Home > Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant

1 Biography

He is married to Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz, daughter of a Belgian noble family, and they have two children: a daughter, Princess Elisabeth, born 25 October 2001, who, thanks to an alteration of succession laws (the Lex Salica, or Salian Law) from eldest son to eldest child, will follow her father in the succession, and a son, Prince Gabriel Baudouin Charles Marie (Dutch: Gabriël Boudewijn Karel Maria), born 20 August, 2003.

The present Duchess of Brabant would become the first Belgian Queen to be born Belgian, when Philippe assumes the throne.

Recently, the Prince has been a target of criticism within Belgium for his political and social conservatism, and vocal detractors have called for him to step out of the line of succession to allow a more liberal member of the royal family to take his place.

For some years, Philippe, though second-in-line to the throne, had been treated as being the Heir Presumptive of his childless uncle, King Baudouin. However on Baudouin's death, the first-in-line, the late King's brother, Albert, chose to become king himself. It is believed that Philippe's then unmarried status was the reason why his father opted unexpectedly to take the crown, but this has never been proven.

2 Titles

Contrary to Albert II, King of the Belgians, Prince Philippe is Prince of Belgium, not Prince of the Belgians, a title which does not exist. He is also Duke of Brabant since Belgium's first in line to succeed to the King is given this title. When citing its titles, one must cite first "Duke of Brabant" then "Prince of Belgium".

3 See also

• List of Succession to the Belgian ThroneBelgium uses full cognatic primogeniture; since 1991 males and females have had equal rights of succession. Prior to 1991 Belgium used Salic law. HRH Prince Philippe of Belgium, Duke of Brabant (eldest son of King Albert II) # HRH Princess Elisabeth of Be

4 External link

• Fonds Prince Philippe (in FrenchFrench le francais la langue francaise is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered only by Spanish and Portuguese. French is the 11th most spoken language in the world, spoken by about 77 million people (called Francophones) as a mother to, Dutch and GermanGerman (called Deutsch in German in which germanisch refers to prechristian times), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and one of the world's major languages. It is the language with the most native speakers in the European Union.)