Philippe of Belgium

Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant (1859-1869) was the only son of Leopold II and Marie Henriette of Austria, and from his birth the heir apparent to the Belgian throne. Born at Laeken, he was given the title Duke of Brabant traditionally carried by the heir to the Belgian crown, and his arrival was celebrated as securing the direct line of the young dynasty. He died in January 1869, a few months before his tenth birthday. Because Leopold II had no other son, the succession moved sideways to the King's younger brother, Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and then to Philippe's son Albert I, a shift that determined the descent of every Belgian monarch since 1909.

Princess Stephanie of Belgium (1864-1945) was the third child of Leopold II and Marie Henriette of Austria. Born at Laeken, she married Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria in Vienna in 1881, becoming the prospective Habsburg empress, and the couple had one daughter, Elisabeth Marie. Widowed in 1889 when Rudolf died at Mayerling, she remained at the Austrian court until 1900, when she married the Hungarian nobleman Count Elemer Lonyay and in consequence lost her Habsburg rank and her father's favour. She spent the rest of her long life in Hungary, chiefly on her husband's estates, and published her memoirs in 1935. She died at the abbey of Pannonhalma in 1945.

Princess Clementine of Belgium (1872-1955) was the youngest child of Leopold II and Marie Henriette of Austria. Born at Laeken, she acted as her father's companion and informal hostess in his final years, and was for a long time refused permission to marry Prince Victor, Prince Napoleon, the Bonapartist claimant to the French throne, because of the diplomatic difficulty the match would cause. The wedding finally took place at Moncalieri in 1910, after Leopold II's death, and the couple settled in Brussels, where their two children, Marie-Clotilde and Louis Napoleon, were born. Widowed in 1926, she divided her later years between Belgium and the French Riviera and died at Nice in 1955.

Albert II (born 1934) was the sixth King of the Belgians, reigning from 1993 to 2013. The younger son of Leopold III and Astrid of Sweden, he was born at Stuyvenberg Castle in Laeken and spent part of his childhood in wartime captivity and then in Swiss exile. In 1959 he married the Italian noblewoman Paola Ruffo di Calabria, with whom he had three children: King Philippe, Princess Astrid and Prince Laurent. For decades he served as honorary president of the Belgian Office of Foreign Trade, leading trade missions abroad, before unexpectedly succeeding his childless elder brother Baudouin in 1993. His twenty-year reign covered repeated government crises and further federal reform. He abdicated on 21 July 2013 in favour of Philippe, and in 2020 legally recognised Delphine of Saxe-Coburg as his daughter.

Prince Alexandre of Belgium (1942-2009) was the eldest child of King Leopold III and his second wife, Lilian Baels, Princess of Rethy, and a half-brother of King Baudouin and King Albert II. Born at Laeken during the German occupation, he was educated in Switzerland, the United States and Britain and served for a time in the Belgian navy. Because he was born of his father's second marriage he stood outside the line of succession, and he kept almost entirely out of public life, working in business and later giving his time to charitable work in Belgium. In 1991 he married Lea Wolman, a marriage made public only in 1998. He died in 2009 and is buried in the royal crypt at Laeken.

Princess Marie-Esmeralda of Belgium (born 1956) is the youngest child of King Leopold III and Lilian Baels, Princess of Rethy, and a half-sister of King Baudouin and King Albert II. Born at Laeken and brought up at Argenteuil near Waterloo, she studied journalism and has worked as a journalist and documentary maker, publishing under the name Esmeralda de Rethy. She has written books on her father, on fashion history and on the Belgian royal family, and is best known internationally as an environmental and climate campaigner, taking part in public demonstrations and lending her name to conservation, biodiversity and women's rights causes. She lives in London and is married to the pharmacologist Salvador Moncada.

Princess Astrid of Belgium (born 1962) is the second child of King Albert II and Queen Paola and the sister of King Philippe. Born at Laeken and named for her grandmother Queen Astrid, she studied in Belgium and Switzerland and in 1984 married Archduke Lorenz of Austria-Este, who was created Prince of Belgium in 1995. The couple have five children: Amedeo, Maria Laura, Joachim, Luisa Maria and Laetitia Maria. She leads Belgian economic missions abroad on behalf of her brother, serves as president of the Belgian Red Cross, and has worked for many years on campaigns against anti-personnel landmines and in support of the Special Olympics. She stands in the line of succession to the Belgian throne after King Philippe's children.

Prince Laurent of Belgium (born 1963) is the youngest child of King Albert II and Queen Paola and the brother of King Philippe. Born at Belvedere Castle in Laeken, he trained at the Royal Military Academy and served as a naval officer. His public interests have centred on the environment and above all on animal welfare: he founded and chairs a veterinary foundation that works on animal health in Belgium and in developing countries, and he has campaigned on renewable energy, sustainable building and nature conservation. In 2003 he married the British-born chartered surveyor Claire Coombs, and they have three children, Louise, Nicolas and Aymeric. He remains in the line of succession to the Belgian throne after his elder siblings and their children.

Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant (born 2001) is the eldest child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde and the heir apparent to the Belgian throne. Born in Brussels, she is the first woman to hold the title Duke of Brabant, traditionally borne by the Belgian heir, and under the equal-succession reform of 1991 she is set to become the country's first queen regnant. She was educated in Brussels and in Wales, completed the officer training year at the Royal Military Academy, read history and politics at Lincoln College, Oxford, and went on to postgraduate study in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She carries out a growing programme of official engagements in Belgium and abroad, and is the elder sister of Prince Gabriel, Prince Emmanuel and Princess Eleonore.

Prince Gabriel of Belgium (born 2003) is the second child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde and the younger brother of Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant. Born in Brussels, he was educated in Dutch-language schooling in Belgium and then at school in Britain, before completing the officer training year at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, following a family tradition of military education that runs back through his father and grandfather. He stands second in the line of succession to the Belgian throne, after his elder sister, and takes part in the royal family's public appearances, including the Te Deum and parade on the national day of 21 July and the annual Christmas concert at the royal palace.

Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales (1796-1817) was the only child of the future King George IV of the United Kingdom and Caroline of Brunswick, and for the whole of her short life the heir presumptive to the British throne. Immensely popular with the British public, who saw her as a corrective to her father's unpopularity, she married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, the future Leopold I of the Belgians, at Carlton House in May 1816, and the couple settled at Claremont in Surrey. She died in November 1817 at the age of twenty-one, shortly after the birth of a stillborn son. Her death left the British succession with no heir in her generation and ultimately opened the way for her cousin Queen Victoria, while her widower went on to found the Belgian royal house.