by Susan Flantzer © Unofficial Royalty 2014
Queen Fabiola of Belgium; Photo Credit – www.telegraph.co.uk
Queen Fabiola was Queen of the Belgians from the time of her marriage in 1960 until the death of her husband King Baudouin of the Belgians in 1993. Doña Fabiola Fernanda Maria de las Victorias Antonia Adelaïda de Mora y Aragón was born to a Spanish aristocratic family in Madrid, Spain on June 11, 1928. Fabiola was the fifth of the six children of Gonzalo de Mora y Fernández, Riera y del Olmo, 4th Marquess of Casa Riera, 2nd Count of Mora and his wife Blanca de Aragón y Carrillo de Albornoz, Barroeta-Aldamar y Elío. Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain, a granddaughter of Queen Victoria, was her godmother.
Fabiola had six siblings:
- Doña Maria de las Nieves de Mora y Aragon married Alfonso Escrivá de Romani y Patiño, Count of Sástago, had seven children
- Don Gonzalo de Mora y Aragon, 5th Marquess of Casa Riera (1919 – 2006), married Doña Mercedes Narváez Coello de Portugal, had fourteen children
- Doña Ana Maria de Mora y Aragón (1921 – 2006), married Don Jaime de Silva y Agrela, 17th Duke of Lécera, had eigth children
- Don Jaime de Mora y Aragón (1925 – 1995), married Margit Ohlson, one adopted son
- Doña Maria-Luz de Mora y Aragón (1929 – 2011) , married Don José Maria Ruiz de Bucesta y Osorio de Moscoso, 13th Duke of Medina de las Torres , had three children
Fabiola trained as a nurse and worked in a Madrid hospital. She was fluent in six languages: Spanish, French, Dutch, English, German, and Italian. Fabiola was also the author of a children’s book Los Doce Cuentos Maravillosos (The Twelve Marvelous Tales), a book of 12 fairy tales, published in 1955 in her native Spain. The book was later translated into other languages and made into an attraction at a Dutch amusement park. See Unofficial Royalty: Queen Fabiola’s Indian Water Lilies.
On December 15, 1960, Fabiola married King Baudouin of the Belgians, who had been king since the abdication of his father King Leopold III in 1951 The couple married at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels, Belgium. Fabiola wore a beautiful Art Deco tiara, the Nine Provinces Tiara, that had been a gift of the Belgian people to her husband’s mother Princess Astrid of Sweden upon her marriage to King Leopold III.
Photo Credit – http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com
Unfortunately, King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola lost five children to miscarriages and upon King Baudouin’s unexpected death in 1993, his younger brother succeeded him as King Albert II. King Albert abdicated in 2013 in favor of his elder son King Philippe.
Queen Fabiola and King Baudouin; Photo Credit – royalementblog.blogspot.com
Queen Fabiola was active in a number of charities including:
- Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Music Competition
- King Baudouin Foundation
- Queen Fabiola Fund for Mental Health
On December 5, 2014, Queen Fabiola, aged 86, died at her home Stuyvenberg Castle in Laeken, Brussels, Belgium. She was buried with her husband at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, the traditional burial site of the Belgian monarchs.
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