Monarch Profile: King Leopold III of the Belgians

The first King of the Belgians to ever abdicate his throne was born Leopold Philippe Charles Albert Meinrad Hubertus Marie Miguel, Prince of Belgium, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in Brussels on November 3, 1901 to then Prince Albert of Belgium and his wife Princess Elisabeth of Bavaria, the first of their three children. Within ten years the couple would be King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians and little Prince Leopold would be heir-to-the-throne as Duke of Brabant. The royal couple were attentive to all their children but onlookers surmised that Prince Leopold was the darling of his mother and both parents took care to impress upon them a sense of duty, compassion and religious devotion. All would be tested with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 when Belgium was invaded by the Germans. It was the most dire crisis Belgium had faced since winning independence, the very existence of Belgium hanging in the balance and Prince Leopold was determined, even as a very young man (a boy practically) to do his part. The King and Queen were naturally reluctant but at a time when all Belgians were making every sacrifice to save their country, how could they refuse?

So, while King Albert commanded the army and Queen Elisabeth tended the wounded, Prince Leopold served at the front as a regular soldier with the 12th Regiment of the Line (which is today named after Leopold and the oldest Belgian regiment still in service). Yet, Prince Leopold, unlike other soldiers, would be a king one day and had to be prepared so in 1915 he was sent to Britain to attend Eton College. After the war was won and the fighting ended the young Duke of Brabant continued his education at St Anthony Seminary in Santa Barbara, California in the United States. After finishing his education he returned home and a few years later met the stunning Princess Astrid of Sweden at a ball. The niece of King Gustav V, she was a famous beauty with kind eyes and a heart to match. A full blown romance came quickly and in 1926 the two were married in civil and religious ceremonies in Stockholm and Brussels. Leopold and Astrid were the “it” couple of the day, the handsome young prince and his beautiful, delicate princess captured hearts wherever they went. Princess Astrid, a Lutheran who took religion very seriously, converted to Catholicism after their marriage.

Their union was a very happy one and a year later their first child, Princess Josephine-Charlotte was born, followed by a son and heir, Prince Baudouin, in 1930 and another future King, Prince Albert, in 1934. Earlier that year, King Albert I had died tragically in a mountain-climbing accident in the Ardennes and the grieving young prince was sworn in as His Majesty Leopold III, King of the Belgians. Thoughtful, eager and determined he set out to be the best monarch he could but already tragedy was stalking him. In summer the following year the much beloved Queen Astrid died in an automobile accident while on vacation in Switzerland. King Leopold III, having his beloved wife torn from him, had to face the future as a single parent while also being the new monarch of a country beset by many problems with the rise of extremist and revolutionary parties that would soon lead to World War II. Leopold III tried to be the best king and father he could be but he often seemed to have little support. He often clashed with his ministers as the first tensions began to rise between the two language communities in Belgium. Putting their own careers first, the politicians were often at odds with the King who looked out for the welfare of Belgium as a whole.

The biggest crisis of all, of course, was World War II and here King Leopold III has suffered the most unfair criticism. He was as alarmed as anyone by the rise of the aggressive Nazi Party in Germany, the rearmament and expansion but he also realized that the more powerful Allied nations such as Britain and France were not prepared to do anything about it. Once this became clear the King tried to avert disaster by returning to the original Belgian policy of neutrality in the hope that his country could avoid a repeat of 1914. As we know, this was not to be and the King of the Belgians again had to take to the field in command of his army to try to fend off a German invasion. These were not the Kaiser’s troops Belgium was facing this time though and all the Low Countries were invaded in a crushing blitzkrieg which the veteran German forces had perfected in the conquest of Poland.

As it happened, Belgium held out longer than any of her neighbors. Tiny Luxembourg was occupied in a day, the Netherlands fell after four days but Leopold III and the Belgians held out for eighteen before finally being totally cut off and faced with total annihilation. The King was forced to make the difficult decision of surrendering his army. The Belgian government, with whom he was not on good terms, quickly fled across the Channel to Britain but Leopold III decided to remain in Belgium and face the uncertain future alongside his people in the hope that his presence might be able to help them in some way. This infuriated his government but comforted his people during the dark days of the occupation. Some went so far as to accuse the King of being a collaborator but nothing could be further from the truth. He was a prisoner of war, kept under a close watch by the Nazi authorities while the fate of Belgium as a country remained in limbo. Leopold III had one meeting with Adolf Hitler in which he tried to gain some assurance that Belgium would continue to exist but nothing concrete was ever determined. Emotionally, it was a crushing period for the lonely, isolated prisoner-king. Finally, he obtained some degree of comfort with a new companion, Lilian Baels, whom he married in 1941.

The marriage, when it was made public, was spun in such a way as to be unpopular with the public, but the comfort Princess Lilian (she was never titled as queen) provided to the King was invaluable and in the ensuing years the couple had three children; a boy and two girls. In 1944, with the end of the war in sight, King Leopold III penned what was to be his very controversial (but unnecessarily so) Political Testament. He showed great foresight in his concern over the issue of unity between the two language groups which had been exacerbated by the Nazi occupation as many Flemish nationalists had collaborate with the Germans in the hope of joining Flanders to Holland to create a “Greater Netherlands”. He called for solidarity between all classes and both language communities, holding ministers legally responsible for their actions in government, an emphasis on unity and national patriotism, that those who had caused division among the public publicly repudiate their past positions and a strengthening of the bonds between the Kingdom and the Belgian Congo with a staunch defense of their sovereignty.

There was nothing outrageous in anything that the King wrote, however, the timing of it aroused great opposition as it was seized upon by competitive ministers (and frankly disloyal people) who portrayed it in the worst possible way, as if the King was preemptively regarding the Allies as potential enemies; though he said nothing of the sort. When the Allied armies were approaching the Nazis took the King and Royal Family into custody, taking them to Germany and very nearly killing them all before they were liberated by the United States Army. By that time a very antagonistic government was reestablishing itself in Brussels and refused the King permission to return, appointing his rather difficult brother, Prince Charles Theodore, as regent of Belgium in his place. Leopold III had no choice but to transfer his exile to Switzerland to await the outcome of events in Brussels where, as he had warned, civil disturbances began to break out. Socialists and would-be revolutionaries took full advantage of the murky political situation to try to accomplish their aims of toppling the monarchy and erecting a Marxist republic.

In 1946 an official inquiry cleared the King of the ridiculous charge of “treason” that had been made against him and it was finally decided to put the matter of his return to a referendum. Belgians went to the polls to vote on whether or not they wanted the King back. Flanders voted overwhelmingly in favor of his return while Wallonia, where the socialist radicals had the greatest hold, was the source of the strongest opposition. Nonetheless, the results were clear; by a 57% majority the Belgians wanted King Leopold III to come back to them and resume his reign. The King happily returned but, of course, it was not to be as simple as that. The socialists refused to accept the outcome of the referendum and in 1950, the year of his return, orchestrated the most violent general strike in Belgian history to force their wishes on the country. King Leopold was deeply torn by all of this. He had suffered immensely throughout his life but his commitment to his duties as monarch had been the one constant throughout it all. Now, a violent minority was forcing him to give in to their demands or risk a civil war in Belgium. Agonizingly, Leopold III decided that if it was going to cost the lives of his people, he would have to give up the throne. On August 1, 1950 the decision was made and he abdicated in favor of his son and heir. It all went into effect the following year when Baudouin was sworn in as King of the Belgians. Leopold retired from public life, though he continued to advise his young son for several years, and spent his time with his family or traveling the world on intellectual pursuits, studying remote places and peoples.

King Leopold III, almost certainly the most unjustly maligned of all the Belgian Kings, passed away on September 25, 1983 at the age of 81 and was buried in the royal crypt, next to his first wife, at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken. Probably no other Belgian monarch had been forced to deal with such a steady succession of personal and political tragedies as Leopold III, bad luck seemed to shadow him throughout his life. Yet, in spite of it all, he remained a dutiful and gallant monarch, a devoted husband and father, a man of faith and convictions. His Christian sincerity was, perhaps, best displayed in his lack of bitterness despite the gross injustices committed against him. He was a fine man who did his best in the most difficult of circumstances and deserves much more credit from history than he has hitherto received.