Princess Leonor's Military Studies


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
A sector of the Spanish press copies a lot of its tabloid news style from the foreign yellow press that bashes royals and, in republics, government officials for the sake of someone buying the tabloid. Same if it's online, you check out the website curious about a headline and they get money from side ads.

It's normal they create the articles to establish fear in the future. Fear sells news. In this case related to Leonor and her training it's the 'look at who's going to rule over us' propaganda. With Leonor the tabloid press got a jackpot to exploit because she's both the heir and she is a woman.

For example, her royal male cousins that are also heirs like Prince William don't get the same type of attack, they focus of girlfriends because it's the macho virility mentality of those behind the tabloid articles. With Leonor the focus is on her ability to keep up with the guys in the armed services, and when she is not at their level exaggerate it even more for a good tabloid cover.

But here's the reality, neither Leonor nor her royal equivalent cousins in Europe are expected to lead armies like Napoleon, or command them for wars like Catherine the Great of Queen Boudica. She will be the head of state one day and expected to wear the uniform of each branch during events. She is doing an excellent job in her training, and I assume Princess Sofia will follow her steps when she reaches the same age for being the potential heir to Leonor until we get the next generation of royal children in Spain.
You make reasonable points, but, from a broader perspective, why must an heir have any military training at all? As you said, it is not like they will ever lead an army as it used to be case in the past, and many presidents (for example in the USA), who are actual commanders in chief of the armed forces (as opposed to purely ceremonial CiCs as the European kings), have never been in the military themselves.

I understand that some monarchs like King Felipe VI or King Frederik X seem to have greatly enjoyed their life in the armed forces and place a high value on a military education. That doesn't mean, however, that their children have to follow the same path. And , before I may be misunderstood as sounding sexist, I think that is equally true for Leonor or Elisabeth as it is for Christian or another male heir like George for example in the future.

On the gender issue specifically, I don't think this particular report on Leonor's struggling at the Naval Academy is gender-motivated per se, but the fact , whether it is fair or not, is that the military has been traditionally a male institution and women who join the armed forces will most likely face extra scrutiny and have to "prove" that they are up to the required standards. That puts an extra layer of stress in what is already presumably a stressful environment (an elite military academy) and is yet another reason why it should not be taken for granted that Leonor would have to do it just because of who she is or who her father is.

Honestly I believe she wants to do it though and is up to the challenge. As Muhler said, based on his own valuable life experience in the military, if Leonor needs extra help, she will get it, but she will also have to put on the extra work and effort, which in the end is what is expected in the service.
 
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You make reasonable points, but, from a broader perspective, why must an heir have any military training at all?

Tradition. Just like we have families that follow military careers generation after generation.

In republics, the tradition of non-military leaderships took off past 248 years if we start with the 1776 revolutionary wars. The candidates are elected by a party supported by interest groups that, at times, exclude the rest of the population. With royals, they represent everyone since they descend from warrior kings and queens from ancient monarchies, like in Spain, UK, Denmark, etc.

A military career often implies seriousness, discipline and control of emotions and ability to think as part of a team. Specifically on Leonor's ancestry, she descends from a military tradition of hundreds of years from the times before Spain was Spain, when the king of Asturias rose to arms and started the Reconquista.
More recently, her Borbon side she also descends from the king that launched his armies to remove the French Valois from their throne.

She carries the entire history of the nation, the good and the bad, and that history in my country started with a little kingdom and its small army. And if she is going to bear the uniforms of the armed forces as part of her commanding presence, she can't Star Trek cosplay a military uniform just for show. She, like her father, has to earn it.
 
Leonor in fact has a number of advantages. Everybody knows she's the heir, who is there to learn about the military not having a military career, so she's no career-threat to anyone and she is not getting a posting that could otherwise go a male cadet "because she's a woman".

Leonor will be judged by her fellow cadets based on a number of criteria and these criteria applies to everyone.
Does she do her best? Leonor may be physically the weakest in the whole academy, but if everybody can see that she is trying her best and doesn't spare herself, she'll be respected for that.
Does she abide by the norms and social rules? If she always does her very best to turn out as immaculate as possible, she'll be respected for that. That's unit pride. If she is a good comrade, she'll be respected for that. If she's a part of the group, she'll be respected. That's the spirit every single military unit tries to foster. Group-unity.
Can she take a rough treatment and preferably answer back? Can she take being treated unfairly by the superiors and shrug it off? Then she'll be respected. (The cadets are not idiots. They all want to be admirals so they won't be sexist against the Heir, but she is likely to have to learn to shut her ears to a number of things she may hear being talked about.)
Is she a team-player? There will be some areas where Leonor will excel and others where she is weak. There will be times when she has surplus and others haven't. In these cases, does she help those who are weaker or down? Will she shoulder her burden and do a bit extra for mate? If she does, she will be respected. Can she be relied upon to do what she is supposed to do? If so she will be trusted. And with trust come respect.

But is she is a whiner, who complains, she won't be respected.
If she only do what she has to do and no more, she will not be respected.
If she's a shirker who tries to avoid pulling her weight or get someone else to do it for her, she will not be respected.
Is she accepting preferential treatment? Then she won't be respected.
- These are universal rules in any military unit.

The other cadets know perfectly well that they will never end up in a sharp situation with Leonor, but if they know they could rely on and trust Leonor, if that would happen, then she will be very respected. That's the ultimate criteria you are judged by: Can I rely on you doing your very best to get me home alive?

If anything Leonor is likely to increase the standard in the academy. Because no man in any military on this planet wants to be outdone physically by a woman, any woman.
 
Princess Leonor and other students from the Naval School go out to sea in the Pontevedra Estuary to carry out Seamanship Instruction activities.
 
….somehow I foolishly thought they would have changed the name in the past 500 years. 😌
 
The Princess is settling into her Maritime training and hopefully the seas are not too rough this time of the year.
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I understand the Princess is an amateur sailor and her family has a long tradition in competive sailing with her great-uncle, the late King Constantine II, and her father, King Felipe VI, having both competed in the Olympic Games. Of course it is a different situation at the Naval Academy, but I would assume that she is reasonably comfortable already with the maritime environment.
 
It's not easy to get in the third year of naval academy as a newcomer. She was singing a naval song with the guardiamarinas easily and without problems. She's obviously been preparing for this and reinforces how much work behind the lines, she's been doing.

We are so proud of her.
She is amazing!!! How many other women are there in the academy?
 
I assume not many, as Navy is supposed the toughest part for women compared to Army and Air Force.
Question, do 'normal' recruits get in touch with the other branches? (in Germany we have four branches, the 4th one being cyber and information). I know in Germany there is a mix in parts at least for the professional soldiers, eg there are pilots in the Navy too who work with the Air Force and the 4th branch works with all other branches. Not sure how it is done while still in training, like Leonor and her fellow students.
 
I assume not many, as Navy is supposed the toughest part for women compared to Army and Air Force.
Question, do 'normal' recruits get in touch with the other branches? (in Germany we have four branches, the 4th one being cyber and information). I know in Germany there is a mix in parts at least for the professional soldiers, eg there are pilots in the Navy too who work with the Air Force and the 4th branch works with all other branches. Not sure how it is done while still in training, like Leonor and her fellow students.

I don't know. It's possible it happens but we don't know. Some cyber information are covered by Air arm forces, but mostly are covered by the Interior ministry with all departments, military, police and civilian.
 
How lovely that she was able to support her former classmates on her weekly afternoon off. Given the distance, I wonder how she travelled back and forth.
 
This week the students of the Military Naval School have made their first trip to sea this course in the training boats. They have trained in such important maneuvers as picking up a man overboard or docking and undocking.

But the most important thing is that they have worked together and have begun to forge the union between the crews.


 
Portrait by the painter Ferrer-Dalmau for the Military Academy of Zaragoza

 
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