Queen Fabiola of Belgium

Palace of Zurbano, where Queen Fabiola was born

Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón was born in Madrid, Spain, at the Palacio Zurbano, the main residence of the Marqués de Casa Riera.[1] She was the daughter of Don Gonzalo de Mora y Fernández y Riera y del Olmo, 4th Marqués de Casa Riera, 2nd Count of Mora (1887–1957), and his wife, Doña Blanca de Aragón y Carrillo de Albornoz y Barroeta-Aldamar y Elío (1892–1981), daughter of the 6th Marchioness of Casa Torres[2] and Viscountess of Baiguer.[3] Her godmother was Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain.[3]

Queen Fabiola is the fifth child and had six siblings.[4] One of her siblings was Jaime de Mora y Aragón.

She worked as a nurse in a hospital in Madrid.[4] Before her marriage, she published an album of 12 fairy tales (Los doce cuentos maravillosos), one of which ("The Indian Water Lilies") would get its own pavilion in the Efteling theme park in 1966.[5]

Queen Fabiola during her state visit in West Germany (Munich, 1971)

On 15 December 1960, Fabiola married Baudouin, who had been King of the Belgians since the abdication of his father, Leopold III, in 1951.[6][7] At the marriage ceremony in the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, she wore a 1926 Art Deco tiara that had been a gift of the Belgian state to her husband's mother, Astrid of Sweden, upon her marriage to Leopold III. Her dress of satin and ermine was designed by the couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga. Fabiola was a hospital nurse at the time of her engagement; TIME magazine, in its 26 September 1960, issue, called Doña Fabiola the "Cinderella Girl" and described her as "an attractive young woman, though no raving beauty" and "the girl who could not catch a man."[8] On the occasion of her marriage, Spanish bakers set out to honour Fabiola and created a type of bread, "la fabiola", which is still made in Palencia.

The explorer Guido Derom named the Queen Fabiola Mountains – a newly discovered range of Antarctic mountains – in her honour in 1961.[9] She also has several varieties of ornamental plants named after her.

The royal couple had no children, as the Queen's five pregnancies ended in miscarriage in 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966 and 1968.[3] Fabiola openly spoke about her miscarriages in 2008: 'You know, I myself lost five children. You learn something from that experience. I had problems with all my pregnancies, but you know, in the end I think life is beautiful'.[10]

Queen Fabiola with Boudouin I, Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon on May 20, 1969.

Queen Fabiola during her state visit to Düsseldorf on April 28, 1971

After the death of Queen Elisabeth, in November 1965, Queen Fabiola became the honorary president of Queen Elisabeth Music Competition. Queen Fabiola attend the elimination rounds and the finals of each session.[4]

In September 1993, she became the president of the King Baudouin Foundation, established in 1976 to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of King Baudouin's reign.[4] The foundation's purpose is to improving the living conditions of the population.[4]

Queen Fabiola also founded the Social Secretariat of the Queen with the purpose to answering many requests for help.[4] She has supported study programmes aimed at prevention and treatment of dyslexia among children.[4]

She established Queen Fabiola Fund for Mental Health. The foundation's purpose is to help people with mental problems.[4] Queen Fabiola received several humanitarian awards in her lifetime and was awarded the Ceres Medal in 2001 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.[11]

Every year, Queen Fabiola attend the Summit on Economic Progress of Rural Women at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. The purpose of the summit is to create a movement of first ladies to respond to the call for help from the deprived women in the third world.[4]

Queen Fabiola during a visit to the Barcelona Cathedral in 2007

Baudouin died in late July 1993 and was succeeded by his younger brother, Albert II. Fabiola moved out of the Royal Castle of Laeken to the more modest Stuyvenberg Castle and reduced her public appearances so as not to overshadow her sister-in-law, Queen Paola.

Admired for her devout Roman Catholicism and involvement in social causes particularly those related to mental health, children's issues and women's issues,[12] Queen Fabiola received the 2001 Ceres Medal, in recognition of her work to promote rural women in developing countries. The medal was given by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). She was also honorary president of the King Baudouin Foundation.

In July 2009, the Belgian press published news of anonymous death threats she received stating she would be shot with a crossbow. She responded to the threats during Belgian National Day celebrations by waving an apple to the crowd in a reference to the William Tell folk tale.[13] Subsequent threats by an individual said to have a similar signature to the July 2009 threat-writer were received again in January 2010.[14]

The Belgian Flag Halfmast

According to official sources, Queen Fabiola was fluent in French, Dutch, English, German and Italian, in addition to her native Spanish.[17]

Queen Fabiola was hospitalised for 15 days with pneumonia beginning 16 January 2009, with her condition described as "serious".[18] She subsequently recovered and began attending public functions the following May. Queen Fabiola had been in poor health for years, suffering from osteoporosis, as well as having never fully recovered from a lung inflammation she had in 2009. On the evening of 5 December 2014, the Royal Palace announced that Queen Fabiola had died at Stuyvenberg Castle.[19]

The Royal coffin arriving at the Royal Palace

The federal government declared a period of national mourning from Saturday 6 December to Friday 12 December, the day when the funeral of Queen Fabiola took place at the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula in Brussels.[20]

The Royal Family, members of the government and the Lord Speaker received the coffin at the Royal Palace on 10 December where it was placed in the grand antechamber, where it was decorated with flowers and attended by an honour guard of generals, members of the King's Royal Military household.[21] Godfried Cardinal Danneels, Metropolitan Archbishop-emeritus of Mechelen-Brussels, celebrated the Requiem Mass.

Members of several royal families around the world including the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Empress of Japan, Queen of Denmark, King and Queen of Sweden, King of Norway accompanied by his sister Princess Astrid, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, Sovereign Prince of Liechtenstein, Empress Farah of Iran and Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand, attended the funeral. No members of the British Royal Family or the Monegasque Princely Family attended the funeral, leading to criticism by both Belgian and international press.[22]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Funeral of Queen Fabiola of Belgium.

• Belgian Vocation Foundation
• Queen Fabiola Foundation for Mental Health
• Queen Fabiola Mountains
• Indian Water-lilies

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fabiola de Mora y Aragón.

• Queen Fabiola – official website of The Belgian Monarchy
• Queen Fabiola: The Woman Behind The Hairdo – Website The Royal Universe