On Friday, May 28, HRH the Princess of Asturias received her confirmation in Madrid, at the Nuestra Señora de la Asunción church, with all the rest of her classmates.
For her First Holy Communion, which took place in May of 2015, she was surrounded by her entire family, including both sets of grandparents. On this occasion, however, restrictions due to the CoViD-19 pandemic made it impossible for people outside of her household to be present, and therefore only her parents and sister were in attendance.
The Princess was wearing a royal blue dress, a colour with strong significance: not only it is the colour of the flag of the Principality of Asturias, of which she bears the title, but it is also the colour of background she chose for her royal standard. This can be seen most notably on cars when she attends official functions. She was also sporting a face mask with her school’s logo on it, while the rest of her family was seen wearing white KN95 masks.
Her confirmation comes just weeks before she is due to leave Spain to attend high school at UWC Atlantic College, in Wales, an experience she will have in common with another future monarch, Belgium’s Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Brabant.
Princess Leonor was born on the 31st of October, 2005, at 1:46 am at the Ruber International Clinic in Madrid. She was the first child of the then-Prince and Princess of Asturias, a title bestowed upon the heir to the throne, and the 7th grandchild (3rd granddaughter) for the King and Queen. She was baptised on the 14th of January 2006 in a ceremony in Zarzuela Palace in Madrid, with her paternal grandparents as her godparents. This is a very common occurrence in Roman Catholic families, with most children having grandparents as godparents. The tradition has slowly faded, with parents preferring younger friends and family members for the role.
As a general rule, the Catholic church prefers one of the Christening godparents to also act as a godparent for the Confirmation. However, this has never been a strongly-enforced rule for various reasons, one of them being that most children had lost their grandparents by the time they received their confirmation. In the Princess of Astrurias’ circumstances, it was CoViD-19 restrictions that prevented this from happening, and her father acted as her godparent instead. But this could also be a new tradition for the Spanish Royal family, as King Felipe chose his father as his godparent too on his Confirmation day back in 1978.
