Fabiola de Mora y Aragón

She was the daughter of Don Gonzalo de Mora y Fernández y Riera y del Olmo, 4th Marqués de Casa Riera, 2nd Count of Mora (1887–1957), and his wife, Doña Blanca de Aragón y Carrillo de Albornoz y Barroeta-Aldamar y Elío (1892–1981), daughter of the 6th Marchioness of Casa Torres and Viscountess of Baiguer.

Her godmother was Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain.

Queen Fabiola was the fifth child and had six siblings.

One of her siblings was Jaime de Mora y Aragón.

She worked as a nurse in a hospital in Madrid and lived with her mother.

At the marriage ceremony in the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, she wore a 1926 Art Deco Tiara that had been a gift of the Belgian state to her husband's mother, Astrid of Sweden, upon her marriage to Leopold III.

Her dress of satin and ermine was designed by the couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga.

Fabiola Fernanda María-de-las-Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón (11 June 1928 – 5 December 2014) was Queen of the Belgians from her marriage to King Baudouin in 1960 until his death in 1993.

The couple had no children, as Fabiola had five miscarriages out of five pregnancies, so the Crown passed to her husband's younger brother, King Albert II.

Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón was born on 11 June 1928 in Madrid, Spain, at the Palacio de Zurbano, the main residence of the Marqués de Casa Riera.

On 15 December 1960, Fabiola married Baudouin, who had been King of the Belgians since the abdication of his father, Leopold III, in 1951.

Fabiola was a hospital nurse at the time of her engagement; Time magazine, in its 26 September 1960, issue, called Doña Fabiola the "Cinderella Girl" and described her as "an attractive young woman, though no raving beauty" and "the girl who could not catch a man."

On the occasion of her marriage, Spanish bakers set out to honour Fabiola and created a type of bread, "la fabiola", which is still made in Palencia.

The explorer Guido Derom named the Queen Fabiola Mountains – a newly discovered range of Antarctic mountains – in her honour in 1961.

She also has several varieties of ornamental plants named after her.

The royal couple had no children, as the Queen's five pregnancies ended in miscarriage in 1961, 1962, 1963, 1966 and 1968.

After the death of Queen Elisabeth, in November 1965, Queen Fabiola became the honorary president of Queen Elisabeth Music Competition.

Queen Fabiola attended the elimination rounds and the finals of each session.

Before her marriage, she published an album of 12 fairy tales (Los doce cuentos maravillosos), one of which ("The Indian Water Lilies") would get its own pavilion in the Efteling theme park in 1966.

During the 1990s, the Hospital Saint-Pierre in Brussels was important in matters around AIDS.

Queen Fabiola visited them in 1993 and embraced a patient.

She was one of the first public figures to do this.

In September 1993, she became the president of the King Baudouin Foundation, established in 1976 to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of King Baudouin's reign.

The foundation's purpose is to improving the living conditions of the population.

Queen Fabiola also founded the Social Secretariat of the Queen with the purpose to answering many requests for help.

She has supported study programmes aimed at prevention and treatment of dyslexia among children.

She established Queen Fabiola Fund for Mental Health.

The foundation's purpose is to help people with mental problems.

During her entire life, she devoted herself to causes such as young women prostitution, human slavery and people with disabilities.

Baudouin died in late July 1993 and was succeeded by his younger brother, Albert II.

Fabiola moved out of the Royal Castle of Laeken to the more modest Château of Stuyvenberg and reduced her public appearances so as not to overshadow her sister-in-law, Queen Paola.

Queen Fabiola received several humanitarian awards in her lifetime and was awarded the Ceres Medal in 2001 by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Every year, Queen Fabiola attend the Summit on Economic Progress of Rural Women at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

The purpose of the summit is to create a movement of first ladies to respond to the call for help from the deprived women in the third world.

Admired for her devout Roman Catholicism and involvement in social causes particularly those related to mental health, children's issues and women's issues, Queen Fabiola received the 2001 Ceres Medal, in recognition of her work to promote rural women in developing countries.

Fabiola openly spoke about her miscarriages in 2008: 'You know, I myself lost five children.

You learn something from that experience.

I had problems with all my pregnancies, but you know, in the end I think life is beautiful'.

She and Baudouin I called the miscarriages a chance to be able to love all children.

She was deeply involved with the upbringing of Prince Philippe and Princess Astrid.