King Leopold II of The Belgians (1835-1909)

[Daphoenyx]

Mafan, Clementine was not that young when she married the Prince Napoleon, because she had to wait one year after his father's death.

She was 38 (quite old to get married, for the standards of the time!) and he was 48.

Leopold II refused the Prince Albert 's wedding with a Princess of Orleans because they were unhealty (Louise-Marie , Leopold and Baudouin) died from the same illness.

But was Albert I in love with a Princess of Orléans?

 

[MAfan]

Albert was in love with Isabelle, the daughter of the Count and Countess of Paris, but Leopold II opposed to their marriage. I knew he was against it because he feared that the marriage would worsen the relationships between the Belgian and the (republican) French governments, and this was the same reason of his opposition to Clementine and Napoleon's marriage.

I didn't know he thought they were unhealthy, but he wasn't entirely wrong: his mother died aged 38, his eldest brother died aged 1, the Count of Paris died aged 56 and both his parents died young (his father the Duke of Orleans aged 32 after an accident, his mother aged 44); but it wasn't the case of Isabelle, who died aged 82.

Btw, Isabelle later married her cousin Prince Jean, Duke of Guise, and they were the parents of the late Count of Paris, of Anne, Duchess of Aosta, of Françoise, Princess Christopher of Greece and Denmark and of Isabelle, Countess Bruno d'Harcourt and later Princess Pierre Murat.

 

[pgm1952]

I wonder would or has anyone in the current Belgian royal family publicly condemn the actions of Leopold II? This was a huge and largely ignored crime against humanity, the whole colonization of the Congo under him. It has been some generations but it would be deeply symbolic and maybe heal some very old wounds.

 

[Thomas JG Wright]

King Leopold's Soliloquy

Hi,

I found this site as I'm researching background information to do an adaptation of King Leopold's Soliloquy by Mark Twain. I'd very much like to see pictures of the interior of Laeken where he died. I'd very much like my set to match the reading room/study/library there as much as possible.

Also, I see that the cause of death was unspecified, does anyone have any more information than that?

Many thanks in advance.
Thomas

 

[eejm]

I had no idea that Albert I had wanted to marry Isabelle of Orleans before he met Elisabeth. I did know that he considered Elisabeth of Austria (Rudolf's daughter), but he didn't like her. It did seem as though she was not the easiest person to spend time with.

 

[MAfan]

Yes, Archduchess Elisabeth (Leopold II's granddaughter via his daughter Stephanie) was considered as a possible wife for the then Prince Albert; at the time Elisabeth was around 15.
But then in 1899-1900 Princess Stéphanie announced her intention to marry and eventually married to Count (later Prince) Elemer de Lonyay, a decision that deeply disappointed King Leopold who then decided to forbade Albert to marry Archduchess Elisabeth.

 

[MarcosFenn]

Having been widowed a few years earlier, Leopold II married Baroness de Vaughan (a courtesy title) in 1909 in a religious ceremony. Because the religious ceremony was not preceded by a civil ceremony, the Belgian government of the day did not recognize the marriage. Particularly after Leopold II's death, therefore, many arguments ensued about inheritance rights for Baroness de Vaughan and Leopold's daughters respectively.

It may be said that, unwittingly, Leopold II was laying at least some of the foundations for Leopold III's poor relations with the Belgian government over 30 years later, when - similarly - without being preceded by a civil ceremony, he married Liliane Baels, Princess de Réthy in 1941 in a religious ceremony, although in this case there was indeed a civil ceremony some months later.

These religious services of union for both Leopold II and Baroness de Vaughan and for Leopold III and Liliane Baels were not strictly in accordance with Belgian law. (A big difference between these two unions, however, lay in that there was indeed a subsequent civil ceremony for Leopold III and Liliane Baels, Princess de Réthy, but none took place for Leopold II and Baroness de Vaughan.)

This may seem unusual to some North American readers, in that the legal and religious aspects of marriage ceremonies are often combined in a single occasion.

 

[maria-olivia]

You are right in Belgium first the civil Wedding and after the religious Wedding, except in this case where the King's Mistress was pregnant !

 

[MarcosFenn]

You are right in Belgium first the civil Wedding and after the religious Wedding, except in this case where the King's Mistress was pregnant !

In 1941, Cardinal Van Roey was concerned for pastoral reasons that Leopold III, in captivity at Laeken, should marry Liliane Baels.

The Cardinal believed it was unsuitable for a Roman Catholic monarch to be pursuing his involvement with Liliane Baels without being married to her. Within the parameters of his ecclesiastical point of view, it is understandable how the Cardinal came to this conclusion. However, advice to Leopold III, while he was in captivity, was considerably less broad than if he had been in direct communication with the Belgian government. The voices of Cardinal Van Roey and of his mother Queen Elizabeth - both of whom favored Leopold marrying Liliane Baels in the circumstances that then prevailed - were thus proportionately much stronger than they otherwise might have been.

But we may recall what had occurred 32 years earlier. When Leopold II had wanted to marry - and indeed did religiously marry - Baroness de Vaughan, any preceding civil ceremony would in practical terms have had to have received ministerial approval. The fact that Leopold II did not marry Baroness de Vaughan firstly in a civil ceremony is probably highly indicative that such ministerial approval would not have been given.

Actually, if in 1941 the Belgian government in exile had been able to deliberate on the question of Leopold III's marriage to Liliane Baels and to have been able to maintain meaningful, private communication with him, it is doubtful that the aim of stopping Leopold at all costs from marrying Liliane Baels would have been regarded in the longer term as a high priority of its war effort. In which case, the Belgian legal order: first the civil ceremony, then any religious ceremony, could have been maintained. However, this is all highly hypothetical and the poor relations between Leopold III and the Belgian government in exile revolved also around various other unrelated matters, which somehow get caught up rhetorically around Leopold's evocative remarriage to Liliane Baels, whom he of course named Princess de Réthy.

If Leopold III, hypothetically with ministerial blessing, had firstly married Liliane Baels in a civil ceremony, then it is also doubtful that, in terms of its priorities, the Belgian government would have regarded the religious ceremony with the level of importance that Cardinal Van Roey did.

Leopold II did not live long after marrying Baroness de Vaughan. Leopold III lived for over 40 years after marrying Liliane Baels; and Princess de Réthy herself lived for over 60 years afterwards.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

In 1876 King Leopold II summoned Baron Auguste Lambermont to his palace.
Baron Lambermont was a civil servant at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Leopold II said to him:

I would like to do something in Africa. You know exactly what the explorers have done there and together we shall see what we can make of it with a powerful humanitarian objective - my only concern and aim.
​

In 1886 King Leopold II made a gift of racing pigeons to the British Royal Family.

​

In 1900 Leopold II founded the Royal Donation (Royal Trust).
He stipulated that grounds, castles and other buildings never could be sold to keep its original functions and to stay in the disposition of his successors.
​

 

[susanh]

I am new to this site, and would like any information about Prince Baudouin, elder brother of Albert, and the mystery surrounding his premature death. Also the rumours that he was having an affair with a Royal governess, and that he may possibly have died as a result of injuries sustained during a duel with his lovers husband
Thanks in advance

 

[maria-olivia]

This are rumors.
He died from pneumonia as his grand mother Queen Louise Marie and his cousin Prince Leopold (10 years old).

 

[Lee-Z]

In 1900 Leopold II founded the Royal Donation (Royal Trust).
He stipulated that grounds, castles and other buildings never could be sold to keep its original functions and to stay in the disposition of his successors.
​

More specifically, he handed over his properties to the trust (in other words, to the nation) so they would not be scattered among his daughters who were married to foreign princes.
More info
The Belgian Monarchy: Home - The Monarchy today - Royal Initiatives - Royal Trust

Royal Trust (Belgium) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[maria-olivia]

At the beginning of the Congo Discovery the King was fast bankrupt , a lot of furniture from Laeken were sold. My grandparents bought one.
When Congo was to him ( he gave it later to Belgium) he was immensely rich.
He was Owner of this Villa at the beginning of the glory of the Côte d'Azur.
There was such Hate in this King, desheriting his two daughters Louise and Stephanie.
He never gave jewels to Elisabeth the future Queen of the Belgians , who had 3 Children for the throne.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

When You Kill Ten Million Africans You Aren’t Called ‘Hitler’ - Diary of a Walking Butterfly : Diary of a Walking Butterfly

It is an idiotic headline anyway. Of course King Leopold II was not called Hitler since he predated him. When he died, no one has ever heard about a guy named Hitler. I also miss the balance: where are the millions and millions whom died under the Union Jack, when Brittannia ruled the waves and, uninvited, exploited all and everything to their profit. Can we then re-name Queen Victoria after a monster ?

 

[maria-olivia]

Thanks Duc, King Leopold Ii never went to Congo !
Prince Albert went and took very important notes who are now in the RP's Archieves.

 

[Lee-Z]

Just because there are and have been other wrongs in the world, doesn't make this right.
Leopold II did exploit Congo and it's people and this is largely forgotten in the mist of time.
The article is imo a bit overly dramatically written (incl the reference to Hitler) but imo this is an emotional choice by the writer to make his point namely that attrocities have occured in the past that are now forgotten and that you don't learn about in school

Ofcourse there are loads of other attrocities that occured in the past, and i think that everyone of us can think of at least one example that our own country is to blame of, so i'm not going to name any specific

Imo it's an interesting article in the category "history forgotten is bound to repeat itself"

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

Pfffwwwttt.... that is the crippling disease of political correctness. The best example can be seen these weeks: the President-Elect of the United States lambasting companies to avoid -at all cost- to say the words "Merry Christmas" because it might, possibly, "offend" someone indeed.

The same is happening when universities, once safe havens of free speech, suddenly want to tear down statues, plaques, memorials, etc. down because the person in question, in a far, far hindsight, apparently does not fit in the political correct superior framework of 2016.

 

[duke of poliganc]

Pfffwwwttt.... that is the crippling disease of political correctness. The best example can be seen these weeks: the President-Elect of the United States lambasting companies to avoid -at all cost- to say the words "Merry Christmas" because it might, possibly, "offend" someone indeed.

The same is happening when universities, once safe havens of free speech, suddenly want to tear down statues, plaques, memorials, etc. down because the person in question, in a far, far hindsight, apparently does not fit in the political correct superior framework of 2016.

it has nothing to do with political correctness if it was a swastika would u still think so this the statue of a person who is responsible for the genocide in congo you can't compare that with people who say they are offended because someone is saying "Merry Christmas" .

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

It has everything to do with political correctness as long it is just cosmetic: remove the plaquette but hey... the fantastic library, the renowned collection of books, documents, manuscripts and drawings, all thanks to the revenues from the exploited colonies, let us keep it.

Political correctness (read: "whitewashing") in optima forma!

 

[maria-olivia]

King Leopold II never went to Congo.
Prince Albert Duc of Brabant (future King Albert I) went to Congo and took notes 1) how there were no streets no roads he had to walk or use a bike, 2) African Culture not known and 3) no hygiene at all . They told him about the broken hands.
He was in a bad mood on his way back because he could not glorify his Travel during his Visit to his Uncle King Leopold II.

King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth came to Congo for the big Railway Inauguration.

 

[maria-olivia]

With the Congo money King Leopold II did great Architectural works mainly in Brussels and in Ostend we still are grateful now.
Avenue de Tervuren from his Congo Museum in Tervueren to the Arcade of the Cinquentenaire he paid with owm money. (Donateur anonyme)
At his dead he gave Congo to Belgium.

 

[CyrilVladisla]

King Leopold II attended the dinner of the Royal Library in London in 1872.
http://www.gettyimages.com/license/933469348

 

[duchessrachel]

Are there any good books on King Leopold II? I have learned a little about him, and his awful self, from reading books on Queen Victoria. I found books about his atrocities in the Congo, but I am more interested in a book on his life from childhood to his death, something that maybe gives insight into why he became the wicked man he was.

 

[maria-olivia]

The best book about King Leopold II is in french the writer is Liliane Ranieri.

 

[Curryong]

' The Coburgs of Belgium' by Theo Aronson, gives a good overview, in English, of all the past Belgian monarchs including King Leopold II.

 

[duchessrachel]

The best book about King Leopold II is in french the writer is Liliane Ranieri.

Thanks. I wish I could read French. What is the name of the book?

' The Coburgs of Belgium' by Theo Aronson, gives a good overview, in English, of all the past Belgian monarchs including King Leopold II.

Thanks. I will look for it.

 

[Marengo]

Bustes of King Leopold II in Ghent, Ekeren and Hasselt have been defaced with red paint and the text 'I can't breathe' - a reference to the racial violence in the United States.

https://www.hln.be/nieuws/binnenlan...leopold-ii-uit-brussel-weg-te-nemen~a2e5beac/

In Brussels a petition to remove all statues of Leopold II has gathered 16.000 signatories within a day.

https://www.change.org/p/ville-de-b...ed_by_id=c5822de0-b02d-11e8-bbc8-9f6f65407953

 

[maria-olivia]

How many Belgians had happy years in the Congo Belge and earned a lot of money.

 

[Denville]

How many Belgians had happy years in the Congo Belge and earned a lot of money.

I don't know a lot about Belgian history but I do know that the Congo when run by Leopold had an appalling human rights record. So im not sure what your point is...