#future queens

[royalpain16]

At age 46, Victoria is the only member of Gen X in the group. That means she grew up before the age of social media, with a degree of privacy the other four princesses will never know. Victoria has studied in France, the United States, and Sweden, where she earned a bachelor's degree in peace and conflict studies at Uppsala University. She also spent time working in various government offices and underwent basic military training in the Swedish Armed Forces.

Victoria married Swedish fitness trainer Daniel Westling in 2010, who is now known as Crown Prince Daniel. They have two children: Princess Estelle, 11, and Prince Oscar, 7. Estelle is second in the line of succession after her mother, the first Swedish princess to be designated heir apparent from birth. Until 1980, boys jumped to the head of the Swedish royal line of succession over their older sisters. Carl XVI Gustaf, for example, became king in 1973 even though he has four older sisters. 

The law changed when Sweden’s parliament passed the 1979 Act of Succession to facilitate royal gender equality. The parliament also made the new law retroactive, which caused a stir. Victoria’s younger brother, Carl Philip, was born four months before the law passed. The boy had already been named Crown Prince, but under the new law, Victoria replaced Carl Philip as heir apparent. Carl XVI Gustaf has stated, as recently as January 2023, that he disagrees with the law being applied retroactively, but added that he supports Victoria in her role as Crown Princess.

- Samantha Drake

5 European Princesses Who Are Preparing to Reign

The lives of future queens are not all tiaras and good hair days. 

[agentrouka-blog]

So Arianne and Tyene almost lost their virginity to Andrew Dalt. Tyene Sand is bastard cousin of Arianne and a close confidant to her. Arianne lost her virginity to Daemon Sand, a bastard, at age of 14. But they can't marry. Arianne is going to meet Aegon, her cousin, son of her Aunt Elia and can possibly marry him. If this is not pointing to Jonsa, then why mentioned it?

Bastards and cousins certainly swirl around the heir to Dorne and her teenaged exploration phase as well as her marital prospects, don't they?

Her father (rocky relationship...) intended for her to marry a royal heir in order to become queen (but really it was about a murder! Which he never told her!), which is one of the reasons why the bastard boy in love with her couldn't marry her. (He left to serve her uncle.) But that royal guy died at a feast in a horrible way while part of his family looked on “curiously calm”. So she went through a series of suitors but none worked out, not even Willas Tyrell, and she ended up needing to seduce a not-so-bright knight in order to try and regain her birthright. (Total redshirt, that one.) She also has some experience being a princess imprisoned in a tower, poor thing. And she can be exasperated with younger female relatives who are wild and willful and mad for horses and fighting. She loves her cousins well, though. Even the annoying ones. But no worries, she's going to go on a secret mission to meet another cousin (son of her long-dead beloved paternal aunt) with a history of hidden identity who was saved from being killed as an infant. Turns out he is a royal heir, too, lol! Not that she cares. It appears that while she may have fallen for bad boys in the past, her heart belongs to that bastard boy who wanted to marry her but couldn’t. And now they are stuck together having to engage in complex politics. Oooh, whatever will happen? So romantic... <3

[withgraceandlight99]

After years of insisting that he has to be alone, that he doesn’t deserve love after everything he’s done, Oliver Jonas Queen is going to have the two most important people by his side: his son and the love of his life. Permanently.

[royalpain16]

Princess Ingrid Alexandra, age 19, is second in line to the throne of Norway, after her father, Crown Prince Haakon. She is expected to become the second queen of Norway, although she would be the first Norwegian-born woman monarch. Margaret I—who reigned in the late 14th and early 15th centuries over the union of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden—was born in Denmark. Because Norway amended its constitution in 1990 to follow absolute primogeniture, Ingrid Alexandra remains ahead of her younger brother, Prince Sverre Magnus, in the line of succession.

Like the other princesses, Ingrid Alexandra balances her official life with personal pursuits. In 2016, the then-12-year-old princess lit the cauldron at the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympics in Lillehammer and two years later christened Norway’s new research vessel, the Crown Prince Haakon. For her 18th birthday in 2022, the princess received her own office at the Royal Palace, her family’s official residence in Oslo. She also posed for her 18th birthday portrait wearing a tiara—a family heirloom—for the first time.

Education will be Ingrid Alexandra’s primary focus over the next few years, but she’ll presumably make time for some of her favorite sports, including skiing and surfing. The princess won a gold medal in the national women’s junior surfing championship in 2020. Ingrid Alexandra also went skydiving for the first time just after her 19th birthday.

- Samantha Drake

5 European Princesses Who Are Preparing to Reign

The lives of future queens are not all tiaras and good hair days. 

[royalpain16]

None of the princesses know better than 19-year-old Catharina-Amalia, the Dutch heir to the throne, that the perks of royal life come with drawbacks. Amalia, as she’s known, is the eldest child of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, and will be the fourth queen regnant since her great-great-grandmother Wilhelmina became the first queen of the Netherlands in 1890. 

Amalia—who has two younger sisters, princesses Alexia and Ariane—is the first Dutch princess to have had her place in the line of succession secured since birth; she was born in 2003, two decades after the Netherlands amended its constitution in 1983 to follow absolute primogeniture. As the heir apparent, she holds the title Princess of Orange. 

Amalia has publicly tried to navigate the delicate balance of carrying out her royal duties while pursuing “normal” activities for someone her age. When Amalia turned 18 in 2022, she became a member of the Netherlands’ Council of State. At the same time, the princess turned down the $1.8 million annual support she’s entitled to from the government as the heir apparent, saying she was currently doing nothing to earn it. That same year, Amalia began studying at the University of Amsterdam to earn a degree in Politics, Psychology, Law and Economics. 

However, the princess’s university experience quickly took a frightening turn when a Dutch criminal group threatened to kidnap and assassinate her. Amalia moved back in with her parents in the royal palace in The Hague near Amsterdam and now attends lectures with a security escort. She has said she misses the freedom she had as a student living on her own.

- article by Samantha Drake

5 European Princesses Who Are Preparing to Reign

The lives of future queens are not all tiaras and good hair days. 

[royalpain16]

In Belgium, Elisabeth, the Duchess of Brabant (the title given to the Belgian heir apparent) is expected to become Belgium’s first queen. The 22-year-old—the eldest of the Gen Z princess on this list—is the daughter of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, and has been training for this role since she was a tween. 

At age 10, Elisabeth carried out her first official royal engagement, appearing at the opening of her namesake Princess Elisabeth Children’s Hospital in Ghent. Her name can also be found on the Belgian scientific facility in Antarctica, the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Research Station. 

Belgium has had seven kings since winning independence from the Netherlands in 1830. Because the country changed its line of succession in 1991, Elisabeth’s younger brothers, princes Gabriel and Emmanuel, will not displace her in the line of succession [PDF]. Elisabeth also has a younger sister, Princess Eleonore.

Elisabeth’s ongoing education includes studying history and politics at Oxford University’s Lincoln College; she also earned an International Baccalaureate at UWC Atlantic College in Wales in 2020. She additionally studied social and military sciences at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Belgium, and attended the Yale Young Global Scholars Program at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. 

The press reported earlier this year on Elisabeth’s visit to Egypt with her mother and her trip to Jordan with her parents to attend the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein to Rajwa Al Saif. So far, Elisabeth has managed to live a relatively low-key life for a queen in training.

- article by Samantha Drake

5 European Princesses Who Are Preparing to Reign

The lives of future queens are not all tiaras and good hair days. 

[royalpain16]

As the heir to the throne of Spain, Princess Leonor holds the title of Princess of Asturias. She’s the eldest daughter of King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, who also have a younger daughter named Sofia. But Leonor isn’t the country’s heir apparent—male-preference primogeniture remains at the center of Spain’s succession law. She’s considered the heir presumptive because she could be displaced should her parents have a son. However, given that the king and queen are now in their fifties, the chances of them welcoming a baby boy to the family are increasingly unlikely. Leonor is expected to become Spain’s first queen regnant since Isabella II, who reigned in the mid-19th century.

Leonor, who turns 18 later this year, recently completed a two-year high school course at the UWC Atlantic College in Wales. She will now embark on three years of military training, spending one year each at Spain’s General Military Academy of Zaragoza, Marín Naval Military School, where she will serve on board the Juan Sebastián de Elcano Training Ship, and San Javier General Air Academy. The princess is following the same path as her father, who completed similar training before he became king. She is expected to pursue a university degree after completing her military training. 

Although insulated from the media to an extent because of her age, Leonor has nevertheless grown up in the spotlight. Last year, a website reported the princess had a crush on a young Spanish soccer player, FC Barcelona midfielder Pablo Páez Gavira, known as “Gavi,” noting she had adorned her school folder with photos of him. But Leonor is likely learning to how to handle press coverage—both positive and negative. Her family has weathered political and personal dramas from the abdication of her grandfather King Juan Carlos in 2014 following a corruption investigation to tension between her mother and paternal grandmother, Queen Sofia.

- Samantha Drake

5 European Princesses Who Are Preparing to Reign

The lives of future queens are not all tiaras and good hair days. 

[peterarkledrawings]

© Peter Arkle 2024 FLYING ANTS