Albert II Of Belgium biography
The sixth king of the Belgians,
Albert II (born 1934), succeeded to the throne upon the death of his brother, Baudoin, July 31, 1993. He was formally sworn in August 9, 1993.
Belgium found itself unexpectedly with a new king when King Baudoin died on July 31, 1993. Baudoin had no children, and nine days later his younger brother, Albert, took the oath as king of the Belgians (the constitutional title of the Belgian monarch). Albert, born in Brussels on June 6, 1934, to King Leopold III and Queen Astrid, was only three years younger than Baudoin. He did not step aside in favor of his son, Philippe, as had been anticipated; at 33 years of age Philippe was rumored to be still unready for the responsibilities of the monarch.
The throne of Belgium was no longer itself in peril, as it had been under Leopold III because of his disputed role in the surrender of Belgium to the Germans in World War II. After Leopold's abdication in 1950, Baudoin had brought stability but not harmony to a country gripped by a struggle between Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia. At the time of his death Belgium had begun a far-reaching federalization that made the maintenance of Belgian unity as a country questionable. The wave of mourning over Baudoin's passing brought Flemings and Walloons together in support of the monarchy, and there was no support for an anarchist deputy who shouted in favor of a European republic before Albert took his oath. It was thought by some that the rush to full separation into independent states, anticipated for early in the next century, would be halted by the new king's influence and the resurgent commitment to the dynasty.
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Complete and updated biography for Albert II of Belgium