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Queen Elizabeth of Belgium

Elisabeth of Bavaria
ElisabethofBelgium.jpg
The Queen in 1920.
Queen consort of the Belgians
Tenure 17 December 1909 – 17 February 1934
Born (1876-07-25)25 July 1876
Possenhofen Castle, Bavaria
Died 23 November 1965(1965-11-23) (aged 89)
Brussels, Belgium
Burial Church of Our Lady of Laeken
Spouse Albert I, King of the Belgians
(m. 1900; d. 1934)
Issue Leopold III, King of the Belgians
Prince Charles, Count of Flanders
Maria José, Queen of Italy
Full name
Elisabeth Gabriele Valérie Marie
House Wittelsbach
Father Duke Karl-Theodor in Bavaria
Mother Infanta Maria Josepha of Portugal
Religion Roman Catholicism
Full name
Elisabeth Gabriele Valérie Marie

Elisabeth of Bavaria (born Elisabeth Gabriele Valérie Marie, Duchess in Bavaria) (25 July 1876 – 23 November 1965) was Queen consort of the Belgians as the spouse of King Albert I, and a Duchess in Bavaria by birth. She was the mother of King Leopold III of Belgium and of Queen Marie José of Italy, and grandmother of kings Baudouin and Albert II of Belgium.

Born in Possenhofen Castle, her father was Karl-Theodor, Duke in Bavaria, head of a cadet branch of the Bavarian royal family, and an ophthalmologist of recognized reputation. She was named in honor of her father's sister, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known as Sisi. Her mother was Maria Josepha of Portugal, daughter of exiled Miguel I of Portugal.

An artist himself, Duke Karl-Theodor cultivated the artistic tastes of his family and Elisabeth was raised with a deep love for painting, music and sculpture. At her father's clinic, where her mother assisted her father as a nurse, Elisabeth obtained exposure to productive labour and to human suffering unusual at that time for a princess.

In Munich on 2 October 1900, Duchess Elisabeth married Prince Albert, second-in-line to the throne of Belgium (after his father Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders). Upon her husband's accession to the Belgian throne in 1909, Elisabeth became queen. The city of Élisabethville, today Lubumbashi, in the Congo was named in her honour.

At the time that Albert and Elisabeth met, Prince Albert was the heir to his uncle Leopold II of the Belgians. Albert was the second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a sister of King Carol I of Romania.


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