Belgian Royal Escort

It also provides escorts for foreign visiting heads of state and ambassadors presenting their credentials at the Royal Palace in Brussels.

The Royal Escort is not a full-time unit but is brought together on occasions of major ceremony as noted above.

The Belgian monarchs have been accompanied by a mounted escort on state occasions since Belgium's independence in 1830.

After World War I the disbandment of the Civic Guard led to a suggestion that a separate mounted ceremonial unit be established but the proposal was left in abeyance until the Belgian cavalry was mechanized in 1938.

The full dress uniform of bearskin, black tunic and white breeches then adopted, and still worn, had been that of the mounted gendarmerie prior to 1914.