, his injuries eventually cost him his life. She attended her first official solo royal engagement in September 2023 where she christened a trailing suction hopper dredger in Rotterdam. Alexia may become a royal to watch in the future, as some of her exploits on social media did make it into the papers and gossip columns, including a rather risqué party she attended while at boarding school. Entering into royal life officially now, she also attended her first Prinsjesdag Day in September 2023.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway

The future Queen of Norway was the first royal to grace us with an 18th birthday celebration post-Covid. Two of the other princesses on this list, Catharina-Amalia and Elisabeth, also attended this event, where they made their first tiara appearances. Princess Ingrid Alexandra was born on January 21, 2004 to Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit. The Princess has a keen interest in environmental protection and climate change, and her first solo royal engagement was to christen the ship “Elias.” According to the Norwegian royal website: “The Princess is an active teenager who enjoys sports and outdoor life. She shares a love of skiing and water sports with the rest of her family.”

The Princess of Orange, Princess Catharina-Amalia of the Netherlands

Future Queen of the Netherlands Princess Catharina-Amalia inherited the title of Princess of Orange when her father ascended the throne on the abdication of his mother, the then Queen Beatrix, in 2013. She was born on December 7, 2003 and attended school in the Netherlands and is currently in college. She is the first young royal to accompany her parents on an official foreign royal tour, when she traveled with them to the Dutch Caribbean in 2023. But her most prominent royal appearance was at a reception held the day before King Charles’ Coronation. The young Princess enjoys horseback riding, and is herself a royal jewelry enthusiast. Apparently, she was known to “borrow” some of her mother’s priceless jewelry from time to time, which led to her mother constantly having to track down her daughter to get her jewelry back. When she turned 18, the Princess could have taken a nearly $2 million yearly payment from the government, but refused as she wouldn’t feel comfortable taking it without becoming a full-time working royal. The Princess also had threats against her life, which forced her to move out of a student apartment and back to the palace with her parents.

Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Braban

The Belgians have a new Queen in training, Princess Elisabeth, The Duchess of Brabant. Born on October 25, 2001, she is the oldest of the current generation of royals and came of age right before the pandemic began. As with two others on this list, Elisabeth attended UWC of the Atlantic and then went on to continue her education at Oxford University where she is studying politics and history. She has also spent time at the country’s military academy, and speaks Dutch, French, German and English. The Princess’ first speech was a the tender age of 9, and gave her first self-written speech in 2014 to commemorate the beginning of hostilities in World War I. For her first foreign tour, the young Princess accompanied her mother Queen Mathilde to Egypt, which has a special connection to the Belgian monarchy, as her ancestor Queen Elisabeth had a great fascination with Egyptian antiquities and visited King Tutankhamun’s tomb shortly after its discovery. She also attended the pre-Coronation reception with her father, King Philippe

More Royal News…

King Charles has the first real foreign challenge of his reign, as the King is currently undertaking his first tour of a Commonwealth nation, in this case Kenya. A country close to the heart of the royal family, as it’s where Queen Elizabeth found out that her father died and Prince William proposed to his then girlfriend Catherine Middleton, the nation also poses an interesting dilemma for the King. In 2022, William and Catherine got caught in the colonial and reparations controversy, as the couple were the victims of a media concocted “racist” incident in Jamaica. They were also rather suddenly told that Jamaica would pursue an avenue to remove the British monarch as its head of state. Hopefully, Charles will not experience similar challenges, but the pressures and talk of reparations remain. The balance the monarchy will have to maintain is how to move forward in its relationships with former Commonwealth states, while also not capitulating to demands for unnecessary payments. King Charles has started off strong by acknowledging the challenging colonial relationships, stating at a dinner with Kenyan President Ruto: “There were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans as they waged, as you said at the United Nations, a painful struggle for independence and sovereignty – and for that, there can be no excuse. In coming back to Kenya, it matters greatly to me that I should deepen my own understanding of these wrongs, and that I meet some of those whose lives and communities were so grievously affected.” Where it goes from here has yet to be seen.
Prince William announced some of the presenters for the upcoming Earthshot Prize, which will begin on November 7 in Singapore. Those scheduled to appear include Cate Blanchett, Hannah Waddingham, Robert Irwin and more.
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands attended the Prix de Rome Visual Arts 2023 awards in Amsterdam.
Queen Mathilde of the Belgians hosted the Belgian Thai boxing team at the royal palace. Her Majesty received the Muay Thai headband, which an also be called a "Mongkon or Mongkol." It’s a traditional headgear worn by those who participate in the sport.
King Harald, Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit attended a lunch for the Nordic Council.
Haakon and Mette-Marit, who is just beginning her return to royal duties after an extended absence due to illness, attended the 2023 Nordic Council's environmental award at the Oslo Opera.
Prince Albert of Monaco attended the Ballon Or 2023 Ceremony, an award event put on by the French football magazine.
The Spanish royal family visited Churches of Arroes, Pion and Candanal, which are considered some of the best Asturias villages.
Queen Rania of Jordan received criticism over comments she made during a CNN interview, where she condemned Israel while seeming to ignore Hamas’ atrocities on October 7.

Upcoming Royal Events…

The Prince and Princess of Wales will visit Burghead and Moray, Scotland on Thursday, November 2.
The Duchess of Edinburgh will visit Canada from November 3-8 as the Colonel-in-Chief of the Lincoln and Welland Regiment and also as patron of Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals.
The King and Queen of Belgium will undertake an official visit to Germany from December 5-7.
The State Opening of Parliament in the United Kingdom will occur on November 7.
Prince William will travel to Singapore for the Earthshot Prize, staying in the country from September 5-8.
The King and Queen of Spain will visit Denmark from November 6-8.

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