Princess Claire of Belgium, (born Claire Louise Coombs, in Bath, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, on 18 January 1974) is the wife of Prince Laurent of Belgium and is a land surveyor

Surveying

See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...

.

Biography

She is a daughter of Nicholas Coombs, a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

-born businessman, and his Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 wife, Nicole, née Mertens. Her family relocated to Dion-le-Val

Chaumont-Gistoux

Chaumont-Gistoux is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. On 1 January 2006 Chaumont-Gistoux had a total population of 10,926...

, near to Brussels in francophone Wallonia in 1977. She has therefore lived in Belgium since age 3.

Wedding and descendance

On 12 April 2003, she married Prince Laurent of Belgium, the second son of Albert II of Belgium

Albert II of Belgium

Albert II is the current reigning King of the Belgians, a constitutional monarch. He is a member of the royal house "of Belgium"; formerly this house was named Saxe-Coburg-Gotha...

. The civil ceremony was held at Brussels Town Hall

Brussels Town Hall

The Town Hall of the City of Brussels is a Gothic building from the Middle Ages. It is located on the famous Grand Place in Brussels, Belgium....

, and the religious ceremony at the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula. She was created a Princess of Belgium in her own right shortly before the ceremony, on 1 April 2003 and upon her marriage, she became Her Royal Highness Princess Claire.

The royal couple has a daughter, Her Royal Highness Princess Louise Sophie Mary

Princess Louise of Belgium

Princess Louise of Belgium born Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, 6 February 2004, is the first child of Prince Laurent and Princess Claire of Belgium. She is currently 13th in the line of succession to the Belgian throne.-Family:...

, who was born on 6 February 2004. On 28 June 2005, they announced that Princess Claire was pregnant with twins. She was expected to give birth in January 2006 but, following complications, she gave birth to Prince Nicolas Casimir Marie

Prince Nicolas of Belgium

Prince Nicolas of Belgium born Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, 13 December 2005, is the second child of Prince Laurent and Princess Claire of Belgium. He is currently 14th in the line of succession to the Belgian throne....

 and Prince Aymeric Auguste Marie

Prince Aymeric of Belgium

Prince Aymeric of Belgium , is the third child of Prince Laurent and Princess Claire of Belgium...

 on 13 December 2005.

Duties

Unlike her two sisters-in-law, Mathilde

Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant

Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant, DHS , is the wife of the heir apparent to the Belgian throne, Prince Philippe, Duke of Brabant...

 and Astrid, Claire has no defined official role, though she occasionally appears in public accompanying her husband, generally in support of environmental causes or animal charities. Princess Claire has been awarded the Order of Leopold. She is also a leading patron of the Brussels Choral Society, which sang at the religious part of her marriage ceremony.

Titles and styles

• Miss Claire Louise Coombs (1974-2003)
• Her Royal Highness Princess Claire of Belgium (2003–present)

In contrast to King Albert II's title, King of the Belgians, Princess Claire is called Princess of Belgium, not Princess of the Belgians, a title that does not exist. She received this title from the King ten days before her marriage, by Royal Decree of April 1st 2003 (entered into force on the date of the wedding, on 12 April 2003). This title is no longer automatic for a consort since a Royal Decree of 1991, abrogating the 1891 Royal Decree that provided this automatism.

Prince Laurent doesn't hold a personal title as younger princes used to in the past, such as Count of Flanders

Count of Flanders

The Count of Flanders was the ruler or sub-ruler of the county of Flanders from the 9th century until the abolition of the position by the French revolutionaries in 1790....

 or Prince of Liège

Prince of Liège

Prince of Liège was a substantive title awarded by King Albert I of the Belgians to his youngest grandson, Prince Albert, the present king Albert II, while he was third in line to the throne of Belgium, and used from June 7, 1934, until August 9, 1993. Since he became the King of the Belgians on...

. So she has no other title as a consort.

Belgian honours

(Orders) : Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold -

Foreign honours

(Orders) : Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown

Order of the Crown (Netherlands)

The Order of the Crown is a house order of the Dutch Royal House of Orange-Nassau. The order came into being as a result of Queen Juliana's reorganization of The House Order of Orange in 1969. The 18 classes of the House order were no longer felt to be appropriate in the ever more egalitarian...

 (2006) (Orders) : Grand-Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit  (Orders) : Grand-Cross of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique (2005)

External links

• Her official webpage at the official site of the Belgian monarchy