However, for almost a hundred years now, the official documents of members of the royal family still show “de Belgique” as their surname (without “de Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha”), which is normally a title and not a surname. For example, the children of King Philippe and Queen Mathilde were enrolled in school as Élisabeth de Belgique, Gabriel de Belgique, Emmanuel de Belgique and Éléonore de Belgique.
But that changed in the course of 2022, says Royal stories. Indeed, according to information from our colleagues, the members of the Belgian royal family were asked to go to the municipal administration to modify their identity papers and write “from Saxe-Cobourg” instead of the name. “from Belgium”. Prince Gabriel entered the Royal Military School (ERM) last October under the name of Gabriel Van Saksen-Coburg and not Gabriel of Belgium.
Prince Laurent, for example, is now also identified as Laurent Van Saksen-Coburg on official documents, or “Laurent de Saxe-Cobourg, prince de Belgique” on certain papers. His title – Prince of Belgium – is therefore no longer used as a surname. The same goes for the other members of the royal family who have used the surname “from Belgium” until now.