Three Queens of Belgium: Queen Fabiola, Queen Paola and Queen Mathilde

Three Queens of Belgium: Queen Fabiola, Queen Paola and Queen Mathilde. From 2013 to 2014 Belgium was a unique monarchy with three living queens. Fabiola, the childless widow of King Baudouin, bore the title of Queen of the Belgians after the accession of her brother-in-law Albert II, while his consort Paola was called Queen of the Belgians. After Albert's abdication in favour of his son Philippe, Paola and Fabiola remained queens of Belgium, and the Belgian-Polish aristocrat Mathilde d’Udekem d’Acoz became Queen of the Belgians. It is curious that in her youth Fabiola had no need to share the title with a mother-in-law: Queen Astrid of Sweden had died 25 years before her accession, whereas her predecessor, the aged Queen Elisabeth of Bavaria, lived until 1965 and was accordingly likewise a second queen of Belgium during the first five years of Fabiola's reign

Report a translation error

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free. So, here is the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Three Queens of Belgium: Queen Fabiola, Queen Paola and Queen Mathilde

Read more

At the close of the Strugatskys' "Roadside Picnic" the Golden Sphere is asked for this: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to leave no one aggrieved, but the digest really does come free

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s