King Leopold III of The Belgians (1901-1983)

[maria-olivia]

When King Baudouin came back from his State Visit to Congo in 1955 he changed completely and smiled !
Melina you forgot his travel to USA and Holywood!.

[Nico]

Originally Posted by maria-olivia

The relationship between King Leopold III and the Scandinavian Royals was bad until Queen Fabiola became Queen Consort.
I think that Princess Ingeborg saw King Leopold III and Princess Lilian for the first time at Josephine Charlotte's Wedding in 1953. Ambiance .

Prince Carl Bernadotte was a great friend of both Leopold and Lilian, way before Fabiola.

[Queen Claude]

Originally Posted by maria-olivia

The relationship between King Leopold III and the Scandinavian Royals was bad until Queen Fabiola became Queen Consort.
I think that Princess Ingeborg saw King Leopold III and Princess Lilian for the first time at Josephine Charlotte's Wedding in 1953. Ambiance .

When and why was the relationship bad? King Leopold III's first wife and the mother of three of his children was Scandanavian.

[maria-olivia]

I am interested in the years 1935 - 1940 when Leopold III was King of the Belgians.
Reading books and books , he was really depressed by being responsible of this terrible car crash.
During this 5 years no official show up.
He did not attend Princess Juliana's Wedding in 1937 , Queen Elisabeth did attend.
The King attend Princess Beatrix Baptism because he was his Godfather.
He always has great support of Queen Wilhelmina.

[Denville]

how is tat an indication that his relationship with the Scandinavain royals was "bad"? If he didn't go on visits or to royal weddings etc for some years due to sadness about Astrid's death, that has nothing to do with the relationship with the Scandinavian royals

[maria-olivia]

In Royalement Blog there is an interview from King Baudaouin saying that Queen Fabiola restaured the relationship of the Belgian Court with the Scandinavian Royals.

[Denville]

And does it say why there was a problem?

[CyrilVladisla]

Leopold III became King of Belgium in 1934.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wACPFJziLw

[maria-olivia]

Thank you so much. The last King on a Horse . The same people wanted him to abdicate ! what a sad story.

[Mbruno]

Were King Leopold III and Queen Astrid in love ?

It is unclear to me how dynastic marriages worked. Back in the era of absolute monarchy,, the consorts of princes and princesses were chosen purely based on diplomatic / political goals. By Leopold and Astrid’s time ( or Frederik and Ingrid’s) , a Prince was however given some degree of freedom in terms of who he wanted to marry provided that he chose of course a royal bride. So, rather than a love match, it seems to me it was more a question of picking the person who got along the best with you among the (limited) available pool of candidates. Very different then from the modern-day royal marriages.

Originally Posted by maria-olivia

Thank you so much. The last King on a Horse . The same people wanted him to abdicate ! what a sad story.

It is really unfortunate that the Belgian royal family doesn’t use horse-drawn carriages anymore.Modern motor cars being escorted by horse guards as we often see in Belgian royal events look really weird and rather ugly IMHO.

What happened to those beautiful coaches as the one carrying Queen Astrid for King Leopold ‘s enthronement ? Are they kept in a museum as part of the Royal Collection ?

[JR76]

Originally Posted by Mbruno

Were King Leopold III and Queen Astrid in love ?

It is unclear to me how dynastic marriages worked. Back in the era of absolute monarchy,, the consorts of princes and princesses were chosen purely based on diplomatic / political goals. By Leopold and Astrid’s time ( or Frederik and Ingrid’s) , a Prince was however given some degree of freedom in terms of who he wanted to marry provided that he chose of course a royal bride. So, rather than a love match, it seems to me it was more a question of picking the person who got along the best with you among the (limited) available pool of candidates. Very different then from the modern-day royal marriages.

Both Astrid, her sisters Märta, Margaretha and cousin Ingrid all married for love. Ingeborg of Sweden said about her daughter Margretha and her future son-in-law that she was afraid to leave them alone in a furnished room.
At the announcement of the engagement of Astrid and Leopold in Brussels his mother Queen Elizabeth exclaimed that it was a love match which was evident to anyone who saw the couple. When the bridal party arrived in Belgium Astrid broke all protocol and ran towards Leopold and kissed him before the eyes of the thousands there to great her and her family.
Ingrid famously transformed the rough, brusque sailor with a drinking problem that was Frederik into the great father, husband and king he became. He was literally putty in her hands.
Olav of Norway survived Märtha by 40 years and never got over the loss of his wife.

[Lee-Z]

Originally Posted by maria-olivia

In Royalement Blog there is an interview from King Baudaouin saying that Queen Fabiola restaured the relationship of the Belgian Court with the Scandinavian Royals.

Is this the blogpost you referred to?
Royalement Blog: Archive : entretien du roi Baudouin avec Margit Fjellman en 1971
I think something with regards to the swedish family is mentioned, i can't read french very well unfortunately and in english i seem to miss some details..

[maria-olivia]

Yes . In the middle of the Interview King Baudouin says no body spoke more about my Mother Queen Astrid than my wife. There has been contact interruption during many years but due to Queen Fabiola, they started again and we went to Sweden.
Princess Margaretha of Danemark likes my wife and She likes her...

[JR76]

Originally Posted by maria-olivia

Yes . In the middle of the Interview King Baudouin says no body spoke more about my Mother Queen Astrid than my wife. There has been contact interruption during many years but due to Queen Fabiola, they started again and we went to Sweden.
Princess Margaretha of Danemark likes my wife and She likes her...

Wasn't there contact with Sweden after the war for at least as long as Ingeborg were alive?

[maria-olivia]

A lot of pictures of Princess ingeborg with Astrid 3 young Children before the War. No pictures anymore after the war.
The only picture is Princess Ingeborg at Princess Josephine Charlotte's Wedding.
Only a thought , if King Leopold did not drive his car Queen Astrid should be alive. Was he guilty for his Family in law ?.
Thought 2 : Seeing pictures of Princess Lilian wearing Queen Astrid personal jewels and gifts must have been terrible for Princess Ingeborg.

Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte never missed a Scandinavian glitteriing Event;

[Mbruno]

Originally Posted by maria-olivia

Only a thought , if King Leopold did not drive his car Queen Astrid should be alive. Was he guilty for his Family in law ?.

It was an accident. I think Astrid's family understood that. It is not like Leopold was driving in a reckless way, or was intoxicated, or something like that. At least, I am not aware he was. If you have any additional information on this topic, please share with us.

Thought 2 : Seeing pictures of Princess Lilian wearing Queen Astrid personal jewels and gifts must have been terrible for Princess Ingeborg.

I can't comment on that one. It is reasonable that, if Leopold remarried, his new wife would have access to the family jewels, especially in a family that didn't have that many jewels to choose from. The problem is that Leopold's second marriage was never truly seen as "legitimate", both inside Belgium and out of the country.


As far as I know though, Princess Lilian never wore e.g the Nine Provinces (Astrid's most precious jewel) in its full configuration. She did wear the Nine Provinces big diamonds with Queen Elisabeth's art deco bandeau and the base alone as a bracelet, but never the base of the Nine Provinces properly with the diamonds on top. She also wore Astrid's now missing emerald necklace, which could also be worn as a convertible tiara. I wonder where that ended up.

[Lee-Z]

Originally Posted by maria-olivia

A lot of pictures of Princess ingeborg with Astrid 3 young Children before the War. No pictures anymore after the war.
The only picture is Princess Ingeborg at Princess Josephine Charlotte's Wedding.
Only a thought , if King Leopold did not drive his car Queen Astrid should be alive. Was he guilty for his Family in law ?.
Thought 2 : Seeing pictures of Princess Lilian wearing Queen Astrid personal jewels and gifts must have been terrible for Princess Ingeborg.

Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte never missed a Scandinavian glitteriing Event;

If the difference was indeed *before* WWII and *after* I'd like to add thought 3: maybe the Swedish relatives were not happy with K.Leopold's choices in WWII (I'm pretty sure it was a big deal then)

[JR76]

Originally Posted by Mbruno

She also wore Astrid's now missing emerald necklace, which could also be worn as a convertible tiara. I wonder where that ended up.

Princess Lilian wore parts of the Stockholm tiara as a brooch. The tiara was a wedding gift to Queen Astrid from the city of Stockholm.

Originally Posted by maria-olivia

A lot of pictures of Princess ingeborg with Astrid 3 young Children before the War. No pictures anymore after the war.
The only picture is Princess Ingeborg at Princess Josephine Charlotte's Wedding.
Only a thought , if King Leopold did not drive his car Queen Astrid should be alive. Was he guilty for his Family in law ?.
Thought 2 : Seeing pictures of Princess Lilian wearing Queen Astrid personal jewels and gifts must have been terrible for Princess Ingeborg.

Grand Duchess Josephine Charlotte never missed a Scandinavian glitteriing Event;

I remembered late last night that Josephine-Charlotte told anecdotes in the documentary "A Royal Family" from a family gathering at Fridhem that took place after the war.

I also found this picture from the Golden wedding anniversary of Ingeborg and Carl in 1947. So there must have been some contact with her grandparents. I know that at least Ingeborg was very worried for the future of her Belgian grandchildren.
https://goo.gl/images/GGkz7j

[Curryong]

I read years ago that there were 'difficulties' in Leopold's relationship with his Scandinavian inlaws after Astrid's premature death, so I would guess that perhaps there was some silent finger pointing after the death of a beloved daughter and sister, as well as the guilt that Leopold felt on his own account. As for the accounts of Lilian wearing some of Astrid's jewellery, especially the wedding gifts given specially to the beautiful Swedish princess..goodness knows how they felt.

[maria-olivia]

JR76, This is a picture I never saw. Thank you so much.
No Belgian member of the family , they were on exile in 1947 until 1950. It is strange that even Queen Astrid Children were not alowed to leave the Country.