November 15th marks King’s Day in Belgium and the celebrations include certain members of the Belgian royal family attending the Te Deum mass at the Saint Michael and St Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. As per tradition, King Albert II and Queen Paola did not attend.
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But their youngest child, and the enfant terrible of the Belgian royals, Prince Laurent did. The Prince was at the mass with his wife Princess Claire. It was the first time the couple took part in an official royal event since Laurent was suspended from them back in May. He was banned after traveling to the Democratic Republic of the Congo – a former Belgian colony – without the permission of government officials earlier this year.
But all seemed well for Laurent and Claire as they mingled with their family and the Belgian people after the service.
Unfortunately, there were some protests against the royals by members of the Flemish right-wing party (N-VA). Several people were arrested after shouting anti-monarchy slogans outside the cathedral.
The second son of Belgium’s Princess Astrid and Archduke Lorenz was promoted to the rank of officer in the Belgian navy Friday.
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Prince Joachim, age 19, celebrated with his family during a ceremony aboard the ship, Godetia.
“He may now as an officer on duty be at the bridge for all ships of the Belgian Navy,” said Peter Degraer, commander of the nautical school. “Prince Joachim was an excellent student. His language is very good. If the prince wants, he can possibly offer in the civilian shipping, because there are valid certificates.”
Born in December 9th 1991, Joachim is the third child of Astrid and Lorenz. His siblings include Prince Amedeo (who is a reserve officer in the Belgian army), Princess Maria Laura, and two younger sisters: Princesses Luisa Maria and Laetitia. He is styled as HRH and HIH – because his father is a member of the Austria-Este royal household. Joachim’s titles include: Archduke of Austria-Este, Prince Imperial of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Prince of Modena.
Despite some royal wedding happening this Friday , there are other events happening the world of royalty. For example, Belgium’s Princess Astrid paid a visit to a photo exhibit of photographer Lieve Blancquaert in Ghent.
2011 marks Blancquaert’s 25 years of photographing, and her work was on display at the Bank van de Arbeid – The Bank of Labour.
All types of photos – from color to black and white, portraits, photojournalism and some personal polaroids – are on display.
The only daughter of Belgium’s King Albert II and Queen Paola was in India this week, touring leprosy and TB centers. Princess Astrid was there as honorary president of Action Damien, which aims to fight those diseases. This was her first official trip to India.
“I have such great stories about the country heard from my parents,” said an enthusiastic Princess Astrid on arrival. Her eldest children Amadeo (24) and Maria Laura (22) have already traveled to India. “They were in the country pulling their backpacks. My children are not so keen on keeping up appearances. They have very basic traveled the country to really see it. ”
Besides meeting with patients and inspecting health centers, Astrid also saw the scientific and medical side of the centers. She viewed samples from the TB patients through microscopes.
The Princess is very active in health issues. Besides TB and leprosy, she also cares for those suffering from malaria.
Last week, several royal women attended a conference in Belgium about the risk European children face while living on the streets. It was set up by Belgian Queen Paola, who is the as Honorary President of the NGO Child Focus, an organization dedicated to finding missing children.
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For two days – November 17th & 18th – renowned experts on child rights discussed the problem of the disappearance and sexual exploitation of children in different parts of the world. Participants included representatives from all European Union countries as well as members of various NGOs engaged in advocacy for children and international organizations.
The royals in attendance were: Queen Silvia of Sweden, Infanta Cristina of Spain, Britain’s Duchess of Gloucester, and Princesses Mathilde, Astrid and Claire of Belgium.
The non-royals present were: Ms Vike-Freiberga (former president of Latvia), Mrs. Chirac, Ms. Barroso, Mrs. Van Rompuy, Mrs. Tusk (wife of the Polish Prime Minister), Mr Barrot (former Vice-President of the European Commission) and Mr. Flick (former President of the Italian Constitutional Court).
In her speech at the opening of the conference, Queen Paola thanked everyone for coming, saying: “I’m also deeply touched to be joined by several outstanding personalities, who have demonstrated so many times their strong and lasting involvement in the defence of children’s rights. I hope their support will continue to open many doors.
“During these last years, with the help of all of you present here, many concrete projects aimed at fighting all forms of child abuse have been set up in Europe. The single European telephone number is certainly a key achievement, and we can only wish that other Member States will rapidly join the 13 countries where the number is already in operational use. ”
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Switching to French, one of Belgium’s main languages, Paola continued.
“Despite the large number of runaways, very little attention is paid to this issue, so we wanted to treat it in this conference.
“It is a common theme you’ll say, running away adolescents, both go through there, and most come back in 48 hours at home.
“Indeed, nearly 50% of cases handled by Childfocus each year involve runaways. And fortunately, most kids go home, without encountering major problems.
“But among this large number of runaways, many still find themselves in risky situations because they are not home a loving home that welcomes them, because they are victims of bad company on the Internet before their running away, because they are not sufficiently attentive to the dangers.
“Moreover, the ease of communication, open borders, single currency are all factors that increase the pitfalls that await. And the largest group of runaways are between 13 and 15 years!”
Switching to Dutch, the Queen said: “Every year in Belgium between fifteen hundred and two thousand young people who have no other language than their mother tongue. They are often physically and psychologically traumatized by a long journey. Almost half of these young people will disappear within two days back from the reception center and thus on the street.
“This is why the theme of runaways increased surveillance, including at European level. I sincerely hope that these two days some new ideas and contribute to an early European coordination.
After thanking everyone, the conference began. It discussed the statistics of runaway children, which was sent to NGOs and governments. All other findings were sent to the Council of the European Union.
Sources: ¡Hola!, Monarchie.be, The Royal Forums blog
The royal family of Belgium took part in King’s Day on Monday to pay homage to King Albert II. Since 1886, November 15th has been the day where the country honors its monarch. But as tradition holds, the King is not present during the events nor is the Queen, in this case Queen Paola.
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In the morning, most of the Belgian royals attended Te Deum mass at Saint Michael and Saint Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Present were Crown Prince Philippe, Princess Mathilde, Princess Astrid, Archduke Lorenz, Prince Laurent and Princess Claire. Also there was Queen Fabiola, the sister-in-law to the King.
The Archbishop presiding over the mass prayed for national unity during a time of much linguistic and cultural division.
“We pray that our country prospers and may know the legitimate diversity of regions, communities, languages and cultures. And also as a necessary national unity.”
After Te Deum, there was a meeting at Parliament, which the royals attended. Also there were 300 children, between the ages of nine and eleven, some of whom come from either Haitian or Pakistani background. This was done to show solidarity with their home countries, which were ravaged by national disasters this year.
At 1:35 in the afternoon, King Albert II accepted a military salute from the balcony of the palace, which represents the military pledging loyalty to him.
On Wednesday, the Belgian royal family marked with the rest of their country Belgium’ 180th anniversary. Although the country has been seeing threats of splitting up in recent months, all that seemed to be forgotten that day.
In the morning, most of the Belgian royals attended the Te Deum mass at St. Michel et Gudule in Brussels. Present were King Albert II, Queen Paola, Queen Fabiola, Crown Prince Philippe and Crown Princess Mathilde. Absent were Princess Astrid, who was in Hasselt, and her brother Prince Laurent and his wife, Princess Claire who were at a Te Deum mass at St-Martin d’Arlon.
What makes the Te Deum masses unique is that five beliefs – Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, Judaism and secularism – are represented. Before Te Deum began, the King and Queen met with the leaders of those groups.
AP Photo/Thierry Charlier
After the mass, the royals did their walk about among the Belgian people.
At 4pm local time, the military parade took place. Since its Belgium’s turn to hold the European Union presidency for this half of the year, EU forces were included in the parade. 1500 soldiers and 83 vehicles from the 27 EU countries paraded along the route, including the Lamborghini Italian police.
All of Belgium’s royals were attendance for this, including Astrid, who was in military uniform, and Prince Laurent with his wife, Princess Claire. The latter two held hands during the parade.
Alongside King Albert II for the parade was Belgian Minister of Defense, Pieter de Crem.
Also visible during National Day was dowager Queen Fabiola. As it happened last year, there were bizarre but very real threats against the Queen’s life. In 2009, she mocked her would-be assassin by waving a green apple around since the death threats said she would be killed by a crossbow. But this year, she did not joke around as she was encouraged not to by police.
It was a night of celebration as Sweden and royals from all over the world marked Saturday’s wedding between Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling. Just like her parents had 34 years ago, Victoria and her fiancè were a given a special concert at the Royal Concert Hall in Stockholm. Pop acts and classical artists played through the night as if it were a final hurrah before tomorrow’s big event.
First arriving at the Hall was the House of Bernadotte. When she got out of the car, Crown Princess Victoria wowed the crowd waiting for her. Beaming and radiating of joy, the Crown Princess waved as the people gave her and Daniel a four-fold cheer.
They walked up the red carpet behind her parents, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. Bringing up the rear were her two younger siblings, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Madeleine.
After the Swedish royal family came the friends and relatives of the royal couple, and the Swedish government leaders. Then came the royals from all over Europe, plus Japan and Jordan. The royal guest list even included those who are from deposed monarchies, such as Romania and Serbia.
All in all, 1,600 guests.
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Once inside, everyone dined amongst each other before the big concert. Those who haven’t seen each other in a while were able to say hello, such as Denmark’s Crown Princess Mary and Spain’s Crown Princess Letizia.
King Carl XVI Gustaf gave a small speech during the dinner, thanking the Prime Minister for allowing the wedding to take place – after all, the wedding of an heir to the throne needs government approval.
“We can all see how happy and engaged the engaged couple looks,” the King went on to say. “They really… You can feel the joy and youth and optimism in their eyes. We can all feel the warmth and happiness also in this hall and during this day.”
At about a quarter to nine local time, all those in attendance were in the Hall. Everyone stood and sang when the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra played the Swedish national anthem. Even Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II, who’s mother was a Swedish Princess, sang along.
Right after that, the orchestra began to play “Party Song” and right in the middle of the stage, lights went on, illuminating two
REUTERS/Anders Wiklund/Scanpix
figures holding hands. Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling had made their appearance. They received a standing ovation as they made their way to two seats in the front row especially made for them. With that, the concert began.
It was clearly a joyous occasion for everyone in the Hall. Ballet was performed, the opera classic “Nessun Dorma” was sung – even pop and jazz acts played. The host of the event also poked playful fun at the royals in attendance. At one point, the group Jazz Divas of Scandinavia were about the perform and the host gave a nod to the Scandinavian Crown Princesses – Victoria, Mette-Marit and Mary. The women had a good laugh about it.
But the biggest act to perform that night was probably the 80s Swedish pop duo, Roxette, said to be one of Victoria’s favorite bands. As the band played “The Look,” everyone in the hall clapped along and a few – such as Norway’s Princess Martha Louise – moved their heads to the song. Once done, there was a standing ovation for Roxette.
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The concert came to a close when all the singers returned to the stage and together sang Elvis Presley’s classic, “Can’t Help Falling In Love.” As they did with the Roxette song, many of the royals sang along.
Overall, it was an emotional event for everyone. Queen Silvia was seen wiping away some tears and it looked as if King Carl Gustaf was getting teary-eyed. Even Princess Madeleine looked red in the eyes – as did Queen Margrethe and Dutch Queen Beatrix.
With that, the pre-wedding events were over. Tomorrow comes the wedding of the year as Crown Princess Victoria marries her love – and a former gym owner from a small village in central Sweden becomes Prince Daniel.
It was announced by the Belgian royal court that Princess Astrid, the daughter of King Albert II and Queen Paola, will become patron of the charity, Damiaanactie. Until last week, Queen Fabiola was the charity’s patron, but she stepped down due to her fragile health.
Damiaanactie raises money to buy leprosy and TBC medications for those living in the Third World. It usually auctions such items as pens to help raise money.
News that the octogenarian Fabiola will relinquish being this charity’s patron does mean she will be giving up any royal engagements in the near future. So far, she is expected to participate in the usual events she took part in the past, such as National Day and King’s Day.
Making her first public appearance in over three months today was Belgium’s Dowager Queen Fabiola. She was present for the Te Deum mass during King’s Day. Her showing up for the service put to rest rumors that she was of poor health and was possibly near death.
REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Each November 15th, Belgium observes King’s Day, or Koningsfeest in Dutch, or Fete du Roi in French. It pays to tribute to King Albert – the first, not the second, who currently occupies the throne. Since 1866, the country has observed this day since it is the name day of both King Albert I and King Leopold. In 2001, Belgian Parliament got involved in the feast and honors the royal family by closing federal buildings.
In the morning, the Te Deum service is held at the Cathedral of St. Michael’s and Gudula’s. As mentioned, Queen Fabiola, the sister-in-law to King Albert II, attended. She was unable to stand during the ceremony, but was still able to be present.
After the mass, the rest of the royal family – the Crown Princely couple, Princess Astrid and her husand Prince Lorenz, and Prince Laurent – met with the crowds gathered outside of the Cathedral. Laurent’s wife, Princess Claire, was not in attendance today.
In the afternoon, the same royals went to the Palais de la Nation to meet with the nation’s political leaders. A tribute was made for King Albert I, who made a contribution to the science during his reign, between 1875 and 1934.
The day ended with a military ceremony at Palais Royal in Brussels.
King Albert II and Queen Paola were not present for this year’s King’s Day. It might be because the focus were on previous monarchs.
, there are other events happening the world of royalty. For example, Belgium’s Princess Astrid paid a visit to a photo exhibit of photographer Lieve Blancquaert in Ghent.
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