Being a young royal heir is no bargain in this century. To the little freedom of decision about their lives, there is now added the established fashion of this generation to forgo public assignments while they study. In order to appear more frugal or to delay the start of the institutional work, this is the case of several crown princes who will not receive money from the State until they focus exclusively on representative tasks for their countries.
Prince Christian of Denmark will not receive the planned financial allowance when he turns 18 on October 15: the Danish royal house announced last week. Unlike his grandmother, Margaret II, and his father, Prince Frederic, he will not receive public income until the age of 21: “Prince Christian’s main priority next year will be to complete secondary education. […] Support will be sought in the Danish Parliament for a law on the annuity when the prince turns 21 or in a possible succession to the throne, if it happens earlier”, Kongehuset announced. After these years, Christian is expected to devote more time to official events, but until then the prince will participate in them on a limited basis. For now, he is the heir of the heir.
This is not the case with Princess Eleonor, who not only already attends official events alone, but who, after completing high school in Wales, begins her military training on August 17. The Princess of Asturias, who will come of age on October 31, will join the General Military Academy of the Land Army, in Zaragoza, to begin training for the future as the first woman who, in accordance with the Constitution, will have supreme command of the armed forces.
During the three-year training, in which she will go through the academies of the armies of the Land and Air and the Navy, the heir to the throne has renounced the monthly allocation, of between 417 and 668 euros depending on seniority , which all the students of the educational centers of the armed forces are entitled to, as the Palace of the Zarzuela clarified this year. Her salary as Princess of Asturias should be agreed in the coming years, taking into account that in Spain it is the Executive who has the power to design the study plan of the heir to the throne.
The pioneer to give up the official assignment to focus on university studies was the heir to the Belgian throne. Princess Elisabeth of Belgium renounced in 2019, when she became an adult heiress, the 920,000 euros a year that her father received when he was the heir. He wanted to wait to receive the important income to focus on his studies and have a “normal” life like any other young person, they then alleged from the palace, since the activities of institutional representation would have been incompatible with his studies. Elisabet is currently studying the third year of a degree in History and Political Science at the University of Oxford. She only spent one year at the Royal Belgian Military School and did not receive a salary either.
Another who gave up a significant sum is Amàlia of the Netherlands. The daughter of Kings Guillem and Máxima renounced in writing in 2021 part of the 1.6 million euros that the country’s budgets had planned for her after she came of age. The princess informed the prime minister, Mark Rutte, through a handwritten letter that, until the end of the university training, she will return the 300,000 euros of the annual salary and that the remaining 1.3 million, which is due to her according to the law for personnel and material expenses, she will also return them if she does not incur large expenses in terms of preparation as an heir to the Dutch throne or for the Princess of Orange foundation.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway is the one about whom there is less news in this regard. In Norway, where anyone can find out what their neighbor, celebrity or politician earns via the internet with a few clicks, among the few people not on these public lists are members of the Norwegian royal house. The first-born of Princes Haakon and Mette-Marit turned 18 on January 21, 2022, despite the fact that her coronation was celebrated in June of that year.
