Birth and Early Life
Felipe was born in Madrid. His birth, after that of his two sisters, the infantas Elena and Cristina, ensured a male successor to the Spanish throne. His full name is Felipe Juan Pablo Alfonso de Todos los Santos de Borbón y de Grecia. The symbolic names given at his baptism, by the Archbishop of Madrid Casimiro Morcillo González included the names of the first Bourbon to reign in Spain; his grandfathers (Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona and Paul of Greece); his great-grandfather King Alfonso XIII of Spain; and Of All The Saints (De Todos los Santos or et omnes sancti) as is customary among the Bourbons. At the time of his birth he was titled as Infante of Spain, as his father was not yet king and Felipe was not yet heir apparent. His godparents were his paternal grandfather, Infante Juan, Count of Barcelona, and his paternal great-grandmother, Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg.
On 30 January 1986, at the age of 18, Felipe swore allegiance to the Constitution and to the King in the Spanish Parliament, fully accepting his institutional role as successor to the Crown.
Read more about this topic: Prince Felipe
Famous quotes containing the words birth, early and/or life:
“I am fifty-two years of age. I am a bishop in the Anglican Church, and a few people might be constrained to say that I was reasonably responsible. In the land of my birth I cannot vote, whereas a young person of eighteen can vote. And why? Because he or she possesses that wonderful biological attribute—a white skin.”
—Desmond Tutu (b. 1931)
“the cluttered eyes
of early mysterious night.”
—Imamu Amiri Baraka (b. 1934)
“There is something else which has the power to awaken us to the truth. It is the works of writers of genius.... They give us, in the guise of fiction, something equivalent to the actual density of the real, that density which life offers us every day but which we are unable to grasp because we are amusing ourselves with lies.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)