Queen Mathilde of Belgium and King Philippe of Belgium
You know I like to start off with the most dramatic photo. ANYWAY, the new King here went to Oxford and Stanford, and according to my sources (Wikipedia), neither he nor the new Queen have ever been involved with, say, a sexy drug dealer or have written a book about talking to trees. Unlike other members of other royal families across Europe.
Queen Mathilde of Belgium and King Philippe of Belgium
Judging solely from these photos, they seem sweet. They met playing tennis, and they apparently kept their relationship so secret that the official announcement of the engagement was a SURPRISE! And people speculated that it was an arranged marriage! But it wasn't. Also, she's pretty.
Queen Mathilde and King Philippe
This is very classy and appropriate.
King Philippe of Belgium and Queen Mathilde of Belgium
And this -- at some pre-event park-centric cheery celebration -- is totally cute AND she is wearing the kind of bracelet I long to see on so many others.
Philippe of Belgium and Mathilde of Belgium
This was another per-abdication event and it's also classy and appropriate. It's nice to see someone doing Classy and Appropriate without falling completely into the pit of Boring. Bonus points for her commitment to patterns.
Princess Claire of Belgium, Prince Laurent of Belgium, Princess Astrid of Belgium and Prince Lorenz of Belgium
Claire and Laurent are married; so are Astrid and Lorenz. "Lorenz and Laurent" sound like the Goofus and Gallant of Belgium, although Lorenz and Astrid are the Belgian royals (they're brother and sister; Laurent is just some rando Hapsburg archduke. Okay, I guess he's the big-wiggiest Hapsburg archduke, but I need a flowchart to understand how some of these European royals are interrelated. Remember when the Hapsburgs were a thing? Ah, the land of Olden). Anyway, they all look fine and seem to be having fun.
Additionally, Claire is a land surveyor (??!!?). Astrid used to be President of the Red Cross in Belgium, but apparently it's been beset with internal strife and she decided not to run for re-election. Belgian Red Cross Scandale!! The best kind.
Princess Claire
See? This is cute. Claire might be the fashion plate of this clutch of Royals. Maybe one of you Royal Watchers/Belgians can weigh in on this theory. (And on any SCANDAL I didn't uncover in my Wikipediaing.)
Princess Claire's hat
For example, this is a HAT and therefore I salute her.
Princess Claire of Belgium
And this color is awesome.
Princess Paola of Belgium, Princess Eleonore of Belgium, Prince Gabriel of Belgium,Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, Prince Emmanuel of Belgium and Prince Albert II of Belgium
Paola is the former Queen, and the current King's mom -- all these kids are her various grandchildren.
Paola's green dress is very snappy, and her father was apparently an Italian prince who was also an official "flying ace" in WWI, so probably somewhat dashing...although he then had a full-on nervous breakdown and later turned out to be a Fascist. She was allegedly a great beauty in her youth, per Wiki, and the experts at the Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor confirm this. She and the former King met when Pope John XXIII was being...Pope-ified, but apparently their relationship has been VERY up and down and they both had a ton of affairs and lived apart and almost got divorced, and, essentially, I want to watch the Lifetime movie of her life, as long as we get the flying ace/nervous breakdown/Fascism bits in there too.
Queen Paola of Belgium
Also, seriously, this dress is really lovely on her.
Prince Amedeo of Belgium and Princess Maria Laura of Belgium
Finally, because I know what y'all are most interested in, these are two of Astrid and Lorenz's kids, and it's possible that Amedeo might be hot (we have to keep on top of this sort of important info). Town and Country agrees with me, as they named him to their list of 50 Sexiest Bachelors this year.