Letsie III

Letsie III (born Mohato Bereng Seeiso; 17 July 1963) is King of Lesotho.

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.

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.

He was installed as the Principal Chief of Matsieng on 16 December 1989.

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.

His coronation took place on 31 October 1997 at Setsoto Stadium.

King Charles III (then the Prince of Wales) attended the ceremony.

In 2000, he declared HIV/AIDS in Lesotho to be a natural disaster, prompting immediate national and international response to the epidemic.

In 2000, King Letsie married Karabo Motšoeneng, with whom he has two daughters and one son:

King Letsie III is the only Catholic sovereign of non-European lineage anywhere in the world.

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.

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.