LATE QUEEN ASTRID.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 234, 31 August 1935, Page 10

LATE QUEEN ASTRID.

PRACTICAL TRAINING. LOSS TO BELGIUM. Born of a comparatively poor but Royal family, tho late Queen Astrid of Belgium, who was killed in a motoring accident, was tlio third daughter of Prince Charles, Duke of Vastergotland, and Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, and a niece of King Gustav V of Sweden. She was born at Stockholm in January, 1905. Her mother had original ideas, and the education of her daughters was on quite different lines from those usually followed in the case of Royal children. Princess Astrid and her sisters were taught to earn their own living, if necessary, for Princess Ingeborg considered nothing so insecure as the existence of a Royal dynasty. Their training included domestic science, and they had to go down once a week to the kitchen and cook the family's meals. They also had to supervise the household expenses, for strict economy had to bo practised, as the family was not rich. The girls learnt to make their own clothes, and even to launder them. All took a course of nursing, and had to spend four months as probationers at the hospital, where they were on the same footing as the other nurses, getting up at 5 a.m. and sweeping floors, etc. Princess Ingeborg was sent to Spa for her health, and took Astrid with her. They were invited to visit the Queen of the Belgians, who took a fancy to the young Princess, and thought she would be a suitable wile for Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant. In March, 192 G, he and his mother visited Stockholm incognito, and it was then that the young man first met Princess Astrid. They saw each other again at Luxembourg, to which Astrid went with her mother and sister for a christening ceremony. The Swedish princesses were invited to stay with the Belgian Royal family at their summer residence. and during the summer Prince Leopold visited Astrid's family incognito.

The betrothal was announced in September, 1926, and it was emphasised that it was based on warm mutual love. The wedding took place in November in two stages—the civic ceremony in Stockholm and the religious service in Brussels, for the bride was a Protestant, and the Prince a Roman Catholic. The honeymoon was spent in the south of France and in Paris, wliere the young people stayed in an hotel incognito as M. and Mine. L'osnuge from Mentone, seeing the sights like ordinary tourists, and sometimes taking supper in Montmartre. They had a great welcome homo to Belgium.