Belgium on Friday laid to rest its much-loved former queen Fabiola, the widow of the popular King Baudoin, in a rain-lashed funeral ceremony attended by royals from across Europe and Asia. Japan's Empress Michiko, Denmark's Queen Margrethe, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Thai Crown Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn were among the mourners for the 86-year-old, who died a week ago.
Soldiers on horseback accompanied the hearse that took Fabiola's flag-draped coffin to the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula in Brussels for the funeral service, before she was buried in the crypt at the royal church in Laeken. "King Baudoin and Queen Fabiola never stopped searching for peace," Princess Elisabeth, the 13-year-old heir to Belgium's current King Philippe, said in a speech at the funeral that she delivered in both French and Flemish.
Fabiola's death sparked a week of national mourning in Belgium, where the devout Catholic was seen as a unifying force in a country deeply divided between the two linguistic communities. Fabiola, who was born Dona Fabiola de Mora y Aragon on June 11, 1928 in Madrid into an aristocratic Spanish family, was the fifth queen of the Belgians from her marriage in 1960 until Baudouin's death in 1993. She was best remembered for bringing a much-needed spark to Baudouin, the "lonely king". They had no children.
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