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Wedding of Baudouin of Belgium and Fabiola de Mora y Aragón

The wedding of King Baudouin of Belgium, and Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón took place on Thursday, 15 December 1960. The couple was married first in a civil ceremony held in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace of Brussels and then in a Roman Catholic ceremony at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula.

Wedding of Baudouin of Belgium and Fabiola de Mora y Aragón
Date15 December 1960
VenueRoyal Palace of Brussels
Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula
LocationBrussels, Belgium
ParticipantsKing Baudouin of Belgium
Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón

Engagement

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King Baudouin and Doña Fabiola at the time of their engagement

The marriage of King Baudouin, who acceded to the throne in 1950, was of great interest to the Belgian people. Leo Joseph Suenens, Auxiliary Bishop of Mechelen, took matters into his own hands and sent Irish nun, Sister Veronica O’Brien, to find him a devout Catholic, Spanish, aristocratic wife. Sister O'Brien believed she found the perfect candidate in Fabiola de Mora y Aragón, who was then working as a hospital nurse.[1]

The engagement was announced on 16 September 1960 by Gaston Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium.[2] Afterwards, the couple met the press in the gardens of the Castle of Laeken. The news came as a pleasant surprise to the Belgian people, who were not aware the King and Doña Fabiola were courting.[3][4]

Pre-wedding celebrations

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Prior to departing Spain, Doña María del Carmen Polo y Martínez-Valdés, wife of Generalissímo Francisco Franco, presented Doña Fabiola with a strawberry leaf tiara, resembling a Ducal coronet, with interchangeable rubies, aquamarines and emeralds, on behalf of the Spanish government.[citation needed] The wedding attracted media attention, both in Belgium and Spain and abroad. In its 6 September 1960, issue, TIME magazine called Doña Fabiola the "Cinderella Girl" and described her as "an attractive young woman, though no raving beauty" and "the girl who could not catch a man."[5] Spanish bakers set out to honour the impending marriage by creating a type of bread called "la fabiola", which is still made in Palencia.

Two pre-wedding balls were held, the first on 13 December at the Cinquantenaire Museum and the second on 14 December at the Royal Palace of Brussels.

Wedding

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Cardinal van Roey conducts the nuptial mass

Civil ceremony

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Prior to the religious service, the couple were married civilly in the Throne Room of the Royal Palace of Brussels. The service was presided over by Albert Lilar, Minister of Justice, Lucien Cooremans, Mayor of Brussels, and a member of the Municipal Council.[citation needed] The witnesses were the groom's father, King Leopold III, his brother-in-law, Jean, Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg, the bride's brother, The Marqués of Casa Riera, and the pretender to the Spanish throne, the Count of Barcelona.[citation needed]

Religious ceremony

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The religious service was conducted by Jozef-Ernest Cardinal van Roey at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. Giuseppe Cardinal Siri read a personal message from Pope John XXIII.[6][better source needed]

As the King and new Queen left the cathedral Handel's Hallelujah chorus from Messiah was played.

Attire

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The bride's white silk and tulle gown, trimmed with ermine, had a high neckline, three-quarter length sleeves with a drop waist and a full skirt. It was designed by Cristóbal Balenciaga and had a 6 metres (20 ft) long train.[7] She wore the Art Deco diamond tiara given to her late mother-in-law at the time of her own marriage in 1926.[2]

The groom wore the uniform of a Lieutenant-General of the Armed Forces with the riband and star of the Belgian Order of Leopold and the collar of the Spanish Order of Isabella the Catholic.

Broadcast

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Radio-Télévision Belge (RTB) and Belgische Radio- en Televisieomroep (BRT) jointly produced the live television signal of the wedding that they broadcast in Belgium[a] and that was relayed to the broadcasters in the continent through the Eurovision network.[8] In Spain, Televisión Española (TVE) broadcast it live,[b] being their first live broadcast of an event in full received from abroad.[9]

Guests

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Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and King Olav V of Norway leave the cathedral following the wedding.

As a descendant of Christian IX of Denmark, Louis Philippe I of France, Miguel I of Portugal and Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Baudouin was closely related to most of the royals in Europe, many of whom were present at his marriage.

The groom's family

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The bride's family

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  • The Dowager Marchioness of Casa Riera, the bride's mother
    • The Countess and Count of Sástago, the bride's sister and brother-in-law
    • The Marquess and Marchioness of Casa Riera, the bride's brother and sister-in-law
    • The Duchess and Duke of Lécera, the bride's sister and brother-in-law
    • Don Jaime de Mora y Aragón, the bride's brother
    • The Marchioness and Marquess of Aguilar, the bride's sister and brother-in-law
    • The Count de la Rosa de Abarca, the bride's brother

Foreign royal guests

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Members of reigning royal houses

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Members of non-reigning royal houses

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Other notable guests

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Aftermath

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King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola on the balcony of the Royal Palace following their wedding.

King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola were married for 33 years. The couple had no children. Fabiola's five pregnancies ended in miscarriage in 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966 and 1968.[10]

King Baudouin died on 31 July 1993 at the Villa Astrida, Motril in Spain. Queen Fabiola died on 5 December 2014 at Stuyvenberg Castle, Laeken.

Notes

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  1. ^ Commented by Fernand Colleye [fr] in RTB.
  2. ^ Commented by Federico Gallo [es] and Eduardo Sancho [es] in TVE.

References

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  1. ^ "Queen Fabiola of the Belgians - obituary". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  2. ^ a b Pia, Isabelle (15 December 2021). "Baudouin et Fabiola de Belgique : mariage arrangé, mariage d'amour..." Point de Vue. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  3. ^ "KING BAUDOUIN TO MARRY". AP Archive. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  4. ^ "Baudouin Engaged 1960". British Pathé. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  5. ^ "BELGIUM: Cinderella Girl". Time. 26 September 1960. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  6. ^ "Royal Wedding (1960)". YouTube. British Pathé. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  7. ^ "Fabiola from Belgium. A royal wedding". Cristóbal Balenciaga Museoa. Retrieved 30 December 2021.
  8. ^ "Extrait du mariage de Baudouin et Fabiola". RTBF (in French). 15 December 1960.
  9. ^ Morales Pérez, Sonia (25 July 2017). "TVE desembarca en Europa con la boda real de Balduino y Fabiola". RTVE (in Spanish).
  10. ^ "Queen Fabiola of the Belgians - obituary". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
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