Description
BELGIUM, Philippe, Count of Flanders, 50mm bronze medal 46.68 grams by J. Dubois
Obverse: bust facing right, S.A.R. PHILLIPPE / COMTE DE FLANDRE (Trans: H.R.H. PHILIPPE / COUNT OF FLANDERS)
Reverse: LES VERTUS / DE SA FAMILLE / SE REFLETENT / EN LUI / ET NOUS LE FONT / AIMER (Trans: THE VIRTUES OF HIS FAMILY ARE REFLECTED IN HIM AND WE DO LOVE)
Edge: NAT 1837 ORT 17 NOV 1905 has been crudely scratched into the edge. It does not impact the obverse or the reverse.
Prince Philippe of Belgium, Count of Flanders (1837 – 1905), was the third born and second surviving son of King Leopold I of Belgium and Louise d'Orléans. He was the brother of Leopold II of Belgium and Empress Carlota of Mexico.
Born at the Château de Laeken, near Brussels, Belgium, Philippe was created Count of Flanders on 14 December 1840. In January 1869, upon the sudden death of his nephew Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant, he became heir presumptive to the Belgian throne. In 1866, after the abdication of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Prince of Romania, Philippe refused being named the new Romanian sovereign, and the throne was later accepted by Philippe's brother-in-law Carol I. Earlier, he had also refused the crown of Greece, which was offered to him in 1862.
Philippe died in 1905. When his brother King Leopold II died in 1909, Philippe's second son ascended the Belgian throne as King Albert I.
