This September 22, 2024, Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz of Belgium celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. To celebrate their emerald wedding anniversary, the sister and brother-in-law of the King of the Belgians were able to count on their five wonderful children who had organized a surprise trip to Sicily for them. It was in Italy, a highly symbolic country for the family, that Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz celebrated their love, surrounded by their descendants.
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Children of Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz choose symbolic destination
On 22 September 1984, Princess Astrid of Belgium married Archduke Lorenz of Austria-Este in the Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon in Brussels. The bride was the niece of the fifth King of the Belgians, King Baudouin. In 1993, her father Albert became the sixth King of the Belgians and in 2013, it was the turn of his brother, Philippe, to ascend the throne. The groom, for his part, has a most prestigious royal heritage. Lorenz is the grandson of Emperor Charles I of Austria. Through his mother, he is also a cousin of the Kings of Italy. Astrid and Lorenz also have many ancestors in common, including the Kings of France, the Two Sicilies and Portugal.
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On the eve of their emerald wedding anniversary, this Saturday, September 21, Princess Astrid, 62, and Prince Lorenz, 68, welcomed the teams of Place Royale, a famous program dedicated to royal families on RTLtvi, to their home at Villa Schonenberg in Laeken. The princely couple spoke to Alix Battard, who was full of anecdotes and memories of their wedding. Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz also revealed the surprise their children had in store for them to celebrate this 40th wedding anniversary together.
If Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz were somewhat tanned to record this interview, it was because of their recent stay in Sicily. “It was a total surprise, organized by our children”explains Princess Astrid, still overcome with emotion from the surprise. The couple had five children. Prince Amedeo was born in 1986, a year and a half after their marriage. Princess Maria Laura was born in 1988, Prince Joachim in 1991, Princess Luisa Maria in 1995 and Princess Laetitia Maria in 2003. Prince Amedeo married Elisabetta Rosbosch von Wolkenstein in 2014 and Princess Maria Laura married William Isvy in 2022.
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Italy is the second homeland of the royal family
“They took care of the whole organization and we didn’t know until the last minute where we were going.”adds Prince Lorenz, amazed by the gift their children have reserved for them. “It was truly an unforgettable moment”insists the prince. The family therefore found themselves for four days in Sicily, Italy. Italy is certainly the most symbolic place that Astrid and Lorenz share. Princess Astrid is the daughter of King Albert II and Queen Paola, born Paola Ruffo di Calabria. Albert and Paola met in Rome in 1958, at an event organized for the election of Pope John XXIII. Paola, from the high Italian aristocracy, is the daughter of Prince Fulco VII, 6th Duke of Guardia Lombarda.
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Paola’s family was part of the ancient Roman patrician nobility, but it is in the south of the peninsula that she has her roots. Her father was born in Naples, where her grandfather was mayor in 1895. Paola’s mother, Luisa, was notably lady-in-waiting to the Duchess of Aosta, the second wife of an ancestor of Lorenz, and lady-in-waiting to Queen Helena of Italy. Lorenz, for his part, is a grandson of Emperor Charles I of Austria on his father’s side but a descendant of the Italian royal family on his mother’s side.
Sicily, the destination chosen by the children of the princely couple, is also a symbolic place, which unites the family history of Prince Lorenz and Princess Astrid. Indeed, Prince Lorenz and Princess Astrid are both descendants of King Louis-Philippe I of the French and his wife, Marie-Amélie of the Two Sicilies, daughter of King Ferdinand I. The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies was formed by the union of the Kingdom of Naples and the Kingdom of Sicily in 1816, forming a vast territory that covered the lower half of the Italian peninsula. The Kings of the Two Sicilies, of the Bourbon dynasty, lost their throne when the Two Sicilies were annexed to the new Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
Lorenz was the son of Archduke Robert and Princess Margherita of Savoy-Aosta. The Dukes of Aosta were cousins of the elder branch of the Savoy family that had produced the Kings of Italy. From 1861, the entire Italian peninsula was united into a single kingdom with a single sovereign at its head, King Victor Emmanuel II, previously King of Sardinia, from the Savoy dynasty that had reigned for centuries first over Savoy, then Piedmont, Sardinia and finally Italy. The younger son of Victor Emmanuel II would receive the title of Duke of Aosta, passed down from generation to generation within this cousin branch, while the King’s eldest son would succeed him as ruler of Italy.
Another important connection exists between Prince Lorenz and Italy. In addition to the family connection, there is a dynastic connection. Archduke Lorenz, who was titled Prince of Belgium in 1995 by his father-in-law, is also the pretender to the throne of the Duchy of Modena, a duchy that was independent until its annexation to the new Kingdom of Italy. The last sovereigns of the Duchy of Modena were members of the Austrian imperial family. After 350 years of rule by the Este family over the Duchy of Modena, the title of Duke of Modena passed through marriage to the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty in 1803. Archduke Ferdinand, son of Francis I of the Holy Roman Empire, became the first sovereign of Modena from the Habsburg-Lorraine family. He was succeeded by his son Francis IV and grandson Francis V, until the abolition of the duchy when it was integrated into the Kingdom of Italy. The title, meanwhile, continued to be passed down through the generations until Emperor Charles I, who bestowed it on his second son, Archduke Robert, Lorenz’s father. Prince Amedeo is Lorenz’s dynastic heir, and Archduke Maximilian is Amedeo’s dynastic heir.
Nicolas Fontaine
Editor in Chief
Nicolas Fontaine has been a copywriter and author for many Belgian and French brands and media. A specialist in royal family news, Nicolas founded the website Histoires royales, of which he is the editor-in-chief. [email protected]
