Albert II (Belgium)
Albert II - born Prince Albert Felix Humbert Theodor Christian Eugen Maria von Sachsen-Coburg - (born June 6, 1934 at Stuyvenberg Castle , Laeken / Laken ) was the sixth King of the Belgians from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . He succeeded his older, childless brother Baudouin to the throne in 1993 .
After the announcement of his abdication on July 3, 2013, he took this step on July 21, 2013, the Belgian national holiday, in favor of his son Crown Prince Philippe .
Life
| Belgian royal family |
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SM King Philippe
SM King Albert II.
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Albert, Prince of Liège, was born in Stuyvenberg Castle in Brussels . He is the younger son of King Leopold III. and his first wife Princess Astrid of Sweden . He lost his mother at the age of one when she was killed in a car accident on August 29, 1935 . His siblings are Joséphine Charlotte and Baudouin (1930–1993). He also has a half-brother Alexander (1942–2009) and two half-sisters Marie-Christine (* 1951) and Marie-Esmeralda (* 1956) from his father's second marriage.
At the beginning of the Second World War , the prince and his siblings fled first to France and later to Spain. However, they returned to Belgium in 1940 and lived in Laeken / Laken and in Ciergnon. In 1944 he was deported with his father, stepmother and siblings to Germany and later to Austria. After their liberation on May 7, 1945, the family lived in Pregny in Switzerland until 1950 .
During this time the prince attended the private school Institute Le Rosey . The family was initially not allowed to return to Belgium because of the "question royale"; she was only allowed to do so in July 1950. On August 11, Albert's older brother became Crown Prince; Belgian King on July 17, 1951.
After finishing school Albert studied botany , geography and philosophy . He did his military service in the Navy, where he achieved the rank of admiral .
Marriage and offspring
On July 2, 1959, Albert married the Italian Princess Paola Ruffo di Calabria , the youngest daughter of Fulco Ruffo di Calabria and his wife Countess Luisa Gazelli, in the Brussels Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula .
The connection resulted in three descendants:
- Prince Philippe (born April 15, 1960); Duke of Brabant , King of the Belgians since 2013 ⚭ Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz
- Princess Astrid (born June 5, 1962) ⚭ Lorenz Habsburg-Lothringen
- Prince Laurent (born October 19, 1963) ⚭ Claire Louise Coombs
Delphine Boël
In 2005, the Belgian artist Delphine Boël stated in an interview that she was the daughter of an affair between the king and her mother, Baroness Sybille de Sélys Longchamps . Rumors about the king's illegitimate child had already been expressed in an unauthorized biography of the queen published in 1999. The Baroness de Sélys Longchamps explained that Albert - at that time still as Prince of Liege - had a relationship with her between 1966 and 1984. Albert denied paternity. In 1999, however, in his Christmas speech at the time, he admitted that his marriage was in crisis in the 1960s. In 2013 Boël applied for the court to clarify the alleged paternity of Albert II, so that suspicions arose that the king's abdication shortly before had something to do with the affair. From a legal point of view, it first had to be established that Boël's mother's husband is not her father.
After this was proven by a voluntary genetic test of the husband, the court of first instance did not revoke this paternity, since a classic father-daughter relationship had existed between the two for many years. At Boël's request, the appellate court overturned this decision, whereupon Albert, as a third party involved, challenged the annulment before the Court of Cassation .
As part of this process, a court ruled in early November 2018 that Albert had to undergo a paternity test within three months. In February 2019, he refused the paternity test. After the competent court of appeal in Brussels imposed a fine of € 5000 per day on May 16, 2019 , as long as Albert refused to take the test, it was carried out on May 28, 2019. However, the results remained under lock and key until all appeal proceedings were concluded.
On December 2019, the Court of Cassation rejected the challenge, which paved the way for the actual paternity lawsuit against Albert. On January 27, 2020, Albert stated through his lawyers that he was the biological father after the genetic paternity test was positive. The ex-king's late admission was criticized by Boël's lawyer. His client was "very brutally rejected by her biological father" when the discussion about paternity came to the public. The long process was a "long nightmare" for Boël.
Official duties
From 1962 to 1993 Albert was Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Belgian Foreign Trade Office. In this role, he headed more than a hundred economic missions. His extensive knowledge, his confident manner and the command of several languages made him a successful business representative in Belgium. In his honor, the Prince Albert Fund was founded in 1984 to finance the training of foreign trade specialists. From 1958 to 1993 he was President of the Belgian Red Cross; this office was then taken over by his daughter Astrid.
Albert became king in 1993 as the successor to his brother Baudouin, who died childless. On August 9, 1993, Albert took his oath on the Constitution of the Kingdom of Belgium . In contrast to Baudouin, Albert is considered to be fun-loving and extroverted.
Albert received an allowance of 10.54 million euros from the Belgian government in 2009 . For 2010 this should be reduced slightly to 10.3 million euros; this legislative proposal was not implemented because of a protracted government crisis.
In July 2013, Albert II announced his abdication . After Albert signed the deed of abdication on the Belgian national holiday , the new king, his son Philippe, swore the oath on the constitution.
Ancestors and descendants
| Pedigree and descendants of Albert II, King of the Belgians from 1993 to 2013 | |||||||||
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| Great-great-grandparents |
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Prince |
Duke |
King |
King |
Duke |
King |
King |
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| Great grandparents |
Prince Philippe , Count of Flanders |
Duke Carl Theodor in Bavaria |
King Oskar II (Sweden) |
King Frederick VIII (Denmark) |
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| Grandparents |
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Prince Carl of Sweden , |
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| parents |
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King Albert II (* 1934) (⚭ 1959 Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria (* 1937)) |
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| children |
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Princess Astrid of Belgium (* 1962) |
Prince Laurent of Belgium |
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| grandson |
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literature
- Christian Laporte: Albert II: First King in federal Belgium. Grenz-Echo Verlag, Eupen 2003, ISBN 90-5433-186-0 .
- Jo Gérard: Albert II. Et sa famille. Collet, Braine-l'Alleud 1993, ISBN 2-87367-020-7 .
- Fréderic Deborsu: Questions Royales: Le livre qui dévoile la vraie personnalité des membres de la famille royale. Comme jamais auparavant. 2012, ISBN 978-2-507-05099-3 .
- Thierry Debels: Albert II. Een biography. Manteau, Antwerp 2020, ISBN 978-90-223-3704-2
Web links
- Official website of the Belgian monarchy
- Literature by and about Albert II in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ La Libre.be: Le Roi limite l'octroi du titre de "prince de Belgique" . ( lalibre.be [accessed July 27, 2018]).
- ↑ Belgian King abdicates. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . 3rd July 2013.
- ↑ Silke Mülherr: Albert II., The symbol of federal Belgium. In: The world . July 4, 2013, accessed September 3, 2018 .
- ↑ Mario Danneels: Paola, van La dolce vita tot koningin . 1st edition. Van Halewyck, 1999, ISBN 978-90-5617-206-0 (Dutch).
- ↑ a b Belgium ex-King Albert II faces fine if refuses DNA test. BBC News, May 16, 2019, accessed May 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Delphine Boël finally wants to be a king's daughter. In: The world . June 18, 2013.
- ↑ a b Boël affair: Court of Cassation rejects King Albert's objection. Belgian Broadcasting, December 13, 2019, accessed January 27, 2020 .
- ↑ King Albert II is forced to take a paternity test: Does he have an illegitimate daughter? , haz.de of November 5, 2018, accessed ibid
- ^ Belgian ex-king Albert II refuses DNA test in love-child case. BBC News, February 1, 2019, accessed May 17, 2019 .
- ↑ Lawyer: King Albert did a DNA test. Belgian Broadcasting, May 28, 2019, accessed January 27, 2020 .
- ^ Albert II is the father of Delphine Boël. Belgian Broadcasting, January 27, 2020, accessed January 27, 2020 .
- ↑ Marc Uyttendaele, l'avocat de Delphine Boël, réagit: "La blessure affective, rien ne la pansera". RTL Info, January 27, 2020, accessed on January 27, 2020 (French).
- ↑ King Albert II: Trouble with million dollar apanage. In: Bunte . November 15, 2009.
- ↑ Koningshuis niet bespaart. ( Memento from January 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: De Morgen . December 29, 2010 (ndl.)
- ↑ The Belgian royal family doesn't have to save. In: Saxon newspaper . December 30, 2010.
- ↑ A new king of the Belgians. In: Euronews . 20th July 2013.
- ↑ King Philippe succeeds Albert II on the throne. In: Spiegel Online . July 21, 2013. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
- ↑ Belgium's royal family defends itself against alleged revelations. ( Memento from June 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Stern . October 31, 2012.
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Baudouin |
King of the Belgians 1993–2013 |
Philippe |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Albert II |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Albert Félix Humbert Théodore Christian Eugène Marie (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian king |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 6, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brussels |