Princess Elisabeth’s 10th Birthday

On May 07, 2001, Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde of Belgium officially announced the first pregnancy of Princess Mathilde (Image).

Their first child, daughter Elisabeth Thérèse Marie Hélène, was born on October 25, 2001 at 9:58pm at the Eramus Hospital in Anderlecht, Brussels. At birth, she weighed 2.9 kg (6.4 lb) and was 49.5 cm (19.5 in) long (Image). A week after she was born, Elisabeth left the hospital with her parents (Image).

Elisabeth is the oldest child of Crown Prince Philippe and Crown Princess Mathilde, and will be the first female queen regent in the 171 years of the Belgian monarchy. When Philippe was asked about the succession he said, “I hope that my daughter will be a great Queen, and first of all, a great woman.”

The little princess was baptized on 9 December 2001 in the chapel of Ciergnon Castle in the Belgian Ardennes, by Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels. Elisabeth’s godparents were the oldest son of Princess Astrid, her cousin Prince Amedeo of Belgium, and Countess Hélène d’Udekem d’Acoz, her aunt (Image).

Princess Elisabeth goes to school at Sint-Jan Berchmanscollege in Brussels (Image). It is the first time that a future Belgian monarch’s education has begun in Dutch. Her first day of school was on September 01, 2004 (Image). Elisabeth also attends dance classes conducted in Dutch at the Municipal Music Academy in Asse, in Flemish Brabant and has already attended several courses at the Children’s University in Leuven.

Despite her young age, the Princess has already accompanied her parents during some official events. Her first royal duty was in 2006 when she attended the Te Deum in honour of Belgian National Day (Image). In 2007, she opened the Science Museum Technopolis in Mechelen (Image). In 2008, she attended the presentation at the Royal Palace of a model of the Belgian Antarctic station which bears her name, the Princess Elisabeth Base (Image). This year she delivered her first speech when she opened the children’s hospital ‘Princess Elisabeth’ in Ghent (Image).

To mark her tenth birthday, a series of portraits of the Princess and her parents were released by the Belgian Royal Court (Images).

Filed under Belgium
Tagged Biography, Birthday, Portraits, The Duchess of Brabant.