Belgian Princess Elisabeth (21) will be made an officer with the Royal Military Academy on the evening of September 26, although she was not being required to complete full training.
The Royal Military Academy is the military university of Belgium responsible for the education of officers of the Belgian defence and is located in Brussels
The future Queen of Belgium will take the officers’ oath, swearing “allegiance to the King, obedience to the Constitution and the laws of the Belgian people”.
As well as completing only the first full year of training, Princess Elisabeth was also was exempted from the entrance test when she enrolled.
The Royal Palace and a Belgian Colonel claim in the media that despite this, she did not receive any preferential treatment, although she was under surveillance protection due to her high-profile status.
Princess Elisabeth began her military training in 2020. In the summer of 2022, she participated in the Academy summer camp. “This camp focused on platoon commander training and learning to lead a platoon of about 30 people,” the Palace previously reported.
The Princess passed the entrance exams for a three-year History and Politics degree at Lincoln College, part of Oxford University in the UK, in 2021. She has already completed two years of studies there and only recently started her final year.
“But Elisabeth regularly returns to our country to remain involved in Belgian public life during activities alone, with His Majesty the King or her family,” according to the Palace.
Her brother, Prince Gabriël (20), the second in line, has started his second year of military training. He did have to take the entrance exam.
Elisabeth follows in the footsteps of her father King Filip who became an army officer on September 26, 1980. He did follow the full education programme and trained as a fighter pilot enabling him to fly F16 jets, although he now prefers piloting helicopters.
When he became the King of Belgium, he was promoted to a four-star General and became Supreme Commander of the Belgian Armed Forces.
