Sister Veronica didn’t give in and is said to have eventually arranged for Fabiola to meet the King after an intervention by the papal nuncio. They met in Sister Veronica’s apartment in Brussels and a second time in Lourdes, France, at the beginning of July 1960. Baudouin and Fabiola spent their time talking, praying and walking along the streets of the little town. Three days after their arrival, they were driving to Tarbes, when Fabiola suddenly asked Baudouin to park the car along the side of the road where they prayed together, after which Fabiola turned to the King and said “Now it’s yes, and I will not look back anymore.” The shy Baudouin is said not even to have proposed.
The above stories, however, may be taken with a pinch of salt as they come from Cardinal Suenens. Fabiola kept quiet on the matter apart from saying that she refused Baudouin's proposals for a year. Even then, though, the proposal-not-a-proposal at the side of the road near Lourdes is apparently confirmed in Baudouin's diaries.
The Belgian Royal Coat of Arms has been dealt with in a previous Blog. Fabiola's Arms would appear to have come from both her parents as her maiden name is made up of de Mora from her father and y Aragon from her mother, in the traditional Spanish way. The second and third Quarters of Fabiola's Arms are certainly Aragon. The Inescutcheon would presumably be for Fabiola's father's title which was Marqués de Casa Riera.
Queen Fabiola is famous for eschewing orders and her list of honours is, relatively speaking, very short. Although invested with her adopted country's highest honour, the Order of Leopold, she never wore the Sash and Star. In fact, the only real sighting of her wearing anything of the sort was in 1971 when she attended the lavish celebrations for the 2500 years of the Persian Empire in Iran when she, amongst a host of royalty, wore the commemorative medal. Otherwise, her few orders were largely religious and Catholic and her Arms did not include the Chain of the Order of Leopold or any order. Having said that, to be fair, no member of the Belgian Royal Family, except for the Monarch, shows the Chain of any order encircling their Shield(s), except for on the Stall Plates of foreign orders abroad. |