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Prince Philippe Duke of Brabant Prince Philippe at the Florennes Defence Days Spouse Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant Issue Princess Elisabeth Prince Gabriel Prince Emmanuel Princess Eléonore Full name Philippe Léopold Louis Marie Filips Leopold Lodewijk Maria House House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Father Albert II of Belgium Mother Paola Ruffo di Calabria Born 15 April 1960 (1960-04-15) (age 49) Château de Belvédère, nr Laeken

Belgian Royal Family HM The King HM The Queen HRH The Duke of Brabant HRH The Duchess of Brabant HRH Princess Elisabeth HRH Prince Gabriel HRH Prince Emmanuel HRH Princess Eléonore HI&RH The Archduchess of Austria-Este HI&RH The Archduke of Austria-Este HI&RH Prince Amedeo HI&RH Princess Maria Laura HI&RH Prince Joachim HI&RH Princess Luisa Maria HI&RH Princess Laetitia Maria HRH Prince Laurent HRH Princess Claire HRH Princess Louise HRH Prince Nicolas HRH Prince Aymeric HM Queen Fabiola HRH Princess Léa HRH Princess Marie-Christine HRH Princess Marie-Esméralda This box: view • talk • edit

Styles of Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant Reference style His Royal Highness Spoken style Your Royal Highness Alternative style Sir

Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, Prince of Belgium (French: Philippe Léopold Louis Marie, Dutch: Filip(s) Leopold Lodewijk Maria) (born Château de Belvédère, nr Laeken, 15 April 1960), styled His Royal Highness The Duke of Brabant, is the eldest son and heir apparent of Albert II, King of the Belgians and Queen Paola. His godparents were his paternal grandfather, King Leopold III of the Belgians and his maternal grandmother Donna Luisa, Princess Ruffo di Calabria.

Biography

Prince Philippe was educated at the Belgian Royal Military School. From 1978 to 1981 he continued his education at Oxford University's Trinity College and finally attended Graduate School at Stanford University, California where he graduated in 1985 with an MA degree in Political Science.

He was appointed as a Second Lieutenant in 1980 and obtained his fighter pilot's wings and his certificates as a parachutist and a commando. In 1989, the Prince attended a series of special sessions at the Royal Higher Defence Institute. The same year, he was promoted to Colonel. On 25 March 2001, the Prince was appointed to the rank of Major-General in the Land Component and the Air Component and to the rank of Rear-Admiral in the Naval Component.

Prince Philippe married Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz, daughter of a Walloon Belgian noble family and female line descendant of Polish noble families such as the Princes Sapieha, on 4 December 1999 in Brussels, civilly at the Brussels Town Hall and religiously at the Cathedral of Saint Michel, and they have four children:

• Princess Elisabeth, born 25 October 2001
• Prince Gabriel, born 20 August 2003
• Prince Emmanuel, born 4 October 2005
• Princess Eléonore, born 16 April 2008

If Philippe assumes the throne, Princess Mathilde as will become the first Belgian-born queen consort of Belgium.

Owing to the amendment to the laws of succession (the Lex Salica, or Salic Law) from eldest son to eldest child, Princess Elisabeth is next in the line of succession after her father, followed by her younger brothers, Princes Gabriel and Emmanuel and her younger sister Princess Eléonore.

Recently, the Prince has been a target of criticism within Belgium for his political and social conservatism. During his bachelorhood, vocal detractors had called for him to step out of the line of succession and to allow a more liberal member of the royal family (though the identity of that liberal member wasn't revealed, it is likely to refer to his sister, Astrid) to take his place.

For some years, Philippe, though second-in-line to the throne, was treated as the likely heir of his childless uncle, King Baudouin. As Baudouin and his wife, Queen Fabiola of Belgium, were unable to have children, they became very close to Philippe. However on Baudouin's premature death in 1993, Philippe's father, Albert, inherited the throne.

Titles

In contrast to King Albert II's title, King of the Belgians, Prince Philippe is called Prince of Belgium, not Prince of the Belgians, a title that does not exist. He is also Duke of Brabant, the traditional title of the heir apparent to the Belgian throne. This title precedes the title Prince of Belgium.

His style currently is: His Royal Highness Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, Prince of Belgium.

If Philippe succeeds to the throne, he will be known as either King Philippe (without number, as his uncle King Baudouin) or, if he chooses, Leopold IV.

Ancestry

See also

• List of Succession to the Belgian Throne
• Prince Philippe Fund

External links

• Royal House of Belgium
• Princely House of Sapieha (female ancestors of Crown Princess Mathilde)
• Some ancestry of Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz
• Fonds Prince Philippe (in French, Dutch and German)