Leopold III of Belgium
| Leopold III | |
|---|---|
| King of the Belgians | |
 |
|
| King Leopold III with his first wife Astrid of Sweden | |
| Reign | 23 February 1934 – 16 July 1951 (17 years) |
| Predecessor | Albert I |
| Successor | Baudouin I |
| Consort | Astrid of Sweden Lilian Baels |
| Issue | |
| Princess Josephine-Charlotte Baudouin Albert II Prince Alexander Princess Marie-Christine Princess Maria-Esmeralda |
|
| Full name | |
| Leopold Philip Charles Albert Meinrad Hubertus Maria Michael | |
| Royal house | Saxe-Coburg and Gotha |
| Father | Albert I |
| Mother | Elisabeth of Bavaria |
| Born | 3 November 1901 Brussels, Belgium |
| Died | 25 September 1983 (aged 81) Woluwe-Saint-Lambert, Belgium |
Leopold III (born as Léopold Philippe Charles Albert Meinrad Hubertus Marie Miguel (French) or Leopold Filips Karel Albert Meinrad Hubertus Maria Miguel (Dutch) or Leopold Philipp Karl Albert Meinrad Hubertus Maria Miguel (German); 3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the Heir Apparent, his son Baudouin.
Leopold III was born in Brussels as Prince Leopold of Belgium, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and succeeded to the throne of Belgium on 23 February 1934 on the death of his father, King Albert I.
He was invested as the 1,154th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain in 1923, the 355th Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword in 1927 and the 833rd Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1935.
Contents |
Early life and family
Crown Prince Leopold fought as a private during World War I with the 12th Belgian Regiment while still a teenager. After the war, in 1919, he enrolled first at Eton College in the United Kingdom, then at St. Anthony Seminary in Santa Barbara, California. He married Princess Astrid of Sweden in a civil ceremont in Stockholm on 4 November 1926, followed by a religious ceremony in Brussels on 10 November. The marriage produced three children:
- Joséphine-Charlotte, Princess of Belgium, born at the Royal Palace of Brussels on 11 October 1927, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. She was married on 9 April 1953 to Prince Jean, later Grand-Duke of Luxembourg. She died at Fischbach Castle on 10 January 2005.
- Baudouin, Prince of Belgium, who became the fifth King of the Belgians as Baudouin I, born at Stuyvenberg on the outskirts of Brussels on 7 September 1930, and died at Motril, Spain on 31 July 1993.
- Albert, Prince of Liège, Prince of Belgium, born at Stuyvenberg on 6 June 1934. He is the reigning King of the Belgians as Albert II.
On 29 August 1935, while the King and Queen were driving along the winding, narrow roads near their villa at Küssnacht am Rigi, Schwyz, Switzerland on the shores of Lake Lucerne, Leopold lost control of the car which plunged into the lake, killing Queen Astrid and her unborn fourth child.
King Leopold married Lilian Baels on 11 September 1941 in a secret, morganatic religious ceremony. They originally intended to wait until the end of the war for their official ceremony, but as the new Princesse de Réthy was soon expecting their first child, the ceremony took place on 6 December 1941. They had three children in total:
- Alexander, Prince of Belgium, born in Brussels on 18 July 1942. In 1991 he married Lea Inga Dora Wohlman, a marriage revealed only seven years later. She was created a Princess of Belgium in her own right.
- Marie-Christine, Princess of Belgium, born in Brussels on 6 February 1951. Her first marriage, to Paul Drucker in 1981, lasted 40 days (though they were not formally divorced until 1985); she subsequently married Jean-Paul Gourges in 1989.
- Maria-Esmeralda, Princess of Belgium, born in Brussels on 30 September 1956, a journalist, her professional name is Esmeralda de Réthy. She married Salvador Moncada, a noted pharmacologist, in 1998. They have a son and a daughter.
World War II and controversy
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
On May 10, 1940 the German army invaded Belgium. During the 1930s Leopold had made extensive preparations against an invasion of his country, which historically had been used as a convenient battlefield in wars between France and Germany. As a result Belgium was probably the best prepared country in Europe against the Axis forces at the start of World War II. The Belgian artillery was very effective and hurt the German military considerably during the three weeks that it took them to overwhelm the little country.
However, during the invasion, the King was unable to effectively coordinate with the British Expeditionary Force or the French Army against the full force of the Blitzkrieg, having failed to make an alliance with them before the war started.
Nonetheless, the Belgian perseverance prevented the British Expeditionary Force from being outflanked for a time and cut off from the coast, enabling the evacuation from Dunkirk. After his military surrender Leopold stayed on in Brussels to face the victorious invaders, while his entire civil government fled to Paris and later London.
Surrender and controversy
On May 24, King Leopold, having assumed command of the Belgian army, met with his ministers for what would be the final time. Prime Minister Pierlot reminded the King that capitulation was a decision Belgian government should make, not the King. The King indicated that he had decided to remain in Belgium with his troops, whatever the outcome. The ministers took this to mean that he would establish a new government under the direction of Hitler. They saw this as a potentially treasonous act. Leopold thought that he might be seen as a deserter when he left the country: "Whatever happens, I have to share the same fate as my troops."[1] The King had long had a difficult and contentious relationship with his ministers, acting independently of government influence whenever possible, and seeking to circumvent and even limit the ministers' powers, while expanding his own.[1]
Along with the Belgian troops, French and British troops were encircled by German forces at Dunkirk. On May 27, with little notice to his French or British allies, the King surrendered Belgian forces to the Germans. Belgian Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot spoke on French radio, saying that the King's decision to surrender went against the Constitution. Pierlot's reasoning was that the decision was not only a military decision but also a political decision, and according to the Belgian Constitution, the King is not allowed to take political decisions without his ministers' advice. Pierlot and his Government also believed that the King's decision-making was impossibilité de régner:
Should the King find himself unable to reign, the ministers, having observed this inability, immediately summon the Chambers. Regency and guardianship are to be provided by the united Chambers.[2]
Leopold's action brought accusations of treason by French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud. French troops continued to fight the Germans. Two Flemish historians wrote that Leopold III was "The scapegoat of Reynaud"[3] because the French Prime Minister was likely already aware the Battle of France was lost.
In a very different situation, Winston Churchill said in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on 4 June 1940:
| “ | At the last moment when Belgium was already invaded, King Leopold called upon us to come to his aid, and even at the last moment we came. He and his brave, efficient Army, nearly half a million strong, guarded our left bank and thus kept open our only line of retreat to the sea. Suddenly, without prior consultation, with the least possible notice, without the advice of his ministers and upon his own personal act, he sent a plenipotentiary to the German Command, surrendered his Army and exposed our whole flank and means of retreat."[4] | ” |
This speech is similar to the speeches of Reynaud and Hubert Pierlot. In 1949, Churchill's comments in his memoirs about the events of May 1940 were published in Le Soir (12 February 1949). The ex-secretary of King Leopold sent a letter to Churchill saying Churchill was wrong. Churchill sent a copy of this letter to the King's brother, Regent Prince Charles, via his Secretary André de Staercke. In the letter he wrote,
| “ | With regards to King Leopold, the words which I used at the time in the House of Commons are upon record and after careful consideration I do not see any reason to change them (...) it seemed to me and many others that the King should have been guided by the advice of his Ministers and should not have favoured a course which identified the capitulation of the Belgian Army with the submission of the Belgian State to Herr Hitler and consequently taking them out of the war. Happily this evil was averted, and in the end, all came right. I need scarcely say that nothing I said at the time could be interpreted as a reflection upon the personal courage or honour of King Leopold."[5] | ” |
De Staercke replied that Churchill was right: "The Prince, Monsieur Spaak and I read your text which is saying the very truth, which seems perfect to us." [6]
André de Staercke was one of the most important witnesses to the Belgian government's internal crisis of 1940. At his request, his memoirs (which Churchill suggested he wrote) about Prince Charles were only published after de Staercke's death in 2003, with the help of and a preface written by Jean Stengers. The memoir underlines the fact that King Baudouin of Belgium did not like the people who were opposed to his father at the time of the Royal question, but that eventually de Staercke became a friend of his. At the meal following the funeral of Prince Charles in June 1983, King Baudouin placed him at his right.[7]
Some Belgian historians believe that capitulation was necessary because the Belgian Army was not able to fight any longer against the German army. They underline another opinion of Churchill about the last days before the Battle of Dunkirk. Churchill wrote in a telegram on May 27, only one day before the Belgian capitulation, to Lord Gort: "We are asking them to sacrifice themselves for us."[8]
After the fall of France
At the fall of France at the end of June 1940, the ministers who had fled to London made an overture to King Leopold, seeking to return to Belgium.
| “ | Pierlot and his government saw that Western Europe had been conquered by the Germans completely and tried to make amends to their King. Would it be possible for them to return to Belgium and form a new government? Leopold showed his stubborn nature; he was insulted by his ministers... His reply was short: 'The situation of the King is unaltered; he does not engage in politics and does not receive politicians.'[1] | ” |
Jean Stengers wrote about this period when the ministers were trying to re-unite the Belgian government. He pointed out that some ministers (including De Vleeschauwer) were already in London in June and August (Gutt, with the agreement of the Belgian Government, was in exile in France). On August 2, De Vleeschauwxer, Gutt, Pierlot and Spaak had a conversation in Le Perthus, near the Spanish border. Pierlot and Spaak were persuaded by De Vleeschauwer to go to London, but they were able to start only at the end of August, and could only travel via neutral Spain and Portugal. When they reached Portugal, they were arrested and detained by the police of Francisco Franco, finally arriving in London on October 22.
Because of the great popularity of the King and the fact the civil government became unpopular in Belgium during June and July 1940,[9], a government crisis ensued. The Royal Articles state:
| “ | This refusal [of the King to reconcile with the ministers] left the ministers with no other option than to move to London, where they could continue their work representing the independent Belgium. From the time of their arrival in London, they were confident about an Allied victory and soon were treated with respect by the Allies.... Pierlot and Spaak helped to build Leopold's reputation as a heroic prisoner of war and even said that the Belgians should support their King. But they had no idea what Leopold was doing in [the Royal Palace at] Laeken. He refused to reply to their messages and stayed cool toward them. What was he doing in the castle? Was he collaborating, did he oppose the Germans, or had he decided to just shut his mouth and wait to see how things would go?[10] | ” |
Meeting with Hitler
King Leopold rejected cooperation with the Nazis and refused to administer Belgium in accordance with their dictates, and the Germans implemented a military government. The King attempted to assert his authority as monarch and head of the Belgian government although he was a prisoner of the Germans. Despite his defiance of the Germans, the Belgian government-in-exile in London maintained that the King did not represent the Belgian government and was unable to reign. The Germans held him at first under house arrest at the Royal Castle in Brussels. Having desired a meeting with Adolf Hitler since June 1940, Leopold III finally met with him on November 19, 1940. The King wanted Hitler to issue a public statement about Belgium's future independence. Hitler's vision of a united Europe did not include independent countries within its borders. He refused to speak about the independence of Belgium or issue a statement about it. In refusing to publish the statement, Hitler unintentionally preserved the King from being seen as cooperating with Germany, and thus engaged in treasonous acts, which would have likely meant he was forced to abdicate after the war. "The [German] Chancellor saved the King two times."[11]
The King's marriage
On 11 September 1941, while a prisoner of the Germans, the King secretly married Lilian Baels in a religious ceremony that had no validity under Belgian law, as Belgian law required a religious marriage to be preceded by a legal or civil marriage. On December 6, they were married under civil law. The reason for the out-of-order marriages were not made public, but they had a child seven months later in June 1942. It would have been acceptable for the King to have maintained an "unofficial" relationship with Lilian.
Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey, Archbishop of Mechelen, wrote an open letter to parish priests throughout the country announcing the King's second marriage on December 7. The letter revealed that the King's new wife would be known as Princesse de Réthy, not Queen Lilian, and that any children they had would have no claim to the throne (though they would be Princes or Princesses of Belgium). The King's new marriage damaged his reputation further in the eyes of many of his subjects.
The political testament
Its content
In January 1944, Leopold wrote a "political testament," to be published in case he was not in Belgium when the country was entered by Allied forces. The testament, which had an imperious and negative tone, considered the potential Allied movement into Belgium as an "occupation" and not a "liberation". It also did not give credit to the active Belgian resistance which caused additional controversy. The Belgian government in London did not like Leopold's demand that the government ministers involved in the 1940 crisis be exonerated. The Allies did not like Leopold's repudiation of the treaties concluded by the Belgian government-in-exile in London. The United States was particularly concerned about the economic treaty it had reached with the Belgian government in London that enabled them to obtain Congolese uranium for America's secret atom bomb program).
Later that year, Heinrich Himmler ordered King Leopold deported to Germany. Princess Liliane followed with the family in another car the following day under an SS armed guard. The Nazis held the family in a fort at Hirschstein in Saxony from June 1944 to March 1945, and then at Strobl, Austria. They were freed by members of the United States 106th Cavalry Group in early May 1945. Because of the controversy about his conduct during the war, Léopold III and his wife and children were unable to return to Belgium and spent the next six years in exile at Pregny-Chambésy near Geneva, Switzerland, a regency under his brother Prince Charles that had been established by the Legislature in 1944.
Controversy among foreign and Belgian Governments, threat of Wallonia's separation
|
||||||||||||
Along with the controversy within Belgium, the British and American Governments were worried about the return of the King. Leopold III was prisoner of the Germans. Everyone knew in March 1945 the future capitulation of Germany. But nobody knew the King's location in Germany. Charles Sawyer warned his government an immediate return by the king to Belgium would "precipitate serious difficulties." "There are deep differences even in the Royal family and the situation holds dynamite for Belgium and perhaps for Europe."[12] "The Foreign Office feared that an increasing minority in French-speaking Wallonia would demand either autonomy or annexation to France. Winant, the American Ambassador to the Court of Saint James, reported a Foreign Office official's concern regarding irridentist propaganda in Wallonia."[13] and that "the French Ambassador in Brussels... is believed to have connived in the spreading of this propaganda."[14]
Van den Dungen, the rector of the Université Libre de Bruxelles wrote to King Leopold on 25 June 1945 about concerns for serious disorder in Wallonia, "The question is not if the accusations against you are right or not [but that...] You are no more a symbol of the Belgian unity."[15]
Gilllon, the President of the Blegian Senate, told the King that there was a threat of serious disorder: "If there are only ten or twenty killed people, the situation would become terrible for the King."[16].
The President of the Belgian House of Representatives, Van Cauwelaert, was concerned that there would be a General strike in Wallonia and revolt in Liège. He wrote, "The country is not able to put down the disorders because of the insufficient forces of the police and a lack of weapons."[17]
As for the political testament, the Belgian government did not publish it and tried to ignore it, partly in fear of an upsurge in support for the Belgian Communist party if they did. When the Belgian Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot and the Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak read Leopold's testament a few day after the liberation of Belgium, on September 9, 1944, they thought that such a king should never be allowed (and able) to reign.
The two Ministers made many efforts during the war to work out a suitable agreement with Leopold III. They sent Pierlot's son-in-law as an emissary to the King in January 1944, carrying a letter offering reconciliation from the Belgian government in exile. However, the letter never reached its destination, as the son-in-law was killed by the Germans enroute. The ministers did not know what happened to the message and the messenger, and assumed King Leopold was ignoring them.
King Leopold wrote his Political Testament shortly after this failed attempt at reconciliation. When Pierlot and Spaak learned of its contents in September 1944, they were absolutely astonished and felt terribly deceived by the King. But firstly, following, André de Staercke the Regent's Secretary Prince Charles (the same rank as a King's Secretary because the Regent had in this period the same rank as the King, being Head of State), they were dismayd "in front of so much blindness and awareness" [18]
The reaction of Winston Churchill about the Testament was: "It stinks."[19] or, following an other version, a sentence inspired by a quote of Talleyrand about the Bourbons after the restoration of the monarchy in France in 1815: "He is like the Bourbons, he has nothing learned and everything forgotten."[20]
In 1946, a commission of inquiry exonerated Leopold of treason. Nonetheless, controversy concerning his loyalty continued, and in 1950, a referendum was held about his future. Fifty-seven per cent of the voters favoured his return. The divide between Leopoldists and anti-Leopoldists ran along the lines of socialists and Walloons who were mostly opposed (42% favourable votes in Wallonia) and Christian Democrats and Flemings who were more in favour of the King (70% favourable votes in Flanders).
General strike of 1950
On his return to Belgium in 1950, he was met with strikes and other protests. The strikes turned violent and in clashes with the gendarmerie, several protesters were killed. With the country on the brink of civil war, and the Belgian banners in Wallonia being replaced by Walloon flags (in Liège and other municipalities of Wallonia[21]), in order to avoid tearing his country apart, and to preserve the monarchy, King Léopold decided to abdicate on 16 July 1951 in favour of his 20-year-old son Baudouin.
Titles
- His Royal Highness Prince Leopold of Belgium (1901–1909)
- His Royal Highness Leopold, Duke of Brabant, Prince of Belgium (1909–1934)
- His Majesty The King of the Belgians (1934–1951)
- His Majesty King Leopold of Belgium (after abdication in 1951–death)
Post abdication life
In retirement, he followed his passion as an amateur social anthropologist and entomologist and travelled the world. He went, for instance, to Senegal and strongly criticized the French decolonization process; and he explored the Amazon with Heinrich Harrer.[22]
King Leopold died in 1983 at Woluwe-Saint-Lambert (Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe). He is interred next to Queen Astrid in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady in Laeken. The princesse de Réthy is buried in the churchyard.
Ancestry
| Leopold III of Belgium | Father: Albert I of Belgium |
Paternal Grandfather: Philip, Count of Flanders |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Leopold I of Belgium |
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Louise-Marie of France |
|||
| Paternal Grandmother: Princess Marie of Hohenzollern |
Paternal Great-grandfather: Karl Anton, Prince of Hohenzollern |
||
| Paternal Great-grandmother: Josephine of Baden |
|||
| Mother: Elisabeth of Bavaria |
Maternal Grandfather: Karl-Theodor, Duke in Bavaria |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Maximilian Joseph, Duke in Bavaria |
|
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Princess Ludovika of Bavaria |
|||
| Maternal Grandmother: Infanta Maria Josepha of Portugal |
Maternal Great-grandfather: Miguel of Portugal |
||
| Maternal Great-grandmother: Adelaide of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Rosenberg |
See also
- Crown Council of Belgium
- Kings of Belgium family tree
- Royal Trust
References
- Jean Stengers, Léopold III et le gouvernement: les deux politiques belges de 1940. Duculot, 1980
- War Controversy (in Dutch)
- Pincess Lilian, his second wife (in French)
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 The Royal Articles
- ↑ The Belgian Constitution Belgian Constitution, Title III, Chapter 3, Art 93
- ↑ Dutch De zondebok van Reynaud Velaers en Van Goethem Leopold III, Lannoo, Tielt, 1994 ISBN 90-2092387-0,p. 264.
- ↑ Jean Stengers, Léopold III et le gouvernement, Duculot, Gembloux, 1980, p. 28. ISBN 2-8011-0282-4. The text is quoted in French in this book but the original text is quoted here.
- ↑ Churchill's letter to de Saercke, quoted in English in André de Staercke, Tout cela a passé comme une ombre, Mémoires sur la Régence et la Question royale, Preface of Jean Stengers, Racine, Bruxelles, 2003, p. 279. ISBN 2-87386-316-1
- ↑ French Le Prince, Monsieur Spaak et moi-même avons lu (...) votre texte [qui] exprime l'exacte vérité, nous semble parfait. André de Staercke, Tout cela a passé comme une ombre, Mémoires sur la Régence et la Question royale, Ibidem, p. 280.
- ↑ Preface of Jean Stengers of the book Tout cela a passé comme une ombre, opus citatus, p. 15.
- ↑ Francis Balace, Fors l'honneur. Ombres et clartés sur la capitulation belge in Jours de guerre n° 4, Bruxelles 1991, pages 5-50, p. 21 ISBN 2-87193-137-2
- ↑ Jean Stengers, Léopold III et le gouvernement, opus, citatus, pages 199-128
- ↑ The Royal Articles
- ↑ Jean Stengers, opus citatus, p. 161
- ↑ United States Department of State Records (USDSR), National Archives, 855.001 Leopold, Sawyer to Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Mar. 29.1945.
- ↑ Jonathan E. Helmreich, Dean of Instruction (Allegheny College), United States Policy and the Belgian Royal Question (March - October, 1945)
- ↑ USDSR Ibidem, Winant to Stettinius, 26 May 1945. J. E. Hemelreich adds "There is no further mention in the file of any alleged French activities."
- ↑ Dutch Het is niet de vraag of de aantijgingen die tegen U werden ingebracht terecht zijn [maar dat...] U niet langer een symbool is voor de Belgish eenheid. Velaers en Van Goethem Leopold III, Lannooo, Tielt, 1994 ISBN 90-2092387-0,p. 955
- ↑ Dutch Al vielen er maaar tien of twintig doden, de situatie van de koning zou vlug vreselijk worden Velaers en Van Goethem, opus citatus, p. 968
- ↑ Dutch Het land zou de ontlusten niet kunnen bedwingen wegens een ontoereikende politie macht een een tekort aan wapens. Velaers and Van Goethem, opus citatus, p. 969
- ↑ French ils étaient dominés par la consternation devant tant d'aveuglement et d'inconscience André de Staercke, Tout cela a passé comme une ombre, Mémoires sur la Régence et la Question royale, opus citatus p. 75.
- ↑ Jean Stengers, Léopold III et le gouvernement, opus citatus, p. 176
- ↑ Jean Stengers, ibidem
- ↑ Philippe Destatte, L'Identité wallonne, Institut Destrée, Charleroi, 1997, p.235 ISBN 2-87035-000-7
- ↑ Beyond seven years in Tibet
|
Leopold III of Belgium
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Cadet branch of the House of Wettin
Born: 3 November 1901 Died: 25 September 1983 |
||
| Regnal titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Albert I |
King of the Belgians 1934–1951 |
Succeeded by Baudouin I |
| Belgian royalty | ||
| Vacant
Title last held by
Leopold |
Duke of Brabant 1909–1934 |
Succeeded by Baudouin I |