December Babies: Prince Joachim of Belgium

An often-overlooked Belgian royal celebrates his birthday today; Prince Joachim of Belgium turns 33 today.

Prince Joachim Karl-Maria Nikolaus Isabelle Marcus d’Aviano, Archduke of Austria-Este, was born on 9 December 1991 at the Saint-Luc University Hospital in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium. He is the third child and younger son of Prince Lorenz and Princess Astrid of Belgium.

He has one older brother, Prince Amedeo, one older sister, Princess Maria Laura, and two younger sisters, Princesses Luisa Maria and Laetitia Maria.

Joachim was educated in Belgium and the United Kingdom before attending university in Italy. He also undertook a voluntary Army training course and later became an officer in the Navy. The Prince later obtained a Master of Business degree from Harvard University in the United States. He speaks English, French and Dutch fluently. He also can speak Italian on a conversational level.

Prince Joachim does not represent the Belgian Royal Family at official events, and he works as the managing partner of Innesto Partners in Brussels.

A grandson of King Albert II through his mother, Astrid, Joachim is 11th in line to the Belgian throne. He was the first female line member of the Belgian Royal Family to have inheritance rights. Until 1991, women could not inherit the throne. That year, the laws of succession changed to absolute primogeniture, putting his mother, Princess Astrid, and her children in the line of succession. Joachim was born a few months after the change in law, thus making him the first royal from a female line to have automatic succession rights.