Concept
Philippe or Filip (Filip Leopold Lodewijk Maria ˈfilɪp ˈleːjoːpɔlt ˈloːdəʋɛik maːˈrijaː; Philippe Léopold Louis Marie filip leɔpɔld lwi maʁi; born 15 April 1960) is King of the Belgians. He is the eldest child of King Albert II and Queen Paola. He succeeded his father upon the latter'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. Philippe was born on 15 April 1960 at the Belvédère Castle in Laeken north of Brussels. His father, Prince Albert, Prince of Liège (later King Albert II), was the second son of King Leopold III of Belgium and a younger brother of Baudouin. His mother, Paola, Princess of Liège (later Queen Paola), is a daughter of the Italian aristocrat Fulco VIII, Prince Ruffo di Calabria, 6th Duke of Guardia Lombarda. His mother descends from the French House of La Fayette, and the king is a descendant of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, and Marie Adrienne Françoise de Noailles. Philippe was baptised one month later at the church of Saint Jacques-sur-Coudenberg in Brussels on 17 May, and named Philippe after his great-great-grandfather Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders. His godparents were his paternal grandfather, King Leopold III, and his maternal grandmother, Donna Luisa, Princess Ruffo di Calabria. Albert and Paola's marriage was unhappy, and they were usually absent from Philippe's life. The child neglect was so severe that child psychologist Peter Adriaenssens described it as justifying intervention by social workers. Philippe has a half-sibling, Princess Delphine of Belgium (born 1968). He was also the fifth cousin of the late Queen Elizabeth II since they share a common ancestor, Francis (one of his sons, Leopold I would become the first King of the Belgians while his eldest son and successor, Ernest I is the father-in-law of Queen Victoria). As a child the future king was required to move from a French-language school which he liked to a secondary school in Flanders, where he found it difficult to make friends.
