UNDERTAKING her first royal duty at only a week old, Princess Leonor of Spain was presented to cheering wellwishers and hundreds of photographers yesterday as she left a Madrid clinic.

The Infanta Leonor was carried by her mother, Princess Letizia Ortiz, from the Ruber International clinic.

Accompanied by Leonor’s father, Crown Prince Felipe, Princess Letizia allowed the media to photograph their first child, and the couple spoke of their happiness to the crowds who had been waiting all morning for a glimpse of the baby.

The Infanta, wearing white and wrapped in a blanket, slept as her pictures were taken.

“She is very calm,” Princess Letizia, 33, who formerly worked as a television journalist, said. Prince Felipe, 37, said: “She eats really well and sleeps all the time.”

The Prince has been present at the clinic day and night during the past week, and Queen Sofía, the Infanta’s grandmother, has visited several times. She described the baby as “round and chubby”, despite being born three weeks early. She weighed 7lb 7oz and was 18in long.

Leonor is the seventh grandchild of Queen Sofía and King Juan Carlos, but the first born to Prince Felipe, their only son. Leonor is not a common name in the Bourbon family. The first Spanish royal called Leonor was the daughter of the English King Henry II, who became Queen of Castile in the 12th century after she married King Alfonso VII.

The new Infanta is second in line to the throne, after her father, but her birth has triggered debate about constitutional reform to eliminate the male bias in royal succession.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Socialist Prime Minister, has led a campaign to “eliminate all elements of sexism” from the laws governing the monarchy.

The proposed change in legislation would mean that Leonor would eventually become Queen even if she had a younger brother.

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