by Susan Flantzer  © Unofficial Royalty 2014

Infanta Sofia of Spain, 2024

Infanta Sofía was born on April 29, 2007, at the Ruber International Clinic in Madrid, Spain. She is the younger of the two daughters of King Felipe VI of Spain and his wife Queen Letizia (born Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano).

Infanta Sofía was baptized on July 15, 2007, in the gardens of Zarzuela Palace. She was named after her paternal grandmother Queen Sofía, and also was given the additional name of de Todos los Santos (of All the Saints), a Bourbon tradition. Her godparents were:

• • Paloma Rocasolano, her maternal grandmother
  • Konstantin-Assen, Prince of Vidin, her father’s friend, the fourth son of former Tsar Simeon II of Bulgaria.

Infanta Sofía has one older sibling:

• Infanta Leonor, Princess of Asturias (born 2005)

Sofía’s sister Leonor is the heir presumptive to the Spanish throne and Sofía follows her in the line of succession. Currently, Spain’s succession law is male-preference cognatic primogeniture. This means that Leonor, as the elder of King Felipe’s two daughters, is first in line to inherit the throne, and she is the heir presumptive. However, if her parents have a son, he would be the heir apparent, Leonor would forfeit the title of Princess of Asturias and other titles to her brother, and both Leonor and Sofía would each move down a step in the line of succession to the Spanish throne. There have been discussions of changing the succession law to absolute primogeniture, where the eldest child, regardless of gender, inherits the throne, but no legislation has been forthcoming.

On September 15, 2010, Sofía began her formal schooling at Santa María de los Rosales School (link in Spanish) in Madrid, Spain, where her father and sister attended until they were 16. In August 2023, she began studying a 2-year International Baccalaureate program at the UWC Atlantic College in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales.

On June 2, 2014, King Juan Carlos, Infanta Sofía’s grandfather, announced his intention to abdicate the throne in favor of his son. On June 18, 2014, King Juan Carlos signed the formal instrument of abdication and Sofía’s father Felipe ascended the throne at midnight. King Felipe VI was sworn in and proclaimed as king on June 19, 2014, in a ceremony in the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Spanish legislature.

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