Date | 4 December 1999 |
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Venue | Brussels Town Hall and St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral |
Location | Brussels, Belgium |
Participants | Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant Jonkvrouw Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz |
The wedding of Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant, and Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz took place on 4 December 1999 in Brussels, Belgium. The civil proceedings were conducted at Brussels Town Hall while the religious ceremony took place at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. The wedding has been described as the social event of the decade within Belgium [1] and it was the last royal wedding of the second millennium. [2]
Philippe, then Duke of Brabant, is the eldest son of King Albert II and Queen Paola. [3] Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz is a descendant of Belgian and Polish nobility. [4] After the wedding, Mathilde became the duchess of Brabant and a princess of Belgium on 8 November 1999 (published on 13 November 1999 and effective from 4 December 1999). In 2013, Philippe and Mathilde became the king and queen of the Belgians. Mathilde is the first Belgian born queen in the country's history. [5]
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Philippe and Mathilde exiting the Cathedral of Saint Michel |
The first of the day's main events took place in the Gothic setting of Brussels Town Hall where Philippe and Mathilde contracted a civil marriage in the French, Dutch and German languages. [6] Mathilde's bridal gown was designed by Edouard Vermeulen. Philippe wore the uniform of a Belgian Air Force colonel.[ citation needed ] Thereafter the couple traveled to the nearby Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula to marry according to the rites of the Roman Catholic Church. An evening reception took place in the Palace of Laeken, a royal residence. [6]
The run up to the wedding was said to have led to widespread feelings of positive sentiment in Belgium, [7] with the potential for greater unity between the country's Dutch-speaking north and French-speaking south. [8] Around 50,000 people lined the streets of Brussels on the occasion of Philippe and Mathilde's wedding. [9] As many as 200,000 people had been expected but the lower numbers were perhaps on account of the bitterly cold weather on the day. [6] After the wedding, some popular culture academics commented that the wedding had had a unifying effect on the Belgian people as well as marking a new phase of positivity in the country. [10] The BBC, however, reported that academics and political commentators in Belgium deemed that the national rift was too great for the wedding to have much effect. [6]
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The monarchy of Belgium is the constitutional and hereditary institution of the monarchical head of state of Belgium. As a popular monarchy, the Belgian monarch uses the title king/queen of the Belgians and serves as the country's head of state and commander-in-chief of the Belgian Armed Forces.
Philippe is King of the Belgians. He is the eldest child of King Albert II and Queen Paola. He succeeded his father upon the former’s abdication for health reasons on 21 July 2013. He married Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz in 1999, with whom he has four children. Their eldest child, Princess Elisabeth, is first in the line of succession.
Princess Astrid of Belgium, Archduchess of Austria-Este, is the second child and first daughter of King Albert II and Queen Paola, and the younger sister to the current Belgian monarch, King Philippe. She is married to Prince Lorenz of Belgium, head of the Austria-Este branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and is fifth in line of succession to the Belgian throne.
Mathilde Marie Christine Ghislaine Countess d'Udekem d'Acoz is Queen of the Belgians as the wife of King Philippe. She is the first native-born Belgian queen, and has four children. She formerly worked as a speech therapist. She is involved with a range of organisations which address social issues including education, child poverty, intergenerational poverty, the position of women in society and literacy.
Amedeo of Austria-Este (Habsburg-Lorraine), Prince of Belgium, is a grandson of King Albert II of Belgium, and thus a member of the Belgian royal family. He is also heir-apparent to the headship of the House of Austria-Este, a cadet branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and is sixth in line to the throne of Belgium.
Robert, Archduke of Austria-Este, was the second son of Charles I, (beatified) last Emperor of Austria-Hungary, and Princess Zita of Bourbon-Parma. He was also known as Robert Karl Erzherzog von Österreich.
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Archduchess Mathilde Marie Adelgunde Alexandra of Austria was a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine as the daughter of Archduke Albert, Duke of Teschen. She was intended to become the Queen of Italy as the wife of King Umberto I, but her early death prevented the marriage.
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