[...] and the fact that they aren't as close geographically as, say, BeNeLux or the Scandinavian monarchies, [...]
I would be so surprised if the BRF think of that, anymore than they consider themselves Hanovarians or Stuarts.
House of Windsor - that's it.
If they don't have a very good reason to stay home (serious illnes of a close family member or something like that wich we don't know) this is a real snub ! And it is irritating that other royals are expected to show up with their most senior members as soon as there are an event in Britain but they can't show the same respect to other countries !!
I hope they haven't excused themselves with "scheduling conflicts" as Death never comes "scheduled" in nearly all other monarchies an Empress, Kings, Queens, Princes and Princess'es clearly were able to reschedule their agendas to attend the funeral of a woman styles Her Majesty and who was Queen of the Belgians for 33 years.
This decision is not of the Head of the Royal House, it is one state funeral, to be invited or not, depends on many factors,.....the first factor, is to receive the invitation( it depends relation between States). The second, is to accept the invitation,(it depends relation between States or other interests of the governments). It is not, if this monarchy is my friend or no, it is if my government authorizes me, to invite to this monarchy .
yes, this is a state funeral, you have to be invited.
Except for the fact that while they might technically be a part of the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, they haven't actually called themselves that for almost a hundred years. No member of the BRF who is currently alive has ever referred to themselves dynastically as anything other than a Windsor. On their Saxe-Coburg-Gotha side their closest mutual relative is the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saafield who was the father of Leopold I and Victoria, Duchess of Kent.
Although Leopold I's father is their closest relative on the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha side, the closest common ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II and King Baudoin is actually King Christian IX of Denmark, who was the great-great-grandfather of both sovereigns, making them third cousins.
Incidentally, the Belgian royal family doesn't use the name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha anymore either.
It is out of the question that a fellow reigning Royal House, neighbouring even, a fellow memberstate of the EU and NATO, has not received an invitation.
I think the Belgian Royal family and the British Royal family are not very close.
I don't think any King of Belgium was part of the order of the Garter.
The invite would have gone to the Foreign Office and they would determine the appropriate representation.
If the FO didn't want or require the presence of a member of the BRF than that's it.
The Foreign Office is clearly fine with being represented by the ambassador
I am very surprised that the Wessexes did not attend--or the Gloucesters or Kents....but if a State Funeral or a National Funeral requires an invitation...so many questions...
I have just telephoned the general enquiries number at Buckingham Palace who were unable to give me an answer (it was the switchboard lady who sounded quite nice) and they tried to put me through to the press office, but the rather un-enthusuastic women there said no-one was available to give me an answer.
I must say, I have no idea why no-one from the British Royal Family was able to attend Queen Fabiola's funeral especially seeing that representation from other royal families has been impressive.
People I've talked to on Twitter stress the same that when abroad it's the Foreign Office that has the final word and not the BRF.