Albert II (King of Belgium)

Albert Felix Umber Theodore Christian Eugene Marie, Prince of Liege - the youngest son of Leopold III and Astrid of Sweden ; when Alberta was one year old, his mother died in a car accident. He inherited the throne in 1993 after the death of the childless elder brother Baudouin I.

Albert studied in Switzerland, at the private school Institut Le Rosey , he graduated from the naval school in Bruges . He has the rank of lieutenant general and vice admiral of the Navy of Belgium. Since 1962 - Honorary President of the Belgian Bureau of Foreign Trade.

Since 1958 - President of the Belgian Red Cross Society, President of the Olympic Committee and Inter-Federation Committee of Belgium, member of the Senate of the Belgian Parliament. In 1958-1964 he was a member of the International Olympic Committee .

July 3, 2013 Albert II announced that on the day of the national holiday of Belgium July 21 abdicate in favor of the eldest son of Prince Philip ^[2] .

On July 21, 2013, after the solemn mass, Albert II signed the act of abdication in favor of his son Philip. After renunciation retained the title of king.

On July 2, 1959 in Brussels, Albert married Donna Paola Margarita to Maria Antonia Ruffo di Calabria (b. September 11, 1937). The royal couple has three children:

• Philippe (born April 15, 1960) - since 1993, heir to the throne, since July 21, 2013 the king of Belgium, married to Matilda d'Udekem d'Acos , have four children:
  • Elizabeth, Duchess of Brabant (born 2001) - the first in the line of succession to the throne of Belgium;
  • Gabriel (born 2003);
  • Emmanuel (born 2005);
  • Eleanor (born 2008);
• Astrid (born June 5, 1962) is the wife of the Austrian Archduke Lorenz , has five children:
  • Amedeo (born 1986)
  • Maria Laura (born 1988)
  • Joachim (born 1991)
  • Louise Maria (born 1995)
  • Letizia Maria (born 2003)
• Laurent (born October 19, 1963) - married to Claire Coombs , have three children:
  • Louise (born 2004);
  • Nikolai Belgian (born 2005);
  • Eimerik Belgian (born 2005).

He also has an illegitimate daughter - Dolphin Boel (born in 1968), an artist from Brussels.

Comes from the noble Germanic family Saxe-Coburg , ruling in Belgium since the foundation of the independent Belgian kingdom - since 1831 , when the son of the Duke Franz Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeldsky Leopold (later King Leopold I ) was invited to the throne.

The current king of Belgium is related to the Queen of Great Britain, Elizabeth II , who also comes from this family. The British kings, starting with Edward VII , are descendants of Queen Victoria’s husband Albert Saxe-Coburg-Gotha , however the dynastic surname was changed to “Windsor” in 1917 in connection with the First World War . King Albert is also related by kinship with the former Tsar, and then the Prime Minister of Bulgaria Simeon II (aka Simeon of Sakskoburggotsky ), the son of Tsar Boris III and the grandson of Tsar Ferdinand I , who was an officer of the Austro-Hungarian Army until 1887 and came from the same kind of.

In November 2009, the Belgian government, led by Herman van Rompuy, decided to reduce the annual cost of maintaining the royal family due to the economic crisis. However, according to some experts, such a measure is contrary to the constitution of the country. ^[3]

Belgian Awards