Belgian Royals in books and other publications

[kate2]

Some of those are really beautifull! Thank you Stephanievl for posting them!

 

[thedittybopper]

On the occasion of their 10th wedding anniversary they celebrate in December, the Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde of Belgium have opened their doors to photography Olivier Pollet.

Album de photos du prince Philippe et la princesse Mathilde en famille | Noblesse & Royautés

 

[stephanievl]

http://img265.imageshack.us/i/livre21.jpg/
http://img217.imageshack.us/i/livre3.jpg/
http://img527.imageshack.us/i/livre4.jpg/

 

[ChantalC]

Awww, the children are so adorable and sweet in the pictures. Thank you for posting the wonderful pictures, Stephanievl.

 

[leanne]

This wonderful book will certainly not be available in Australia, so I will have to purchase from overseas.
Would someone be able to post the ISBN number and/or the publisher??

 

[stephanievl]

Previeuw about the book 10 years Philippe and Mathilde
Philippe & Mathilde - 10 ans

 

[episcogal]

Weekly magazine HUMO had an interesting article on Queen Fabiola last week, they interviewed several people close to her, among the Benoit Carbon de Lichtbuer (former secretary of the Queen), Luc Tayart de Borms (of the King Boudewijn foundation), Claude de Valkeneel (worked at the court for 30 years)and 3 anonimous people. This week they had only the first part and next week a second part will follow (don't know if there will be more).

I will post some information from the article in this thread.

Take a look at part of the HUMO article here, at the website of the magazine.

Is HUMO some type of tabloid press? That is a remarkably poor piece of "journalism". Unfortunately, I am unable to read it as it is no long posted, but just going on the information provided by dear Marengo, I will say that it is laughable. It is tough to take anything seriously that an outfit like that writes when they seek to speak with authority by using "inside" people, most probably just administrative or court help.

I especially love these points:

1) Baudouin wanted to be in a monastery.
He absolutely did not. He wanted a wife - a traditional wife and a traditional life. He didn't consider a secluded life of a religious. He was ALREADY secluded and hated being so. Everyone could tell by his face that he was miserable. There is absolutely no logic in that assertion.

2) Fabiola was "barren" and "infertile".
This is the real kicker that I love. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I feel embarrassed needing to remind the journalistic folks of such a basic concept and definition of infertility. Infertile means you can not achieve pregnancy. Fabiola was pregnant FIVE TIMES. The woman was fertile as can be. How many times must a woman be pregnant to avoid the label of infertile?

The absurdity that Liliane had a letter saying Fabiola didn't get her period and was infertile is so laughable that I can't imagine any journalist trying to hoist that idiocy over on readership. Liliane was just about the LAST person to find out that not only was Baudouin in love with a woman, but he was engaged to her and to be married in a few short months.

This is another point that bleeds into point number three, and that is the notion that Baudouin was continually influenced over the course of his life by anyone and everyone around him. This just does not bare out as correct based on his actions. He was his own man. Yes, he was very dutiful, but he was not one to bow and scrape to anyone, even his father. He told his father exactly the same information about Fabiola that he told Liliane and everyone else....NOTHING. Does it then make sense to believe that his father was really the one in charge and Baudouin was overwhelmed by the power of his father's personality?

You know, the business of outsiders blaming Fabiola for the couple's childlessness is cruel and unconscionable. Again, I have to wonder how it is journalists or palace "insiders" feel confident or even suitably emboldened to testify about the queen's personal medical situation.

I certainly don't know anything more about the details than what Fabiola said in 2008. I do know that often a natural abortion/miscarriage is triggered as the body's fail-safe way of stopping a non-viable baby. Most often, this is manifested due to chromosomal insufficiency or abnormalities. The baby receives chromosome material and markers from both parents. This is how diseases get passed down from generation to generation.

I don't know if journalists were aware of it, but Baudouin had Barlow Syndrome. His physical characteristics are classic for Barlow and Marfan. Tall, extremely slender, elongated features, requiring corrective lenses for sight... Another system impacted by Marfan is is the skeletal system. As people age, material around the skeleton deteriorates and leads to back pain. Baudouin suffered bad back-pain later in life that he attributed to golfing.

One of the most serious complication is mitral valve prolapse, which Baudouin suffered from. Surgery was performed on him in 1990 in an attempt to fix the valve. Until the last 20 years or so, this often meant a patient's life span could be cut by a quarter or even a third. There is an increase frequency of sudden cardiac failure in Marfan patients with valve problems - even if they've been operated on.

You know, his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth died of heart failure. His father, Leopold III died of a heart attack. His brother, Alexander, required heart surgery to correct a defect during his youth.

All of this makes me wonder, if each time Fabiola conceived, could there have been a chromosomal abnormality that triggered a miscarriage? It is exceedingly rare that a woman who has multiple miscarriages (3 or more) continues to have miscarriages. Statistically, after a miscarriage a woman has about a 65% chance of carrying the next baby to term. And yet Fabiola had miscarriage after miscarriage after miscarriage. She was checked by renowned Swiss doctors, so one might infer that she did not have a physical abnormality, which would have been seen and diagnosed by those physicians.

That leaves us back at chromosomal abnormality possibly being in play - in this case, each time you're still working from affected genetic material which could possibly encode the child's chromosomes incorrectly - thus triggering a another miscarriage.

I would love to ask the journalists this: Wouldn't it be interesting indeed to find out that perhaps the baby was being lost by Baudouin's compromised chromosomal biologic material? Now wouldn't that just be interesting? Not an issue of everyone supposedly knowing whether Fabiola menstruates or not. Not an issue of Fabiola being guilty of knowing she had infertility and needing to sacrifice her marriage to go to a convent releasing Baudouin to marry again in order to gain an heir. Not an issue of Fabiola being "barren". Not even an issue of any kind dealing with Fabiola.

Now wouldn't that just be interesting?

3) Fabiola "influenced" Baudouin on the abortion abdication.
I personally believe that Baudouin had a very stubborn side. He had quite a deliberate resolute character. He took things in his life at his OWN time and pace. He walked deliberately, he spoke deliberately and he acted deliberately. He was not the type of person who ever felt the compulsion to fill every moment of silence with a deed or random meaningless chatter. He was very resolute in his beliefs and was not swayed or cajoled into changing position.

During the Congo push for independence, Baudouin made a speech to the Congolese people when in Leopoldville in 1959. There was already chaos and violence in the streets of Kinshasa. Baudouin wanted to pay respects at the big monument to Leopold II but the Congolese leadership told him no due to his speech flaring the street violence. He was indignant and insisted - so they waited until the absolute end of the day and he was able to visit the monument.

The miscarriages did not push him into refusing the royal ascent of the 1990 abortion liberalization bill. At best it was tangentially related. At the time Baudouin and Fabiola hosted 700 children at Laeken and announced they would be welcoming all Belgium's children into their hearts, Baudouin had a remarkable interaction with some handicapped children. As he was passing a basket of treats to one child, before the child took one for herself, she painstakingly passed one treat to each child present. This single event impressed on his heart forever the value of each and every human life, no matter how different or impaired another human might be.

At the time of the 1990 abortion controversy, Baudouin wrote in his diary that if he gave royal ascent to that bill, he did not know how he would be able to meet his Lord after affirming the legalization of the destruction of life. It didn't have to do with Fabiola. It didn't have to do with the Roman Catholic Church pressuring him. It had to do with his personal relationship with his God. He was not a wishy-washy man - he was firm in his beliefs and steadfast to his faith.

I'd really welcome a journalist for once doing some real research rather than lazily relying on gossip from a pseudo-"insider" commentator. We deserve more. Certainly Baudouin deserves more.