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Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant
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Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, Prince of Belgium (French: Philippe Léopold Louis Marie, Dutch: Filip(s) Leopold Lodewijk Maria), styled His Royal Highness (born 15 April 1960), is the eldest son and heir apparent of Albert II, King of the Belgians. 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 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 Belgian noble family, on December 4, 1999, and they have four children:
If Philippe assumes the throne, Princess Mathilde will become the first Belgian-born Queen Consort.
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
As differentiated from 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 I or, if he chooses, Leopold IV.citation needed
Ancestry
See also
External links
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