King Albert's Farewell

On his last night as King of the Belgians, Albert II addressed his subjects, urging them to support their new King Philippe and Queen Mathilde. (There's a silly mistake in the Telegraph article, though; Albert II is hardly the first Belgian king to abdicate, since his father Leopold III did so in 1951, not exactly ancient history.)

I'm contemplating tomorrow's Belgian royal transition with some emotion, as Albert II becomes the first European hereditary monarch of whose reign I can remember both the beginning (twenty years ago as a 15-year-old already-royalist student at Point CounterPoint chamber music camp in Vermont) and the end (as a 35-year-old member of the Dallas Symphony), and Philippe becomes the first European monarch I have met (in 2000 in New York City).

Leve de Konig! Vive le Roi!