Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant
Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant (; ; born 25 October 2001) is the heir apparent to the Belgian throne. The eldest child of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, she acquired her position after her grandfather King Albert II abdicated in favour of her father on 21 July 2013. Birth. The first child of the then Duke and Duchess of Brabant, Elisabeth was delivered by Caesarean section at 21:58 CET on 25 October 2001 at the Erasmus Hospital, the teaching hospital of Université libre de Bruxelles in Anderlecht, Brussels. She was baptized on 9 December 2001 in the  chapel of Ciergnon Castle in the Belgian Ardennes, by Cardinal Godfried Danneels, the Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels. Her godparents are Archduke Amedeo of Austria-Este (paternal cousin), and Countess Hélène d'Udekem d'Acoz (maternal aunt). Life and education. Elisabeth studied at St John Berchmans College in the Marollen district of Brussels, which had been attended by her older cousins, the children of her paternal aunt, Princess Astrid of Belgium. This is a significant change in the habits of the royal family, as it is the first time that a future Belgian monarch's education has begun in Dutch. In 2018, she  continued her secondary education at UWC Atlantic College in Wales and received her International Baccalaureate Diploma in 2020. She also attended the Yale Young Global Scholars Program at Yale University. After her secondary school graduation in 2020, she spent a year at the Royal Military Academy Belgium in Brussels, studying Social and Military Sciences. She began studying history and politics at Lincoln College, University of Oxford in October 2021. Elisabeth speaks Dutch, French, German and English. Activities. Elisabeth's first public appearance was on 21 July 2006, when she accompanied her parents during a Te Deum for National Day celebrations  in the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula. A year later, on 13 June 2007, Princess Elisabeth and her parents attended the opening of a new Technopolis youth interactive at Mechelen. In 2009, Elisabeth gave her name to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station, a Belgian scientific polar research station. In September 2011, the nine-year-old princess gave her first public speech (in Dutch) at the opening of Princess Elisabeth Children’s Hospital, part of Ghent University Hospital in Ghent. She gave her first official speech in 2014 during commemorations of the centenary of the outbreak of World War  I. Princess Elisabeth became godmother of a patrol vessel named "Pollux P902" on 6 May 2015 in Zeebrugge. In June 2019, the Duchess of Brabant and her mother traveled to Kenya for the United Nations Children’s Fund, where they visited the Kakuma refugee camp. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Princess Elisabeth had conversations over the phone with elderly people in residential care centers in order to encourage and support them. On 21 July 2021, she was among the fellow students of the Royal Military Academy Belgium to parade during the Belgian National Day. Elisabeth volunteers to help children with learning  difficulties, the elderly, the homeless and people with a handicap. Position. Ten years prior to Elisabeth's birth, a new act of succession was put into effect which introduced absolute primogeniture, meaning that she comes first in the line of succession because she is the eldest child. On 21 July 2013, once Elisabeth’s father had taken the oath of office as King of the Belgians (his father, King Albert II, having abdicated shortly before), she became heir apparent to the throne and as such bears the title of Duchess of Brabant. If she ascends to the throne as expected , she will be Belgium's first female monarch.