Monarch Profile: King Baudouin of the Belgians

The reign of King Baudouin was an extremely difficult period for the Kingdom of Belgium and the monarchy itself faced considerable problems from the outset. During the course of his reign Belgium faced social upheaval at home, a radical change in values, the end the Belgian colonial empire and the beginning of the entrenched regional divisions of the country. Yet, through it all, it was King Baudouin who held the people together with his calm and steady leadership, impeccable character and firm commitment to his principles. Even those who were inclined to disagree with him on political and moral issues felt admiration for the King who stood up for what he believed in, who saw his role as one of service and who provided a source of continuity and national unity at a time when it seemed that his people were increasingly divided in their dealings with each other. His character and virtue made him an unassailable figure, respected by all even if not always universally supported. He was a popular monarch even when, on more than one occasion, he made it clear that he would not compromise his principles for the sake of popularity.

He was born HRH Prince Baudouin Albert Charles Leopold Axel Marie Gustave of Belgium on September 7, 1930 at Stuyvenberg Castle near Laeken in Brussels to Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant (soon to be King Leopold III) and Princess Astrid of Sweden, the second child and first son. As a child his early years seemed to be dominated by service and hardship. In 1934 his father became King and only a year later his mother died in a tragic accident that left the whole country in mourning. As heir to the throne his dutiful and upright father raised him with a devotion to service and a deep faith in God. Even at a very young age he represented the Royal Family in outreach activities to the youth of Belgium and was very active in the Boy Scouts and doing volunteer work for charity. He was still a boy when Belgium was invaded by Nazi Germany in 1940. After eighteen days of desperate fighting King Leopold III was forced to surrender and remained a prisoner of the Germans for the rest of the war. During the war years the King remarried, which later caused controversy in the country, but this was certainly not so among the family as Princess Lilian proved to be a great comfort, not only to the King, but her new step-children as well.

When the Allies invaded Europe in 1944 Leopold III, and later Prince Baudouin and the other children, were taken to Germany, closely watched by the SS. They were all almost killed when they were given cyanide pills which the Nazis told them were vitamin tablets. Thankfully, Princess Lilian was suspicious and did not distribute them to the family as instructed. After being transferred to Austria and enduring grueling conditions the family was finally rescued by the United States Army in May of 1945. However, a government hostile to Leopold III had established itself in Brussels which attempted to blame all the ills of the war on the King and named his brother as regent. Unable to return home, the family moved to Switzerland where they stayed until 1950. Prince Baudouin attended high school in Geneva, visited the United States and finally saw his father cleared of the ridiculous and slanderous charge of “treason” by a government commission. Prince Baudouin and his brother Prince Albert accompanied their father back to Belgium in 1950 after a plebiscite found in favor of fully restoring Leopold III to his proper place.

Unfortunately, subversive factions, particularly the strong Walloon socialist faction, opposed the King returning to the throne and mounted such a wave of protest that there was a real and immediate threat of civil war. To avoid this calamity, King Leopold III took the difficult step of abdicating in favor of his son. The new King Baudouin, a young man still, was thus swept onto the throne at a time of great turmoil, internal division and revolutionary opposition to the monarchy with virtually no preparation for the arduous position he was suddenly called to fill. He was heckled by a socialist republican at his swearing-in ceremony on July 17, 1951 but was determined to do his duty even while resenting the way his father had been forced aside by political pressure and the bully-tactics of the mob. The beginning of the reign of the fifth King of the Belgians could hardly be called auspicious.

King Baudouin had certainly not been anxious to take the throne under such circumstances, in fact, according to some, he was not anxious for the position of monarch at all and would have preferred to have renounced his royal status and become a priest. However, after all the pain surrounding the abdication of King Leopold III (the first abdication of a Belgian monarch in history) Baudouin was persuaded that two abdications in a row would be something the monarchy might not survive. Instead, King Baudouin was charged with restoring the prestige of the monarchy, reuniting the country and leading the country in recovering from World War II and facing all the new challenges already upon western Europe as a whole. One area that quickly became a point of crisis was the Belgian Congo, though this was not immediately evident. King Baudouin visited the vast central African colony for the first time in 1955 and was given a very warm and enthusiastic welcome by huge crowds of Congolese people who spoke of him adoringly as the “handsome young man” who was very concerned with their wellbeing and progress. However, the rabble-rousers and revolutionaries were hard at work in trying to stir up the public for total independence from Belgium and even toward hatred for Belgians and Europeans in general.

As the years went by the crisis quickly developed and grew worse at an alarming pace. The Congolese were allowed to form political parties and a huge number sprang up along tribal lines which created a confused situation the radicals were only too eager to exploit. Independence was agreed to as the ultimate goal but King Baudouin hoped that a moderate Congolese middle class could be cultivated to take government in hand and that the monarchy would be retained with Baudouin remaining King of the Congo as well as King of the Belgians, with his lieutenant able to exert a moderating influence on the emerging country. Unfortunately, the radicals demanded immediate and total separation and hateful rhetoric led to violence as Belgians and other Europeans were raped, murdered, sometimes beaten to death by mobs. Belgian forces had to be sent in to rescue people as even the local army proved unreliable. In 1960 King Baudouin returned to Leopoldville for the official hand-over of power to the new republican government. It would have been very easy and very popular for the King to tell the raucous mobs what they wanted to hear but instead he warned that great responsibilities came with independence and, most controversially, he praised his great-uncle King Leopold II for seeing the potential of the Congo and laying the foundation for its development. He also praised the Belgians who had ended the slave trade and who brought together the various tribes of the Congo to create the political entity achieving independence that day. It was his hope to show everyone in a positive light and to begin Belgian-Congolese relations on a friendly note.

However, it was not to be. The revolutionary hero Patrice Lumumba then took the stage, making an impromptu speech in which he castigated the Belgians, accusing them of years of “injustice, oppression and exploitation” as well as racism, giving some slight credit only in not openly fighting against the independence movement. The native revolutionary elements were fired up by the speech and the Belgians were embarrassed and infuriated. The King very nearly ended his visit then and there and returned to Brussels but swallowed his pride and continued with the planned schedule. In any event, any hope of Belgian-Congolese friendship and cooperation from that point on died an early death. Only a few days after the ceremony the Congolese army mutinied and went on a bloody rampage, chaos reigned in the cities and Belgians and other Europeans, those who were not killed, fled for their lives back to Europe or neighboring African countries. King Baudouin would visit the Congo again, on more than one occasion, when relations between the two countries improved but the lasting friendship and cooperation he sought were never achieved, mostly due to the political leaders who never tired of using past wrongs to advance their own careers and blaming Belgium for every misfortune, even decades after independence.

Yet, 1960 was not a sad year for King Baudouin as it was at the end of that year on December 15, that he married the Spanish noble lady Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragon. Some in the Catholic Church had helped bring the two together and they were a perfect match for each other, especially in the deep faith they shared. For the rest of their lives they were a devoted and loving couple, a strength and a comfort to each other in good times and bad. Although not much was made public, there was plenty of sadness as the Queen proved unable to have children and suffered a succession of miscarriages. However, their shared faith in God saw them through such difficulties. King Baudouin was often counseled by Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and supported the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement. The King often made pilgrimages to Catholic shrines, most frequently to Paray-le-Monial in France. He sought at all times to reign as a Catholic monarch and to look beyond materialistic concerns to moral problems in Belgium and around the world. This was no small task as his reign saw the rise of increasingly strident socialism, secularism and a growing hedonism among the young generation in particular. There were also many issues of national concern.

King Baudouin oversaw the sending of a Belgian contingent to participate in the Korean conflict with other UN partners, the first time Belgian forces had been sent so far to fight. There were strikes to be dealt with as the labor union movement grew in power but most significant was the growth of the Flemish nationalist movement and an increasing division of the Kingdom of Belgium along linguistic lines. Institutions older than Belgium itself split into Walloon and Flemish divisions and in 1962 a linguistic “border” was drawn across the country. 1970 saw the first of a series of “state reforms” in Belgium as the country was divided into cultural communities. In 1980 these gained their own governments and in 1993 Belgium completed the transition from a unitary to a federal state with communities and regions having their own directly elected governments to administer their own affairs. This coincided with a decline in support for the monarchy in Flanders which in itself caused Wallonia to become more monarchist by default as with these greater divisions it became more clear that the Crown, represented by King Baudouin, was one of the few sources of unity left in Belgium and something that had to be shared.

All of this was deeply troubling to King Baudouin, though some held out hope that if the two communities could not get along together, perhaps they would be able to get along apart but still remaining in the same country. However, King Baudouin was even more troubled, devout man of faith that he was, by the decline in traditional moral values that occurred as what was referred to as ‘the Belgium of our fathers’ was replaced by an increasingly secular and socialistic country with declining Church attendance and a focus on fights over wealth distribution rather than overall national concerns. The national debt skyrocketed as the government borrowed more and more money to fund social programs which only increased the anger of Flanders which, as the more prosperous half of the country, paid a greater amount to, as they saw it, fund the socialist spending habits of Wallonia. Traditional views on faith, marriage and family were also changing rapidly and this led to a near constitutional crisis in 1990 as these changes clashed with the religious convictions of the King.

In that year the Belgian parliament passed a new law legalizing (to a very liberal extent) abortion. Up to that point, King Baudouin had been distressed by the changes in the country but still cooperative. With this bill, however, the King could no longer compromise. Not wishing to make things more difficult than necessary, King Baudouin informed his ministers that if presented with such a bill, his conscience would not permit him to give it Royal Assent, necessary for the bill to become law. Prior to this point in Belgian history, Royal Assent had always been regarded as a mere formality. A bill may have been withdrawn at the request of the King but no monarch had ever before refused to sign something passed by parliament and set before him. On this issue, however, King Baudouin refused to budge. He regarded the bill as immoral, harmful and something he could not, under any circumstances, put his signature to. The politicians tried to find a way to make the King more compliant, arguing that he could sign it in his official capacity as King while opposing it in his private capacity as an individual. King Baudouin would have none of it. He would not sign it, could not sign it and that was that. A full-blown crisis seemed unavoidable.

Finally, a legal loophole was found by which the cabinet could act collectively in place of the monarch if the monarch ever became unfit to rule. In the face of the obstinate refusal of King Baudouin to put his name to an immoral bill, the cabinet voted to declare the King unfit to rule on April 4, 1990. The abortion bill was then signed into law by all members of the cabinet and on April 5, 1990 the government voted to declare King Baudouin fit to rule again and he was returned to the Belgian throne after being effectively deposed for a day. It was an episode of great worry for the country but, even though the Belgian people largely supported legalizing abortion (their values were not those of their king), they nonetheless respected the King for remaining faithful to his principles and, of course, it ultimately became law anyway without a crisis that might have brought down the monarchy and then probably led to the dissolution of Belgium entirely. Because of this near-crisis, King Baudouin (mostly outside of Belgium it must be said) has become an honored figure in the Pro-Life movement but others have, nonetheless, criticized the King on the grounds that, at the end of the day, the bill became law and abortion became legal. The truth, of course, is that King Baudouin could not have changed the moral values of his entire people nor could he coerce them into accepting his Catholic view of right and wrong. That is what would have been necessary to stop the law entirely. As it happened, the only options the King had were to sign or not to sign and he did all he could have done to stop the bill. He refused to sign it under any circumstances. King Baudouin should be saluted for his moral courage in the face of overwhelming pressure.

All of this weighed heavily on King Baudouin. The moral decline and the increasing division in Belgian society hurt him terribly and it is no surprise that he was known as “the sad King”. By his own example and the causes he championed he tried to promote traditional values and he did his best to bring the two sides of the linguistic divide together but to little effect. No one man could have succeeded in such circumstances but it speaks to his dedication that he did everything that it was in his power to do in an effort to right the wrongs that were plaguing his country. Even while his views were often ignored by his squabbling subjects, his presence was a comfort and a source of reassuring stability in a country undergoing dramatic and often bitter and bewildering changes. King Baudouin was, to some extent, rather taken for granted and it came as all the greater shock when, quite unexpectedly, the King died on July 31, 1993 of heart failure while on holiday in the south of Spain. Belgium was shocked and immediately plunged into mourning. As one young woman said, “We have lost our King, and only now do we realize what we have lost”.

There was an outpouring of moral support from around the world and the crowned heads of Europe took almost unprecedented steps which revealed how truly respected King Baudouin was among his peers. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain rushed to the side of Queen Fabiola and accompanied her back to Belgium with the body of her late husband. His funeral in Brussels was attended by world leaders, non-reigning royals and monarchs from the Emperor of Japan to Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain who almost never attended such events on the continent. It was a mark of her respect for the late King of the Belgians who, it can be noted, had not attended the funeral of her father, King George VI, due to hard feelings over how the British government had treated his beloved father King Leopold III. From Russia to Portugal virtually every royal house was represented and from around the world there was the Empress of Iran, the Crown Princes of Nepal, Morocco, Jordan and Thailand. President Mitterrand of France and President Mubarak of Egypt were among the republican heads of state who attended. President Gerald Ford represented the United States. Cardinal Godfried Danneels said at the funeral, “There are kings who are more than kings, they are shepherds of their people. King Baudouin was such a king.” After 42 years on the throne he was the longest reigning monarch in Europe at the time, a familiar and beloved figure.

King Baudouin had lived a modest life and was perhaps loved best by those with the least in his country. He was shy, polite but could also show anger in private, particularly when he found he had been given incorrect information on some subject or other. He had known many heartaches during his life, starting with the loss of his mother, World War II, the unjust and even vicious treatment of his beloved father, an increasingly divided country, strikes, natural disasters and moral decline. His most difficult moment was surely to be found in the Congo in 1960 where his hope that his presence would bring calm and friendship ended in animosity and chaos. However, he had inherited a monarchy gripped by crisis (through no fault of King Leopold but a fact nonetheless) and he had solidified it and made it a source of national pride and unity in a fractured land. His staunch Catholicism was lived out in his personal example and even while his people did not follow him, they respected him for his integrity. Most of all though, at the times of the greatest difficulty for him during his reign, whether it was the Congo in 1960 or abortion in 1990, King Baudouin showed that he had the moral courage to do what was right even if he knew it would not be what was popular. That alone would suffice to make him a great King and a great man. King Baudouin was the last living member of the Supreme Order of Christ, the most rare and prestigious of papal honors and Pope John Paul II, after visiting the resting place of King Baudouin, paid tribute to him as a man who put Christ at the center of his life and as a monarch who defended God, human rights and the rights of the unborn. His cause for canonization has been talked about but without progress. Nonetheless, King Baudouin was and is an example to all of a dutiful, dedicated and upright Christian monarch.

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.

Monarch Profile: King Albert I of the Belgians

The future third King of the Belgians was born Prince Albert Leopold Clement Marie Meinrad on April 8, 1875 to Prince Philippe Count of Flanders and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. On the surface he would have seemed unlikely to ever become a monarch. He was the second son out of five siblings in his own family and his own father was the third son of the first Belgian king. However, after the death of the only son of King Leopold II and the death of his father and older brother Prince Baudouin, Prince Albert became heir to the Belgian throne. He was only 16 when his father became heir to the throne but even by that time he had the makings of a great monarch. His parents ensured that he was well grounded and sincerely religious. He was serious and studied hard and from the first moment he knew he would become king someday he set to work preparing himself for that task. The reputation of the Belgian monarchy had suffered during the reign of Leopold II and Albert was determined, even as a young man, to set a new tone.

Part of this new tone was to be the domestic life of the Royal Family. In 1900 he married Duchess Elisabeth of Bavaria in Munich, beginning what would be a very long, happy and fruitful marriage marked by mutual respect and devotion. The succession was also quickly secured as the following year Princess Elisabeth gave birth to the future King Leopold III. In 1903 another son was born, Prince Charles Theodore, giving Belgium an “heir and a spare”. In 1906 the family was completed with the birth of Princess Maria Jose, the future Queen of Italy. Albert was a very devoted husband and father who set a fine example in his private life. This, in itself, was quite significant given the unhappy marriage of King Leopold II and Queen Marie Henriette of Austria. Together, Albert and Elisabeth would project a united front of domestic fidelity.

Prince Albert also made himself familiar with every section of Belgian society. He studied the problems of the working class and came up with recommendations to improve their working and living conditions. A firm believer in the principle of “go thyself”, in 1909 he traveled to the recently annexed Belgian Congo to see the situation for himself and what conditions were like for the natives. He had, perhaps, learned from the experience of his uncle, King Leopold II, that it was not safe to simply take the word of officials as to what life was like in the central African colony. He took seriously his duties to all of his future subjects, Belgians and Africans alike, and when he returned home presented a detailed report and recommendations on improving the lives of the natives and for further modernization in the Congo. His role in the rapid improvement in conditions in the Congo is not often stated but it was significant.

Later that year, in December 1909, King Leopold II passed away and his nephew was formally sworn in as King Albert I of the Belgians. Whereas Leopold II wanted his reign to be known for grandeur and greatness, King Albert I, at least in his own life, was best known for his simplicity and moderation. He was a hard working monarch not at all enthralled by pomp and ceremony. He was also a very humble man, reluctant to accept any praise or adulation no matter how well deserved. He wanted peace, prosperity and contentment in Belgium but he was not blind to the growing threat across the border in Germany. He tried to strengthen the Belgian army and give them more up-to-date weapons but was hampered by an uncooperative government and the fact that Germany itself was the source of most of their rifles and artillery. In 1912 his generals estimated that it would not be until 1918 that the military was fully prepared to successfully defend the national territory. As we know, Belgium was not to have that long.

In August of 1914 the ultimatum arrived from Germany stating that Belgian neutrality would be violated and that if resistance was met Germany would consider Belgium an enemy. No effective resistance was expected. King Albert I, however, boldly rejected the ultimatum, famously stating that “Belgium is a country, not a road”. A very upright and moral man, he had no other option. Belgium was bound to neutrality by treaty and if the Belgians had simply stood aside and allowed the Germans to pass through in order to attack France this would be a violation of that neutrality, not only by Germany but by Belgium as well as they would be passively cooperating in the invasion of France. Despite the impossible odds arrayed against them, King Albert I took command of the Belgian army and led a heroic defense of his country. The tall, serene soldier-king of “brave little Belgium” was tailor-made for the newspapers of the day and he quickly became a hero amongst the Allied nations for the stubborn defense of his country. The German timetable was upset and French and British forces had just enough time to rally in front of Paris to defeat the invasion force at the First Battle of the Marne.

King Albert, after being forced to withdraw from Antwerp, pulled back behind the Yser River and established a defensive line on the last corner of his native soil from which the Germans could never dislodge them. It was important to him to remain at the front, with his soldiers, on Belgian soil. He oversaw the rebuilding of the army which had been shattered in the initial invasion and in time they were better armed and equipped than they were at the outset. This was an extraordinary feat considering that almost the entire country was under German occupation and the sector the Belgians had to defend, the Flanders coast, was easily the most miserable on the western front, low, open and constantly waterlogged. As commander-in-chief he also had to oversee the operations of the Belgian colonial forces in Africa, where they met much success. It was a very trying time for the King, but his deep and sincere faith helped sustain him. A devout Catholic, King Albert impressed the importance of religion on his children and when Pope Benedict XV called for a peaceful end to the war he was the only Allied head-of-state to take the issue seriously. Unfortunately, his efforts to arrange peace with the Emperor Charles of Austria-Hungary were thwarted by the other Allied powers.

In 1918, since Belgian troops could only legally be commanded by their King, Albert was made commander of “Army Group Flanders” made up of the Belgian army and elements of the British II Army and French VI Army and he led these forces in a series of successful advances as part of the overall “Grand Offensive” or “Hundred Days Offensive” which brought the war to a successful conclusion by the Allies. There were wild celebrations in Brussels as the King rode in at the head of his army to liberate the country. However, there was no rest for the King as he immediately set to work rebuilding the devastated Belgian economy. He implemented government reforms such as universal suffrage and at the peace conference in Paris obtained reparations payments for Belgium but also showed his magnanimity by opposing overly-harsh treatment of the Germans. He could see, if none of his fellow Allied heads of state could, that the downfall of the German princes and the dissolution of the Hapsburg empire would dangerously destabilize all of central Europe. Alas, his warnings in this area went unheeded.

The interwar years were a period of recovery and King Albert I was kept very busy. He became the first reigning European monarch to visit the United States, paying tribute to the men of the AEF who helped clinch the Allied victory in the war, he opened the first national park in Africa in the Belgian Congo and he showed solidarity with the Dutch-speaking community of Flanders whose region had suffered the most in the war. He also saw his son Leopold married to Princess Astrid of Sweden and his daughter married to Crown Prince Umberto of Italy. When he did have some time for himself he loved mountain climbing. He was climbing in the Ardennes, near Namur, when, on February 17, 1934 he died in a tragic accident. His sudden death was a cause of great mourning and it is probably accurate to say that he was the most beloved King the Belgians ever had up to that time. He was upright, hard working, devoted to his God, his family and his country, courageous in the face of disaster and humble in the face of praise and adulation. He was a great man and a great king.

Monarch Profile: King Leopold II of the Belgians

It is safe to say that no other Belgian monarch is as controversial as King Leopold II. He was born in Brussels on April 9, 1835 to King Leopold I and Queen Louise-Marie and named Louis Philippe Marie Victor. His childhood was not a very happy one. His mother thought his prominent nose made him look deformed and his father referred to him as “the little tyrant”. Whereas his brother Philippe was jovial and popular and his sister was the charming and studious favorite of their father, Leopold was shy, awkward and walked with a limp. He seemed to be always compared to his siblings and his widely respected father and never favorably. It is not surprising that much of his future reign would be devoted to succeeding in the task his father was never able to, namely making Belgium an imperial power.

In 1853 Prince Leopold entered the senate to begin gaining some experience at statecraft and on August 22 married the teenage Archduchess Marie-Henriette of Austria. The couple went on to have four children; Princess Louise-Marie, Prince Leopold, Princess Stephanie and Princess Clementine. However, their marriage was not a happy one. Some said Leopold could be charming when he wished but he seldom seemed to wish it in the domestic setting, he was an unfaithful husband and had a rather scandalous private life before and after the passing of his long suffering wife in 1902. It was on December 17, 1865, after the death of his father, that Leopold II took his oath as the new King of the Belgians but there were troubles from the very start. The delegation he sent to Mexico to announce his accession to his sister, Empress Carlota, was attacked by republican bandits and massacred. There was an uproar in Belgium and Leopold II closed the recruiting office for the Belgian Legion, which his sister naturally regarded as almost an act of betrayal; her brother leaving her high and dry in a distant and increasingly hostile land. When the Mexican adventure ended in disaster and Carlota returned home insane with grief over the loss of her husband and adopted country Leopold took relatively little notice of her.

Leopold II was obsessed with achieving international greatness for Belgium and in 1876 he convened an international conference on the exploration of central Africa. This led, the following year, to his sending out the intrepid Henry Morton Stanley to sign treaties with local chieftains and lay the foundations for colonial expansion. Stanley did his work well and in 1885 the Berlin Conference recognized Leopold II as King-Sovereign of the Congo Free State which was to be in personal union with the Crown of Belgium. This effectively made Leopold II private owner of a vast central African empire some 80x larger than his entire country. In 1890 King Leopold II organized a military campaign from the Congo Free State to eradicate the Arab slave trade in central Africa which was still booming at the time.

This expedition was a success but Leopold also set up a framework for the economic development of the Congo which eventually led to immense profits from the rubber trees there (which greatly took off after the invention of the bicycle and automobile) but also immense cruelties inflicted on the Congolese population. It is for this horror that Leopold II is most remembered these days but a few key facts should be kept in mind. First of all, a lot of the numbers that are tossed about as to the number of people who died are quite often simply absurd, at times ranging from 50% to the entire estimated population of the Congo. Obviously, if these extreme statistics are believed absolutely no one would have been making any profit at all. Perhaps most importantly though is that Leopold II was not inflicting these atrocities intentionally. That is often the image that is portrayed with the King being compared to Hitler. Undoubtedly the King was a hard man and often an unsavory character but it is an absolute lie that the horrors of the Congo were purposely carried out by him. Where he can be blamed is in setting up the system whereby his local officials were paid based on the amount of rubber they produced -which would have seemed to make economic sense but which provided an incentive for unscrupulous officials to brutalize the natives in order to enrich themselves. Also, contrary to what many believe, Leopold was troubled by the reports that began to circulate about the savagery going on in the Congo but, and he can be blamed for this, he was all too willing to believe advisors who assured him these were malicious lies.

Eventually, however, the reports and international criticism became too great to ignore and in 1904 (though he is seldom given credit for this) it was King Leopold who sent a commission to the Congo to investigate these reports. Many have dismissed these inquisitors as hand-picked “yes men” Leopold knew would never report anything negative. Again, this is untrue as the commission met with native people and leaders as well as colonial officials and returned with a very balanced report. They cited the advances made by the King’s investments; the roads, schools, hospitals and local infrastructure that had been created, the humanitarian work done by the often heroic missionaries but it also reported that a great many abuses were going on as well, many people had died, many mutilated and many more exploited. Once this was done King Leopold issued new regulations to correct this situation and in 1908 the Congo Free State became a colony, the Belgian Congo, under the control of the government rather than being the personal property of the King.

All of this is said in an effort to be fair -not to sugar coat the facts. One does not have to intentionally wipe out an entire population to be a ‘bad guy’. Whether it was his cold, autocratic nature toward his family or his scandalous private life there is no doubt King Leopold II would have been seen as an unsavory character regardless of what happened in Africa. The suffering was immense but the fact remains that his guilt lies in setting up a system which inadvertently encouraged exploitation rather than a deliberate campaign of genocide. Such accusations in that direction are certainly untrue. He was not a completely heartless man and was reluctant to have even criminals whose guilt had been proven put to death. He wanted Belgium to become an imperial power and to embellish his country and this he certainly did. Long known as the “Builder King” many of the most magnificent buildings and national monuments in Belgium, such as the Cinquantenaire were built by Leopold at his own expense.

However, on the international stage Leopold II was mostly unpopular among his peers. Part of this, it must be said, was due to jealousy over his success and the fact that many larger countries felt little Belgium had achieved a status out of proportion to her size. Much of it though was due to the King himself, because of the private scandals and the suffering in the Congo associated with him. In personal dealings the King put people off and made them uncomfortable, partly because of his own character and partly, no doubt, because of the image portrayed of him in the anti-monarchy and anti-colonial press. Nonetheless, he insisted that he cared nothing for popularity, though this may have been a defense mechanism rather than a genuine sentiment. One other thing Leopold II always stressed was his belief in a military policy of armed neutrality with defense based on military preparedness rather than simply trusting international agreements. As he was on his deathbed the conscription act he had long sought was finally passed. In this area too the coming Great War would prove the unpopular monarch to have been correct.

Also, five days before his death, Leopold II married his long-time paramour, a woman of ill-repute by whom he had two illegitimate children, in a religious ceremony (there was no civil marriage). He died on December 17, 1909. He said he wanted only a small, private funeral but he was given the full royal treatment though there was not exactly widespread grief at the passing of this man who seemed to have been unpopular since the day he was born. His own family was aware of how the reputation of the Belgian monarchy had suffered during his reign. When he came to the Belgian throne in 1865 King Leopold II declared that, “all that I desire is to leave Belgium larger, stronger and more beautiful”. If that was his only standard of success Leopold II was a successful monarch as he did do all of those things. However, his name will forever be tainted by the many scandals of his reign, paramount amongst them being the horror that existed in the Congo Free State. Thankfully, his successor would be a man of impeccable character, embodying everything that a good King should be.

Monarch Profile: King Leopold I of the Belgians

The Kingdom of Belgium is a unique country to say the least, and over the years it has been the Belgian monarchy more than almost anything else which has held the country together with Dutch-speaking Flemings in the north, French-speaking Walloons in the south and a small number of Germans in the east. Originally part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Belgians revolted in 1830. The reasons for this were numerous, but ultimately came down to the differences the large French speaking population had with the Dutch, their industrial interests versus the trading and commercial interests of the Dutch as well as the fact that the Netherlands was an officially Protestant country while Belgium remained strongly Catholic.

Before the Napoleonic Wars, Belgium had been known as the "Austrian Netherlands" but was given to the Dutch as part of a compensation agreement made with the British who had seized several Dutch overseas territories while Holland was under French rule. Obviously, the agreement worked better on paper than in real life. Most of the European powers first supported the Dutch, but support for the Belgians by the Kingdom of France was vital in the opening days of the conflict and on October 4, 1830 the provisional government of Belgium was established. Actual recognition did not come until much later, though most countries recognized Belgium as a de facto sovereign nation. The issue then arose of who to choose to be King of the new nation. It had been decided early on that Belgium would be a constitutional monarchy, but the choice of monarch proved somewhat difficult. When their first candidate refused the crown, they turned to Duke Leopold of Saxe-Coburg.

Leopold was born George Christian Frederick, in Coburg, Bavaria to Duke Francis Frederick and Duchess Augusta of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield on December 16, 1790. When French troops invaded his homeland he was sent to Paris where he turned down an offer from Napoleon Bonaparte to be his adjutant. Instead, he succeeded his brother as Duke of Saxe-Coburg and became a Field Marshal in the forces opposing Napoleon. Leopold might have become Prince-Consort of Great Britain as in 1816 he married Princess Charlotte of Great Britain, the only legitimate child of King George IV, however she died the following year a day after a failed pregnancy. His ties with the British Royal Family continued to be very close though. Leopold was a key advisor to his niece, Queen Victoria, and it was the British who suggested him as a suitable candidate for the Belgian throne. In fact, Belgium was not the first offer of a throne Leopold had been presented with. In 1830 the Greeks made a similar offer, which given the subsequent history of that country, he was wise to turn down.

The formal offer from the Belgian National Congress came on October 4, 1830. The Duke accepted on June 26, 1831 and he was "inaugurated" on July 21, subsequently a Belgian holiday. However, the new Kingdom of Belgium was from the start to be a so-called "popular monarchy" meaning that King Leopold I was not "the King of Belgium" but rather was "King of the Belgians". However, his reign was faced with crisis from the start when the Dutch invaded on August 2 to crush the bid for Belgian independence. Charles Rogier became the prime minister, and with help from the French and mismanagement by the Dutch, the Belgians eventually succeeded in winning their independence, which was agreed by treaty in 1839.

On August 9, 1832 King Leopold married the daughter of the King of French, Princess Louise-Marie Therese Charlotte Isabelle d'Orleans. The couple eventually had four children: Louis-Philippe who died only a year after his birth, Leopold Louis-Philippe who eventually succeeded his father, Philippe Eugene whose son was the third King of Belgians and reigned during World War I and Marie-Charlotte who married Archduke Maximilian of Austria and eventually became the Empress of Mexico. As King of the Belgians, Leopold I was faced with quite a challenge for any national leader. His country was not very developed, had an uneasy relationship with the Dutch and was divided between the Dutch and French speaking halves of the country. King Leopold was their one major common bond and he worked to encourage national unity and a Belgian national identity as well as encouraging further industrial development. In 1835 this brought about the accomplishment of one of his major goals, the construction of the first railroad on the European continent, which first connected Brussels and Mechelen and was completed on May 5, 1835. He also helped Belgium to establish an efficient and well working government, taking into account the unique conditions of the country.

Because of the ethnic division of Belgium, many observers believed the new kingdom would not last long, yet it has managed to outlive the governments of many neighbors, such as the regime of the "Citizen King" of France, and the rise and fall of the German Empire. King Leopold also used his connections to make Belgium an involved nation in European affairs. In 1840 it was King Leopold who arranged the marriage of his niece Queen Victoria of England and his nephew Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha which of course became one of the most important royal matches in European history. The King was, like most of his generation, a fairly conservative monarch, yet one who was also interested in social reform. In 1842 he attempted to reform labor laws for women and children but proved to be too far ahead of his time for Belgian political leaders. King Leopold also held things together during the Revolutions of 1848 that swept Europe following the overthrow of the French King Louis Philippe, managing to keep Belgium neutral and escaping the turmoil unscathed. On October 11, 1850 Queen Louise-Marie died, the King himself died on December 10, 1865 at Laeken and was buried in the Church of Our Lady in Brussels.