maria-olivia
Majesty
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2006
- Messages
- 8,059
- City
- Brussels
- Country
- Belgium
Thanks for Sending this , more than 10 years later we lost Congo for ever.
(It was not Prince Charles fault ...)
(It was not Prince Charles fault ...)
We have to wait for better informations and why not a film about Prince Charles who saved the Monarchy.
On September 21st 1944 Prince Charles of Belgium, Count of Flanders, became Regent. So today it is exactly 75 years ago.
That Prince Charles became Regent was not an automatism. The Belgian Government was not obliged to appoint someone from the royal family. But in political circles many soon agreed that Prince Charles was the best candidate. Inside Belgium the only other relative of the King was his mother, Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians born Duchess in Bavaria. No one considered her as a Regentess. Queen Elisabeth enjoyed some respect but lacked insight in people and politics. As André de Staercke (Chef Cabinet of Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot) wrote: Queen Elisabeth was able to appoint someone Prime Minister, just because he was a good doctor or a gifted musician.
So it became Prince Charles. A man not really known to most Belgians and to most politicians. The Prince had the reputation of being an anglophile, a remnant of his military education in the British Royal Navy. It was also known that the Prince had a difficult relationship with his brother and his mother. There was an inferiority complex and Queen Elisabeth even labelled him an "enfant terrible". His mother, who adored Leopold, never took him au sérieux. She did not hide her discontent when she heard that Prince Charles, and not she, became Regent. (Much later Prince Charles would state that his mother never forgave him for taking up the regency).
Also in the Royal Household there was discontent. The courtiers, naturally on the hand of the King, were furious that Prince Charles "usurped the throne" and this with the help of Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot ("a despicable man" according Leopold). The King's secretary, Robert Capelle, wrote a letter to Prince Charles: accepting the regency would be "illegal". The secretary reminded the Prince to his brother's "Political Testament" which was very negative about the Cabinet Pierlot (which went to London against his will and without any word about the allied countries or the resistance). This letter was handed to Field Marshall Sir Bernard Law Montgomery himself by the Grand Marshall of the Court, count Louis Cornet d'Elzius de Ways Ruart. When Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill read the letter, he was outraged and ordered the British Ambassador in Brussels, Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, to demand an explanation about "that dirty paper".
As a consequence of this incident, Prince Charles dismissed the Grand Marshall of the Court. This caused an uproar at the Court, not in the least with Queen Elisabeth, who remained firm behind her eldest son Leopold despite his very unwise "political testament". To make things worse in their eyes: the Prince did appoint André de Staercke (Chef Cabinet of Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot) as his secretary. To the dismay of the courtiers the Prince offered "a stronghold inside the Court" to a man they considered as "an intrigant and a puppet of Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot".
In the meantime Prince Charles showed that he completely supported the allied countries. In London he visited King George VI, Prime Minister Churchill and also Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (offering financial support from his own purse for children hit by the gruesome Winter of Famine in the still occupied Netherlands).
When finally Nazi Germany capitulated in May 1945, King Leopold was freed from exile in Austria and thought he could go back to Brussels and resume his kingship. When his brother Charles told him there was no way he could simply return to the throne without an invitation by the Government, a feud broke out between the two brothers.
While the King was in exile in Switzerland, Prince Charles effectively was the head of state for 5 years. He again outraged his brother and the Court when he elevated former Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot into the Nobility with the title of Count. Not only was Pierlot an enemy of Leopold III, Charles had no right to bestow nobility, in the eyes of the leopoldists.
In general the Belgians were happy under Prince Charles. The country was booming and the Regent kept himself far from politics. Many saw Charles as an ideal King, but he himself considered his nephew Prince Baudouin as the constitutional successor to the King. His idea was to remain a Regent until Prince Baudouin could take over. This indeed happened in 1950.
After the end of his regency, Prince Charles withdrew from public, to live at his domain near Raversijde (Ostend). So now and then the Prince came in the news because of financial problems. Allegedly there were fortunes spent on maîtresses and fortunes disappeared because of shady "advisers" misusing the "Weltfremd" (naïve) Prince. The feud between the two brothers remained. Still in 1982 King Leopold wrote a letter to Prince Charles, blaming him for serious damage "because of your attitude to me, to the country, the dynasty, family..."
Charles himself stated that he had saved "de brol" ("the crap", the monarchy) but that he was never given any gratitude for it. By the way: the Prince blamed his brother that he was not allowed to marry a Belgian "commoner" (Jacqueline Wehrli) while he himself married Liliane Baels.
Link: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/drafts/jan-ouvry/75-jaar-geleden-het-regentschap/
Queen Elisabeth as Regent of Belgium would have been interesting and possibly the only ever Female Regent of the kingdom.
It would most likely have meant the downfall of the monarchy as the Queen, blind for her eldest son's faults, always played the card "Leopold", was open to intrigants, was totally "Weltfremd" and failed to see the longer term goal (the survival of the monarchy) over the short term gain (her sweetie Leopold).
But now there was supposed to be a real marriage. Supposed, as no prove was ever given for it. On September 14th 1977 he might have been married a Jacquenline de Peyrebrune in Paris. He met her during the war in the resistance, he was Monsieur Richard, she Madame Schaak. Charles himself never said a word about the marriage, documents that would prove that a marriage had taken place disappeared and the Belgian court doesn´t say a word about this marriage: ´no comment´.
I read her book , this was not legit and no civil wedding.
He has a daughter who is still living Mme Wibo, very discret old Lady. I don't know her Mother ?
The final word seems to be in L'Allemagne Dynastique, vol VII p 385 quoting Mme Schaack nee Peyrebrune herself and the statement issued after the blessing of her and Prince Charles. Here is my translation: "The religious marriage of Prince Charles does not appear in the Paris, Franceh registers of Saint Pierre de Mountrouge. However, Mme Schaack, nee Jacqueline Peyrebrune...has kindly informed us of the strictly private blessing happily given, eight months after the death of M Georges Schaack, on 14.9.1977 by Father Marcelino Carrera who has given the following attestation: The private blessing uniting before God Charles Theodore count of Flanders and Louise Marie Jacqueline Peyrebrune was given at Saint Peter's at the altar of the Sacred Heart on 14 September 1977. The mutual legal consent was received by your humble brother in Christ [Fr Carrera] in the presence of Father Keller and witnesses [comtesse Annie de Bergeret and Mme Marie Jeannette Aurelie Menahes]. The statement is also signed by the participants and witnesses. Similarly, Madame Jacqueline (de) Peyrebrune who published in 1991 through Editions Tarmeye her memoirs with the title Love in Shadow - the secret garden of Prince Charles of Belgium followed in 1993, by the same publisher, by Carnets intimes....It seems from the correspondence we have exchanged that she considers the union as strictly private and celebrated only devant Dieu. Also, it should be noted that a religious marriage cannot legally take place in French law unless it has been preceded by a civil one." There was no religious marriage and no civil one. So, technically, Prince Charles died unmarried. ...
I read her book , this was not legit and no civil wedding.
He has a daughter who is still living Mme Wibo, very discret old Lady. I don't know her Mother ?