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| King Albert II of the Belgians |
While King Albert II of the Belgians was the reigning monarch and the head of state, he received an annual payment of £10 million to pay for everything in connection with his job. But how do you calculate the pension for a king in retirement? That was the unprecedented problem Belgian parliament faced when dealing with the abdication of their monarch. Belgium, until now, had no tradition of abdication, unlike the Netherlands.
Parliament decided that if they give him a place to live without rent, namely Palace Belvedere, he wouldn't need a lot of money. They spoke a rent of £680,000 per year, of which they take 25 per cent back as taxes. A palace still needs people to look after it, and all the wages for the staff has to come out of the pension. It is already clear that it doesn't work, and changes will have to be made.
King Albert II had reigned for 20 years in Belgium, taking over after the death of his brother King Baudouin. If it had gone according to the wishes of Queen Fabiola, she and Baudouin should have adopted Prince Philippe (now King of the Belgians) to cut Albert from the succession. Quite frankly, King Albert did a tremendously good job keeping a country together flying apart at the edges, something a young Philippe would have been hard pressed to achieve.
If King Albert and Queen Paola were not their sister-in-law's first choice, they did the country proud. While Albert was not always using the most refined tactics in bringing Belgian politicians to reason, he did it very successfully. Banging on the table in public or dressing them down like errant schoolboys was needed to bring them back to reality. Albert used a tone with politicians he would never address to his employees. But then, unlike employees, politicians are workshy, shady individuals scrounging from state and people, so his treatment of them was entirely appropriate.
King Albert took the unprecedented step of abdicating in favour of his son Philippe. The hand over took place in July 2013 and had to get around a few more snags to be made real. The Netherlands have a tradition of monarchs retiring and abdicating; Queen Wilhelmina started the trend when she abdicated in 1948 in favour of her daughter Juliana. She chose to revert to the title HRH Princess Wilhelmina, rather than having two Queens in the country. This system has persisted in the Netherlands.
In Belgium, the abdication of King Albert didn't change his title; this had to do with the fact that Queen Fabiola is still alive and nobody considered making her a Princess again, or ask Queen Paola to revert to the address princess while her predecessor retained the title of Queen. Complicated. Right now, Belgium has two kings and three queens including Queen Mathilde. Try not to mix them all up.
I have seen that Belgian Royal titles are always written wrong. My beloved Wikipedia is taking the lead in not having a clue, as usual. There is no King of Belgium, nor is there such a Queen. Philippe is King of the Belgians, and Mathilde is Queen of the Belgians. I hold little hope that the idiots writing for Wikipedia will ever straighten that out, its too complicated for them. Note, never trust anything Wikipedia tells you without checking it somewhere reliable first.
Further reading
The Queen Astrid Chapel
How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?
The Elect Circle of Elected Monarchs on Europe's Thrones
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