Leopold I of Belgium
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| Leopold I | ||
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| King of the Belgians | ||
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| Reign | July 21, 1831- 10 December 1865 | |
| Born | 16 December 1790 | |
| Coburg, Bavaria | ||
| Died | 10 December 1865 | |
| Laeken, Belgium | ||
| Predecessor | first king | |
| Successor | Leopold II | |
| Consort | Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales Louise-Marie of Orléans |
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| Issue | Prince Louis-Philippe Leopold II Prince Philippe Princess Charlotte |
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| Royal House | Wettin (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha line) | |
| Father | Francis Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield | |
| Mother | Countess Augusta Reuss | |
Leopold I of the Belgians (Prince Leopold George Christian Frederick of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, later of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) (b. Coburg, 16 December 1790 - d. Laeken, 10 December 1865) was from 21 July 1831 the first king of Belgium, or, more correctly, King of the Belgians, according to the constitution of that country. He was the founder of the Belgian line of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
He was the youngest son of Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf, and later became a prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha after the territorial swap by his father in Ehrenburg Castle in the Bavarian town of Coburg.
In 1795, as a mere child, Leopold was appointed colonel of the Izmailovski Imperial Regiment in Russia. Seven years later he became a general. When Napoleonic troops occupied the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg in 1806 Leopold went to Paris. Napoléon offered him the position of adjutant, but he refused. Instead he took up a military career in the Imperial Russian cavalry. He campaigned against Napoléon, and distinguished himself at the Battle of Kulm at the head of his cuirassier division. In 1815 Leopold reached the rank of lieutenant-general in the Russian army.
In Carlton House on 2 May 1816, he married Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales, the only legitimate child of the British Prince Regent (later King George IV of the United Kingdom) and therefore heiress to the British throne, and was created a British field-marshal and Knight of the Garter. On 5 November 1817, Princess Charlotte gave birth to a stillborn son; she herself died the following day. (Had she lived, she would have become Queen of the United Kingdom in 1830 on the death of her father, and Leopold presumably would have been the British Prince Consort instead of King of the Belgians.)
He functioned as a principal advisor to his niece, Queen Victoria, the daughter of his sister Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
On 2 July 1829, Leopold participated in nuptials of doubtful validity (a private marriage-contract with no religious or public ceremony) with the actress Caroline Bauer, created Countess of Montgomery, a cousin of his advisor, Christian Friedrich Freiherr von Stockmar. The marriage reportedly ended in 1831.
In 1830 the people of Greece offered Leopold the Greek crown, but he declined. After Belgium asserted its independence from the Netherlands on 4 October 1830, the Belgian National Congress, after considering several other candidates, asked Leopold to become king of the newly formed country. He accepted and became "King of the Belgians" on 26 June 1831. He swore allegiance to the constitution in the Royal Palace in Brussels on 21 July 1831. This day became the Belgian national holiday.
Less than two weeks later, on 2 August, the Netherlands invaded Belgium. Skirmishes continued for eight years, but in 1839 the two countries signed a treaty establishing Belgium's independence.
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In Compiègne on 9 August 1832, Leopold married with Princess Louise-Marie Thérèse Charlotte Isabelle of Orléans, the eldest daughter of King Louis-Philippe of France. They had four children:
- Louis-Philippe Léopold Victor Ernst (b. Laeken, 24 July 1833 - d. Laeken, 16 May 1834).
- Leopold II Louis-Philippe Marie Victor (b. Brussels, 9 April 1835 - d. Laeken, 17 December 1909).
- Philippe Eugène Ferdinand Marie Clément Baudouin Léopold George (b. Laeken, 24 March 1837 - d. Brussels, November 17, 1905), father of the later King Albert I of Belgium.
- Marie-Charlotte Amélie Auguste Victoire Clémentine Léopoldine (b. Laeken, 7 June 1840 - d. Château de Bouchout, Meise, January 19, 1927), married on 27 July 1857 to Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.
The king also had two illegitimate sons by his long-time mistress, Arcadie Clairet of Viescourt (b. 1826 - d. 1897), who was created Freifrau von Eppinghoven:
- Freiherr Georg von Eppinghoven (b. 1849 - d. 1904).
- Freiherr Arthur von Eppinghoven (b. 1852 - d. 1940).
With the opening of the railway line between Brussels and Mechelen on 5 May 1835, one of King Leopold's fondest hopes—to build the first railway in continental Europe—became a reality.
In 1840 Leopold arranged the marriage of his niece Queen Victoria to his nephew Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, son of his brother Ernst I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
Leopold tried to pass laws to regulate female and child labor in 1842, but unsuccessfully.
A wave of revolutions passed over Europe after the deposition of King Louis-Philippe from the French throne in 1848. Belgium remained neutral, mainly because of Leopold's diplomatic efforts.
At 11:45am on 10 December 1865, the king died in Laeken. He lies buried in the Royal vault at the Church of Our Lady, Laeken Cemetery, Brussels, Belgium.
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| Preceded by: (none) |
King of the Belgians Leopold I 1831–1865 |
Succeeded by: Leopold II |
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Categories: 1790 births | 1865 deaths | Belgian monarchs | House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha | House of Orleans | People of the Belgian Revolution | German nobility | British Field Marshals | Knights of the Garter | Knights of the Golden Fleece | Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath | Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order | Royal Fellows of the Royal Society
