Prince Amedeo of Belgium

Prince Amedeo of Belgium, Archduke of Austria-Este (Amedeo Marie Josph Carl Pierre Philippe Paola Marcus Aviano; born 21 February 1986) is a member of the Belgian Royal Family. He is the heir to the headship of the House of Austria-Este, a cadet branch of the Habsburg-Lorraine, and is sixth in line to the throne of Belgium.

Birth and Family

Amedeo was born at the University Clinic St. Luc, Woluwe-St-Lambert, Belgium, the first child of Lorenz, Archduke of Austria-Este and Princess Astrid of Belgium. He bears the same given name as his paternal great-grandfather Prince Amedro, Duke of Aosta. His godparents are his uncle, King Philippe of Belgium and maternal grandmother, Queen Paola of Belgium.

Amedeo himself is godfather to his cousin, the Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant. Amedeo has one younger brother Joachim (b.1991) and three younger sisters: Maria Laura (b.1988), Luisa Maria (b.1995) and Laetitia Maria (b.2003).

Education Career

He undertook primary school and the greater part of his secondary education at the strict Jesuit school Sint-Jan Berchmanscollege (founded 1604) in Brussels, popular with Belgian aristocracy and royalty. He finished his secondary education at Sevenoaks School in Kent, England between 2001 and 2004. Having finished his studies in Sevenoaks, the prince spent a year in Belgium's Royal Military Academy. In September 2005 he began studies at the London School of Economics, where he graduated in 2008 with a "Bachelor of Science (BSc), Management," and took a sabbatical before entering professional life.

Prince Amedeo completed military service and is a reserve officer in the Belgian Army.

From July 2009 to June 2012, he worked for Deloitte in New York City as a business analyst from July 2009 to June 2011 and as a management consultant in strategy and operations from July 2011 to June 2012.

He worked as a research analyst intern at Accumulus Capital Management, LLC from August through December 2012.

During 2013 and 2014 he resumed his studies, obtaining a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at the Columbia Business School of Columbia University.

Thereafter he started to work as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company in Brussels.

Personal Life

On 15 February 2014, the Belgian Royal Court announced the engagement of Prince Amedeo to Italian journalist Elisabetta "Lili" Maria Rosboch von Wolkenstein.

Elisabetta was born in Rome on 9 September 1987, the only daughter of Italian film producer Ettore Rosboch von Wolkenstein (born in 1945), heir to a pharmaceutical fortune from his Austrian mother, and his wife Countess Lilia Smecchia, also a film producer. Elisabetta's godfather and uncle was the so-called "editor prince" Don Carlo Caracciolo, 9th Prince Castagneto and 4th Duke Melito, who with Donna Marella Caracciolo Castagneto, wife of Fiat tycoon Gianni Agnelli, are Ettore's half-siblings, all children of Don Filippo Caracciolo, 8th Prince Castagneto, Elisabetta's grandfather. Elisabetta's paternal grandmother, nee Elisabeth von Jaworski von Wolkenstein, was the one-year-widow of Italian Finance Undersecretary Nob. Ettore Bernardo Rosboch when her son Ettore was born to Don Filippo (Carlo and Marella Caracciolo were born of his only marriage to American heiress Margaret Clarke), this extramarital status excluding Elisabetta's father from inheriting the Caracciolo surname and titles. In 2008 Don Carlo left Elisabetta and her father US $1 million in his will. Through the Italian princely families of Caracciolo and Ruffo (to the latter of which Amedeo's maternal grandmother, Queen Paola, belongs by birth), Amedeo and Elisabetta both descend from Giuseppe Tiberio Ruffo, Count of Sinopoli (1627-1683), while through German princely dynasties their most recent common ancestor is Franz Albrecht I, Prince of Oettingen-Spielberg (1663-1737). Since 2009, Elisabetta has worked for Bloomberg News' cultural section.

The couple's wedding was celebrated on 5 July 2014 in Rome's Basilica Santa Maria in Trastevere, in the presence of the Royal Family of Belgium (with the exception of his great-aunt Queen Fabiola), as well as members of the cadet branches of the House of Habsburg, including the bridegroom's grandmother, Margherita of Savoy, Dowager Archduchess of Austria-Este, and members of other dynasties, including Princess Margaretha of Luxembourg and her husband Prince Nikolaus of Liechtenstein, Princess Beatrice of York and Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoleon. The couple were planning to relocate in Belgium after the wedding.

Although the engagement had been published on the Royal Family's website, no dynastic authorization for Prince Amedeo's marriage was published prior to his wedding, as foreseen in Article 85 of the Belgian Constitution. Speculation in the media included a commentator on the military parade for La Une who, on 21 July 2014 (Belgian National Day), alleged that no royal authorization was announced because the prince intentionally chose not to request permission to marry, and therefore Amedeo was no longer deemed in the line of succession. On 28 July 2015 Le Soir, along with other news media confirmed that Prince Amedeo had renounced his place in the order of succession because he wished to live an independent life, free of any official role. On 12 November 2015, however more than a year after the wedding, a royal decree expressing King Philip's retroactive permission for the marriage was gazetted in the Moniteur Belge.

Due to a royal decree issued by his uncle King Philippe to limited the number of family members bearing royal titles, their children would not be styled Prince/Princess of Belgium.

Succession To The Belgium Throne

In 1991 Amedeo obtained, along with his mother and younger siblings, succession rights to the Belgian throne. In 1993 his maternal grandfather acceded to the throne as King Albert II and he became third in Belgium's line of succession, following his uncle Philippe, Duke of Brabant, and his mother. Upon Philippe's marriage in 1999 the prospect of Amedeo inheriting the throne substantially diminished, and the birth of a daughter and dynastic heir to Philippe in 2001 dropped his place in the order of succession down to fourth and, eventually, to seventh, following the birth of Princess Eleonore, the youngest of Philippe's children.

The abdication on 21 July 2013 of his grandfather King Albert II of the Belgians promoted him to sixth in line to the throne.

Titles and Styles

21 February 1986-2 December 1991: His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Amedeo Marie Joseph Carl Pierre Philippe Paola Marcus Aviano of Austria, Prince Imperial of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia

2 December 1991-present: His Imperial and Royal Highness Prince Amedeo Marie Joseph Carl Pierre Philippe Paola Marcus Aviano of Belgium, Archduke of Austria, Prince Imperial of Austria, Prince Royal of Hungary and Bohemia, Prince of Modena

House: Austria-Este

Military Ranks

-2004-2005 Royal Military Academy (Social & Military Sciences)

-2005 Para-Commando Training: Parachutist Badge

-September 2005-September 2007: Belgian Land Component, Warrant-Officer as Candidate-officer (Adjudant Candidate-Officer), after his formation at Royal Military Academy

-September 2007: Belgian Land Component, Second Lieutenant (as a Reserve Officer) of the Regiment Carabiniers Prins Boudewijn-Grenadiers

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