Prince Gabriel graduates from Belgium's Royal Military Academy — and joins the armed forces
Prince Gabriel of Belgium graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Brussels on 28 August 2026, receiving a master's degree in Social and Military Sciences after three years of training (Hello!).
King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and Crown Princess Elisabeth accompanied him at the ceremony, which honoured graduates from the 176th Polytechnic Class, the 162nd Class in Social and Military Sciences, and several classes from the Special Division (Hello!).
The Belgian royal palace confirmed that Prince Gabriel will now join the armed forces as a professional soldier — a first for his family (Hello!). Until this year, that path was legally closed to royals. In May 2026, the Belgian Council of Ministers approved a legal amendment allowing members of the royal family to pursue a paid professional military career, clearing the way for Gabriel's commission (Hello!).
His next posting takes him to the Infantry School in Arlon, where he will learn to command an infantry platoon. After that, he undergoes paratrooper — or paracommando — training at Marche-les-Dames and Schaffen (Hello!).
Gabriel, who is 23, completed a bachelor's degree at the academy in June 2025 before progressing to the master's programme (monarchie.be). During his studies he also spent six months on an Erasmus exchange at the Military Academy of Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan in France (monarchie.be).
His older sister, Crown Princess Elisabeth, walked the same academy stage in 2023 before moving on to study at Oxford and Harvard (Hello!). The royal family's military tradition now runs through two generations of the current line.
What makes Gabriel's graduation stand out is the paperwork behind it. A royal taking a commission is one thing; a government changing the law so that a royal can draw a military salary is another. The Council of Ministers' amendment in May was the quiet mechanism that turned a ceremonial family milestone into a professional career — and it landed just three months before the graduation it was designed to enable.
