Queen Mathilde of Belgium

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Template:Belgian Royal Family Mathilde Marie Christine Ghislaine d'Udekem d'AcozTemplate:Efn (Template:IPA; born 20 January 1973) 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.

Early life and family

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Jonkvrouw Mathilde Marie Christine Ghislaine d'Udekem d'Acoz was born on 20 January 1973 at Edith Cavell Hospital in Uccle, Brussels, Belgium.<ref name="tijd.be"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her parents are Count Patrick d'Udekem d'Acoz (1936–2008), a politician, and his wife, Countess Anna Maria Komorowska (b. 1946).<ref name="tijd.be">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="auto"/><ref name="britannica"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Mathilde has three sisters: Marie-Alix (1974–1997), Elisabeth (b. 1977, a speech therapist)<ref name="HLN">Template:Cite web</ref> and Hélène (b. 1979, a lawyer), and one brother Charles-Henri (b. 1985, a lawyer).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her godfather is her uncle, Count Raoul d'Udekem d'Acoz.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Mathilde grew up in the Château de Losange<ref name="frenchvrt">Template:Cite web</ref> in Villers-la-Bonne-Eau.<ref name="tijd.be"/> At the age of 17, she lived with her three sisters in an apartment at Boulevard Auguste Reyers, Schaarbeek.<ref name="vrt.be"/>

Education and career

Mathilde attended primary school in Bastogne and then attended secondary school at the Institut de la Vierge Fidèle in Brussels.<ref name="britannica"/> At the age of 18, Mathilde did voluntary work in the slums of Cairo for six weeks.<ref name="vrt.be"/> From 1991 until 1994, Mathilde attended the Institut Libre Marie Haps in Brussels, where she studied speech therapy and graduated magna cum laude.<ref name="britannica">Template:Cite web</ref> She worked as a speech therapist in her own practice in Brussels from 1995 to 1999.<ref name="auto"/> She also worked in several Brussels schools.<ref name="frenchvrt"/> She earned a master's degree in psychology at the Université catholique de Louvain in 2002 with honours (cum laude).<ref name="auto"/> Mathilde became the first member of the Belgian royal family with a Belgian university degree.<ref name="vrt.be"/> She also took a ten-day leadership course at Harvard University in 2011.<ref name="vrt.be"/>

Mathilde speaks French, Dutch, English and Italian.<ref name="vrt.be">Template:Cite web</ref> She is also able to speak basic Spanish.<ref name="vrt.be"/> Her mother, a member of the Polish aristocratic Komorowski family but who has lived most of her life outside Poland, did not teach her Polish, thinking that it would not be necessary. Therefore, she knows only a few words of Polish.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Marriage and children

Template:Main Jonkvrouw Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz met Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant while playing tennis in 1996.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In September 1999, the Belgian Royal Court announced the engagement of Prince Philippe to Mathilde.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Mathilde was presented to the press and public at the Castle of Laeken on 13 September 1999.<ref name="vrt.be"/> The announcement of Mathilde's engagement to the Belgian heir-apparent Prince Philippe came as a surprise to the country. Mathilde married Philippe on 4 December 1999 in Brussels, civilly at the Brussels Town Hall and religiously at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. Mathilde's bridal gown was designed by Édouard Vermeulen. She was made Duchess of Brabant and a Princess of Belgium on 8 November 1999 (published on 13 November 1999 and effective from 4 December 1999). The couple reportedly spent their honeymoon in the Maldives and India.<ref name="vrt.be"/>

Upon her marriage to Prince Philippe in 1999, King Albert II of Belgium elevated the d'Udekem d'Acoz family from the baronial to the comital rank, hereditary in the male lineage.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The couple have four children:

Princess Elisabeth, the couple's eldest child, is the first in line to the throne and ahead of her younger brothers and sister, who are second, third, and fourth in line to succeed, owing to a change in Belgian succession laws in 1991, allowing for the eldest child to succeed, regardless of sex.<ref name="monarchie">Template:Cite web</ref>

Queen Mathilde is a godmother to Princess Alexia of the Netherlands and Princess Isabella of Denmark.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Queen Mathilde is also a godmother to girls named Hyle-Mathilde Blakaj, Zaineb Tebbi and Madinah Mohammed Ibrahim, the seventh daughters of families from Charleroi and Ghent.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="vrt.be"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Belgian tradition stated that the seventh daughter from an uninterrupted line of girls has the privilege of asking the Queen to be her godmother.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Queen Consort

King Albert II announced on 3 July 2013 that he would abdicate in favour of Philippe on 21 July 2013.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Approximately one hour after King Albert II's abdication, Prince Philippe was sworn in as King of the Belgians.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Upon his accession, Mathilde became the first queen consort of native Belgian nationality. (An earlier Belgian king, King Leopold III, had a Belgian second wife, Lilian, Princess of Réthy, who was not given the title of queen). Their eldest child, Princess Elisabeth, became heir apparent and is expected to become Belgium's first queen regnant.

Activities

Queen Mathilde is involved with a range of social issues including education, child poverty, intergenerational poverty, the position of women in society and literacy.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref>

Since 2009, Queen Mathilde has been the honorary president of Unicef Belgium.<ref name="auto"/> She serves as the World Health Organization's Special Representative for immunization.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She also the honorary president of the Breast International Group, a non-profit organisation for academic breast cancer research groups from around the world.<ref name="auto"/>

She set up the Princess Mathilde Fund (now the Queen Mathilde Fund) in 2001, which promotes the care of vulnerable people and awards an annual prize for good works in a particular sector.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The sector changes each year: examples include early years education, women's health, and protecting young people from violence.<ref>KBS Template:Dead link</ref>

Queen Mathilde deploys the Queen's Charities to offer help to citizens who are struggling to cope with financial hardship in their daily lives and often turn to her as a last resort.<ref name="auto"/> The Queen is the honorary president of Child Focus, a foundation for missing and sexually exploited children.<ref name="auto"/>

Queen Mathilde is also a patron of the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, an international competition founded in 1937 as an initiative of Queen Elisabeth and Belgian composer and violist Eugène Ysaÿe.<ref name="auto"/>

In 2018, Queen Mathilde became the honorary president of the Federal Council for Sustainable Development.<ref name="auto"/> According to the royal tradition, Queen Mathilde became an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium.<ref name="auto"/>

Queen Mathilde is a member of the board of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. She was a United Nations Emissary for the International Year of Microcredit 2005, which focused in particular on financial inclusion and financial literacy. The Queen also attends the annual World Economic Forum in Davos.<ref name="auto"/>

Queen Mathilde was named a United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Advocate in 2016, promoting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (an agenda for global sustainable development).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Queen also presided at the ceremony awarding the King Baudouin International Development Prize. She also received an Honorary Doctorate from Hasselt University on 30 May 2023.

Honours

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National

Foreign

Arms


Alliance coat of arms of King Philippe
and Queen Mathilde
Dual cypher of King Philippe
and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians
Coat of arms of the House of d'Udekem d'Acoz
Coat of arms of Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz

Footnotes

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References

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