Letsie III | |||||
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King of Lesotho | |||||
First reign | 12 November 1990 – 25 January 1995 | ||||
Predecessor | Moshoeshoe II | ||||
Successor | Bereng Seeiso Moshoeshoe II | ||||
Second reign | 7 February 1996 – present | ||||
Coronation | 31 October 1997 | ||||
Predecessor |
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Heir apparent | Lerotholi Seeiso | ||||
Born | Seeiso Bereng 17 July 1963 Scott Hospital, Morija, Basutoland (now Lesotho) | ||||
Spouse | |||||
Issue Detail | |||||
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House | Seeiso | ||||
Father | Constantine Bereng Seeiso Moshoeshoe II | ||||
Mother | Mamohato | ||||
Religion | Catholic | ||||
Signature |
Royal family of Lesotho |
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Letsie III (born Mohato Bereng Seeiso; 17 July 1963) is King of Lesotho. He succeeded his father, Bereng Seeiso Moshoeshoe II, who was forced into exile in 1990. His father was briefly restored in 1995 but died in a car crash in early 1996, and Letsie became king again. As a constitutional monarch, most of King Letsie's duties as monarch of Lesotho are ceremonial. [1] In 2000, he declared HIV/AIDS in Lesotho to be a natural disaster, prompting immediate national and international response to the epidemic. [2]
Letsie III was born on 17 July 1963 at the Scott Hospital in Morija, a town south of the capital Maseru. He was educated in the United Kingdom at Ampleforth College. [3] From there, he went on to study at the National University of Lesotho, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Law. He then went on to study at the University of Bristol (Diploma in English Legal Studies, 1986), Wolfson College, Cambridge (Development Studies, 1989), and Wye College (Agricultural Economics). He completed his studies in 1989, when he returned to Lesotho. [4]
He was installed as the Principal Chief of Matsieng on 16 December 1989. [5]
His coronation took place on 31 October 1997 at Setsoto Stadium. King Charles III (then the Prince of Wales) attended the ceremony. [6]
On 1 December 2016, in Rome, King Letsie III was appointed as the Food and Agriculture Organization's newest Special Ambassador for Nutrition by the Organization's Director-General, José Graziano da Silva. [7]
In 2000, King Letsie married Karabo Motšoeneng, with whom he has two daughters and one son:
King Letsie III is one of only two Catholic sovereigns of non-European lineage anywhere in the world, the other being the Māori Queen Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō. He is a member of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George and has been credited with promoting the principles of his Catholic faith in Lesotho. [9]
Ancestors of Letsie III | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Lesotho, formally the Kingdom of Lesotho, formerly known as Basutoland, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. As an enclave of South Africa, with which it shares a 1,106 km (687 mi) border, it is the largest sovereign enclave in the world, and the only one outside of the Italian Peninsula. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the highest peak in Southern Africa. It has an area of over 30,000 km2 (11,600 sq mi) and has a population of about two million. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. The country is also known by the nickname The Mountain Kingdom/The Kingdom in the Sky.
Moshoeshoe II, previously known as Constantine Bereng Seeiso, was the Paramount Chief of Basutoland, succeeding paramount chief Seeiso from 1960 until the country gained full independence from Britain in 1966. He was King of Lesotho from 1966 until his exile in 1990, and from 1995 until his death in 1996.
The Sotho, also known as the Basotho, are a Sotho-Tswana ethnic group who have long inhabited Southern Africa. They primarily inhabit the regions of Lesotho and South Africa.
Moshoeshoe I was the first king of Lesotho. He was the first son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bamokoteli lineage, a branch of the Koena (crocodile) clan. In his youth, he helped his father gain power over some other smaller clans. At the age of 34 Moshoeshoe formed his own clan and became a chief. He and his followers settled at the Butha-Buthe Mountain. He became the first and longest-serving King of Lesotho in 1822.
'Mamohato Bereng Seeiso served as the Regent Head of State of Lesotho on three occasions: 5 June to 5 December 1970, 10 March to 12 November 1990 and 15 January to 7 February 1996.
Prince Seeiso Bereng Seeiso of Lesotho, Principal Chief of Matsieng is the younger brother of Lesotho's King Letsie III, and son of the Southern African country's late King Moshoeshoe II (1938–1996) and the late Queen 'Mamohato Bereng Seeiso (1941–2003).
Prince Lerotholi Seeiso is a member of the royal family of Lesotho and the current heir apparent to the throne.
'Masenate Mohato Seeiso is the Queen of Lesotho as the wife of King Letsie III of Lesotho. She was the first commoner in modern history to marry into the royal family of Lesotho. Since becoming queen, she has become the patron of several charities and has worked to promote the work of projects related to HIV/AIDS.
Princess Senate Mohato Seeiso is a princess of Lesotho, the eldest child of King Letsie III of Lesotho and his wife Queen 'Masenate Mohato Seeiso. She graduated from the University of Ottawa in 2024.
Seeiso, full name Simon Seeiso Griffith was the paramount chief of Basutoland from 23 June 1939 until his death. He was the father of King Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho and the paternal grandfather of king Letsie III of Lesotho.
'Mantšebo was the ruler of Basutoland from 1941 to 1960, as the regent for her stepson, the future Moshoeshoe II.
Princess Mabereng Seeiso of Lesotho is a member of the Royal Family of Lesotho. Princess Seeiso is the wife of Prince Seeiso of Lesotho and the sister-in-law of King Letsie III of Lesotho.
Lesotho–Russia relations are the bilateral relations between Russia and Lesotho.
This article list the monarchs (Marena) of Lesotho. In Sotho language, Marena is the plural of the common noun Kings, where Morena is the singular for King.
Mothetjoa Metsing is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Lesotho. He is a member and current leader of the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD). He served in the government of Prime Minister Tom Thabane between 2012 and 2015. In 2014, he was involved in controversy over an alleged coup attempt against the prime minister that was eventually resolved over calls for an early election.
Maluti Sky was an airline based at Moshoeshoe I International Airport in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. It offered scheduled and charter flights. The airline was founded in 2009 as MGC Airlines, becoming the first privately owned airline in Lesotho. Maluti Sky began passenger flights to Johannesburg in March 2016; it was at that time the only airline based in the country since Lesotho Airways ceased operations in 1996. However, the airline terminated all flights in 2017 as a result of financial issues.
Princess 'Maseeiso Mohato Seeiso is a princess of Lesotho, the second child of King Letsie III of Lesotho and his wife Queen 'Masenate Mohato Seeiso.
France–Lesotho relations are bilateral relations between the sovereign states of France and Lesotho. France has an embassy in Maseru, Lesotho, while Lesotho doesn't have an embassy in Paris.
The Succession to the throne of Lesotho is laid down in Chapter V of the African kingdom's constitution. The current King is Letsie III.
The 1994 Lesotho coup d'état was a successful self-coup in Lesotho by King Letsie III along with the military and the backing of several political parties against the democratically elected Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) government led by Ntsu Mokhehle. Using a petition signed by two political parties - the Basotho National Party and the Marematlou Freedom Party - which called for the dissolution of the present Lesotho government and the restoration of his father Moshoeshoe II as monarch as pretext, he promptly suspended parts of the constitution, dissolved parliament, and replaced the government with an appointed provisional council that would govern until promised elections.