Prince Laurent
| Prince Laurent | |||||
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| Born |
19 October 1963 Belvédère Castle, Laeken, Belgium |
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| Spouse | Claire Coombs (m. 2003) | ||||
| Issue |
Princess Louise Prince Nicolas Prince Aymeric |
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| House | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | ||||
| Father | Albert II of Belgium | ||||
| Mother | Paola Ruffo di Calabria | ||||
| Full name | |
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French: Laurent Benoît Baudouin Marie de Belgique Dutch: Laurens Benedikt Boudewijn Maria van België |
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Styles of Prince Laurent of Belgium |
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| Reference style | His Royal Highness |
| Spoken style | Monseigneur |
Prince Laurent of Belgium (French: Laurent Benoît Baudouin Marie de Belgique, Dutch: Laurens Benedikt Boudewijn Maria van België; born 19 October 1963) is the second son of King Albert II and Queen Paola, and younger brother of King Philippe.
Born in the Château de Belvédère near Laeken, Belgium, he was educated at the Royal Cadet High School and at the Royal Military Academy. He was promoted to the rank of Ship-of-the-Line Captain on 26 June 2004.
Prince Laurent is president of the Royal Institute for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and the Promotion of Clean Technologies and president of the Prince Laurent Foundation for the Welfare of Domestic and Wild Animals. As of 2008, Prince Laurent is an ambassador for Future Harvest, a Washington, D.C., based agricultural research association. His involvement with animal welfare and the environment, together with a relative lack of interest in , has caused him to be dubbed by elements of the popular Belgian press as 'écolo-gaffeur' (the eco-blunderer).
Currently, he is 12th in the Belgian line of succession, following Princess Laetitia, youngest daughter of his older sister, Princess Astrid.
Prince Laurent has been as high as third in line. The constitution was amended in 1991 to extend an equal right of succession to women who descend from the dynasty's founder King Leopold I and were born in a marriage which obtained royal assent (as that of Princess Astrid was deemed to have done pursuant to Title IX Article 1 of the constitution). Henceforth Princess Astrid preceded her younger brother in the line of succession, as do her dynastic descendants. Since then, Philippe married and has dynastic descendants who precede both Astrid and Laurent in the order of succession.
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