Teen Belgian princess begins military training to one day be Queen

Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, 18, has officially begun training at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels after leaving her boarding school in Wales in March.

The future Queen of Belgium left UWC Atlantic College in Llantwit Major, Wales at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, returning to Belgium to isolate with her family.

She continued her studies at the prestigious college remotely, with past students including royals like Prince Charles and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands.

Now Elisabeth, who will turn 19 in October, has officially joined the Royal Military Academy to commence training with 170 other officer candidates.

She appeared in a video shared by the Belgian Defence from the university, which trains officers for each of the four defence areas: Army, Air Force, Navy and Medical.

The training is designed to help Elisabeth better understand her nation's military and is quite traditional for a royal education – though, not necessarily for a princess.

Until recent decades, the British and most European royal families discouraged female members of the royalty from joining the military.

Queen Elizabeth II of Britain, then only Princess Elizabeth, was the first female royal to serve in the British Armed forces when she signed up during WWII.

Now Belgium's Elisabeth is following in her father, King Phillipe's footsteps by joining the military university, and will soon make royal history of her own.

When Elisabeth eventually takes her father's throne, she will become the first Belgian queen to earn the title through birth rather than marriage.

This is due to a change in the law in 1991 that allows royal women to keep their place in the line of succession even over their younger brothers.

With two younger brothers, Prince Gabriel and Prince Emmanuel, this law is the only thing that saved Elisabeth from being bumped down the line of succession.

Now she's gearing up to one day be queen, taking her royal duties and education seriously as her father helps prepare her to one day wear his crown.