One day, her birthday will be a really big deal for a whole country. But today, as Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange, turns twelve things will be a little more low key. It's a school day, after all. But one day, there will be plenty of people learning about her for Princess Amalia is a leading part of a whole generation of girls who are growing up to be queens in Europe.
Catharina-Amalia, Princess of Orange
Born December 7th 2003, The Hague
The Princess of Orange is the eldest of the three daughters born to King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima but even if she does get a little brother, the law in her country guarantees her right to succeed as the eldest child of the monarch. It means that the Netherlands will have another queen regnant following the reign of her father, the first king of his country since 1890. For a while she was the youngest heiress on the continent but that title passed in 2014, briefly, to another girl born to be queen.
Leonor of Spain will one day succeed her father, Felipe VI, while her own heir right now is her sister, Sofia
Leonor, Princess of Asturias became heiress to her country's throne on June 19th 2014 following the accession of her father as Felipe VI. Alone among Europe's current crop of first ladies in waiting, she is the only one who could still be unseated by a baby brother. The succession rules in Spain mean that chaps still overtake ladies in the line but as her parents seem unlikely to add to their family right now it seems that Leonor's place in the path to the throne is safe. There are no such worries for the oldest is the first woman to be entitled to a crown no matter what - the Crown Princess of Sweden.
Victoria of Sweden is the oldest female heir to the throne
Victoria Ingrid Alice Desiree, born in 1977, was first in line at birth, dropped briefly to second while the succession laws were changed after the arrival of her brother, and has occupied the top spot since 1980. She is also the first woman to have a female heiress who will succeed regardless of future siblings. Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary was born in 2012 as second in line to her country's throne and will stay that way even if the baby her mum is expecting in March 2016 turns out to be a brother.
Estelle of Sweden will be queen one day
And it's a wide ranging change of laws across Europe that has made the next generation of monarchs an almost exclusively female club. Forty years ago, most of the women waiting in line to succeed to their country's throne would have been passed over for younger brothers or had no succession rights at all because of their country's rules on who could become monarch. The Belgian heiress - Elisabeth Therese Marie Helene, Duchess of Brabant - will be queen one day but was the first princess born in her country to be guaranteed the right to take the throne, let alone be first in line. The law change of 1991 which granted women dynastic rights also did away with any idea of men overtaking women. It means that Elisabeth, like Amalia and Victoria, is guaranteed to wear her country's crown.
Elisabeth of the Belgians, a queen in waiting
Also in line to be queen one day is Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, eldest child of the current heir to the Norwegian throne, Haakon Magnus. Like Elisabeth of Belgium, she would have had no succession rights at all without a law change but the rules now give her country's crown to a first born child, no matter what.
Ingrid Alexandra is second in line to the throne of Norway
And the laws in Denmark and the United Kingdom are now the same but unlike the rest of Europe's monarchies, the first borns in those two countries are all men. It means that in years to come, Prince Christian and Charles, then William, then George, are likely to be outnumbered. Here come the girls.
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