Amalia of Holland and the other young royals we will hear (a lot) about

In recent days there has been a lot of talk about the future queen of the Netherlands Catharina-Amalia, which last Tuesday has turned 18 years old. The eldest daughter of Kings William and Máxima, however, is not the only young royal to have come of age in this 2021. Da Moulay Hassan of Morocco a lady Louise Windsor, passing through Carolina of Bourbon e Gabriel of Belgium, the list of 18-year-olds who are making their way into a world of traditions and labels is long and varied.

Moulay Hassan of Morocco

One of the most interesting personalities among royalty outside Europe is that of Moulay Hassan of Morocco, who turned 18 on May 3rd. Tall, slender, beautiful dark eyes and elegant bearing, despite his young age he has long since begun to perform duties as heir to the throne of Morocco. In 2017 he was at the Climate Summit in Paris and in 2019 he was in the front row of welcome to the royal palace of Rabat Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on an official visit. And he got noticed by the international press also thanks to his Instagram profile, which boasts 264 thousand followers.

The father is Mohammed VI, 56, with 5.7 billion in assets, ascended to the throne in 1999 and considered one of the first modernizing rulers of Morocco. There mother, Lalla Salma, had risen to the headlines in 2019 for having disappeared from all radars, sparking gossip and uncontrolled conspiracy rumors. Simply, it turned out later, Lalla and the king had decided to separate, after 17 years of marriage. Their firstborn Hassan (Moulay is the nickname) inherited the name from his grandfather and when he ascends the throne he will do so as Hassan III. In the meantime, he has decided to devote himself toaviation: for two years he has been attending Royal Preparatory High School for Technical Aeronautics in Marrakech.

Lady Louise Windsor

Returning to Europe, to be precise in Great Britain, on 8 November, Lady Louise Windsor blew out 18 candles, the eldest daughter of Prince Edward and of Sophie Wessex. An important milestone not only symbolically. With the coming of age, in fact, the granddaughter of Elizabeth II she has to decide whether to become a princess or not. Like her thirteen-year-old brother James, Viscount of Severn, Louise has so far not been able to enjoy the title of Royal Highness that is due to her since birth by choice of parents who wanted to offer their children as normal a life as possible. “We try to raise our kids with the knowledge that they will have to work for a living,” explained Sophie of Wessex. “Therefore we have decided not to use real titles. They have them and from the age of 18 they will be able to decide whether to use them“. That they choose to use them seems to Mom Sophie “highly unlikely”.

Lady Louise was 8 years old when she attended her first royal engagement, like bridesmaid at wedding of William and Kate Middleton. Since then, however, it has mostly remained away from the spotlight. IS raised in Windsor with her younger brother James, studied at St George’s School and then at St Mary’s School and very rarely participated in formal commitments with parents. And he cultivated his passions: drawing and horse riding. In particular, Louise loves horse-drawn carriage rides. An interest, that for the carriage driving, inherited from grandfather Filippo. In 2019, Lady Louise had placed third in the competition of this ancient discipline at the Royal Windsor Horse Show.

Gabriel of Belgium

Gabriel of Belgium, second son of King Philip and Queen Matilda, reached the age of 18 on August 20. Younger brother of Princess Elisabeth, destined for the throne, Gabriel started this year a international studies abroad. After attending a prestigious school in Brussels for two years to pursue his baccalaureate, he then chose the prestigious National Mathematics & Science College in Warwickshire, the same where he studies Leonor, the eldest daughter of Queen Letizia and King Felipe of Spain. Gabriel has decided to focus on technical-scientific subjects (Stem), convinced that they are the fulcrum of the future economy. But in recent years, the prince of Belgium has also shown that he has the makings, and the class, of a prince, perfectly at ease during official engagements. Tall, strong physique, he is a super sportsman: he practices from football to cycling through tennis, swimming and skiing, up to hockey.

Maud Angelica Behn

It was last April 29 when Princess of Norway Martha Louise – eldest daughter of King Harald V – celebrated the 18 years of the eldest daughter Maud Angelica with a series of beautiful photos on Instagram which retrace many moments of the new majority. Maud Angelica did not have an easy life, having had to deal with the trauma of the death of his father Ari Behn, the writer who committed suicide at the age of 47 in January 2020. The images of the girl who with courage and emotion, at the funeral, he reads his father’s heartbreaking farewell letter. And also for this reason the mother, in such a symbolically important moment, has chosen to show the world her pride for her daughter, for everything she has achieved so far “and for everything you will do in the future”.

Maria Carolina of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies

She is perhaps the most irreverent, the most rebellious of the new European royals. We are talking about Maria Carolina of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies. Just remember that, on the occasion of her 18 years, last June 19, the girl daughter of Prince Charles, in turn great-great-great nephew of King Francis II, the last ruler of the Two Sicilies, chose to publish a unsettling photo. She, in short leather dress, riding a large-displacement motorcycle, while fixing the goal. As a caption: “Who said diamonds are a woman’s best friend?“. Blond like her mother Camilla Cruciani, Princess Maria Carolina seems to want to attack life, even in her choice of studies. IS registered in fact a two universities at the same time: at Harvard he attended a course in Social Sciences, Marketing and Management, and at the University of Montecarlo he devoted himself to Fashion and Luxury Studies. To the Corriere della Sera he showed he had very clear ideas: “I have always known, from an early age, that the name would carry responsibility. Then, since my father, Charles of Bourbon of the Two Sicilies, as Head of the Royal House, changed the law of succession to the throne by abolishing the Salic law which precluded it for women, everything has become even clearer for me. And, I know, Dad has been criticized for that too, but why not? In a society increasingly inspired by equality it would be unfair to preclude the leadership of the family from women».