Baudouin of Belgium

Baudouin
Baudouin photographed in 1960
King of the Belgians
Reign	17 July 1951 – 31 July 1993
Predecessor	Leopold III
Successor	Albert II
Prime Ministers	See list Joseph Pholien Jean Van Houtte Achille Van Acker Gaston Eyskens Théo Lefèvre Pierre Harmel Paul Vanden Boeynants Edmond Leburton Leo Tindemans Wilfried Martens Mark Eyskens Jean-Luc Dehaene
Born	(1930-09-07)7 September 1930 Château du Stuyvenberg, Laeken, Belgium
Died	31 July 1993(1993-07-31) (aged 62) Villa Astrida, Motril, Spain
Burial	Church of Our Lady of Laeken
Consort	Fabiola de Mora y Aragón
Full name Dutch: Boudewijn Albert Karel Leopold Axel Maria Gustaaf French: Baudouin Albert Charles Léopold Axel Marie Gustave German: Balduin Albrecht Karl Leopold Axel Marie Gustav
House	Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
Father	Leopold III of Belgium
Mother	Astrid of Sweden

Belgian Royalty
House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

Leopold I
Children Crown Prince Louis-Philippe Leopold II Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders Charlotte, Empress of Mexico Grandchildren Prince Baudouin Princess Joséphine Marie Princess Henriette, Duchess of Vendome and Alençon Joséphine Caroline, Princess of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Albert I
Leopold II
Children Louise, Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant Stéphanie, Crown Princess of Austria Clémentine, Princess Napoléon
Albert I
Children Leopold III Prince Charles, Count of Flandres Marie-José, Queen of Italy
Leopold III
Children Joséphine-Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg Baudouin Albert II Prince Alexandre Princess Marie-Christine, Mrs. Gourges Princess Maria-Esmeralda, Lady Moncada
Baudouin
Albert II
Children Philippe Princess Astrid, Archduchess of Austria-Este Prince Laurent Grandchildren Prince Amedeo Princess Maria Laura Prince Joachim Princess Luisa Maria Princess Laetitia Maria Princess Louise Prince Nicolas Prince Aymeric
Philippe
Children Princess Elisabeth, Duchess of Brabant Prince Gabriel Prince Emmanuel Princess Eléonore

Baudouin^[1] (Dutch: Boudewijn, German: Balduin; 7 September 1930 – 31 July 1993) reigned as the fifth King of the Belgians, following his father's abdication, from 1951 until his death in 1993. He was the last Belgian king to be sovereign of Congo.

He was the elder son of King Leopold III (1901–83) and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden (1905–35). Because he had no children with his wife, Fabiola de Mora, the crown passed to his younger brother, Albert II (formerly Prince of Liège), following his death.

Ascent to the throne

Baudouin was born in the Château du Stuyvenberg, near Laeken, Brussels, in Belgium, in 1930, the son of Prince Leopold, the then Duke of Brabant, and his wife, Astrid of Sweden. His father became King of the Belgians, as Leopold III, in 1934. Baudouin's mother died in 1935 in an automobile accident.

Part of Leopold III's unpopularity was the result of a second marriage in 1941 to Mary Lilian Baels, an English-born Belgian commoner, later known as Princess de Réthy. More controversial had been Leopold's decision to surrender to Nazi Germany during the Second World War, when Belgium was invaded in 1940; many Belgians questioned his loyalties, but a commission of inquiry exonerated him of treason after the war. Though reinstated in a plebiscite, the controversy surrounding Leopold led to his abdication.

During the war the king was deported by command of Adolf Hitler to Hirschstein.

King Leopold III requested the Belgian Government and the Parliament to approve a law delegating his royal powers to his son, Prince Baudouin, who took the constitutional oath before the United Chambers of the Belgian Parliament as Prince Royal on 11 August 1950. He ascended the throne and became the fifth King of the Belgians upon taking the constitutional oath on 17 July 1951, one day following his father's abdication.

The Congolese called the young king Mwana Kitoko ("beautiful boy").

Marriage

On 15 December 1960, Baudouin was married in Brussels to Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón. The King and Queen had no children; all of the Queen's five pregnancies ended in miscarriage.^[2]

Notable events

King Baudouin in Luluabourg (Belgian Congo), 1955.

Baudouin and Fabiola with US President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon in May 1969.

During Baudouin's reign the colony of Belgian Congo became independent. During the last ceremonial inspection of the Force Publique, the royal sabre of the king was stolen during a parade by Ambroise Boimbo. The photograph, taken by Robert Lebeck, was widely published in world newspapers,^[3][4] with some seeing the act as a humiliation for the king.^[5] The next day the king attended the official reception; he gave a speech that received a blistering response by Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.^[6]

Baudouin attended the State funeral of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, as the head of state of Belgium, and one of many dignitaries at that state funeral, along with Paul-Henri Spaak, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former three-time Prime Minister of Belgium.

In 1990, when Baudouin refused to sign into law a bill permitting abortion, the cabinet assumed the power to promulgate the law while he was treated as "unable to govern" for twenty-four hours.^[7]

In 1976, on the 25th anniversary of Baudouin's accession, the King Baudouin Foundation was formed, with the aim of improving the living conditions of the Belgian people.

He was the 1,176th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain in 1960 and the 930th Knight of the Order of the Garter. ^[8][9]

Religious influences

Baudouin was a devout Roman Catholic. Through the influence of Leo Cardinal Suenens, Baudouin participated in the growing Renewal Movement and regularly went on pilgrimages to the French shrine of Paray-le-Monial.

In 1990, when a law submitted by Roger Lallemand and Lucienne Herman-Michielsens that liberalised Belgium's abortion laws was approved by Parliament, he refused to give Royal Assent to the bill. This was unprecedented; although Baudouin was de jure Belgium's chief executive, Royal Assent has long been a formality (as is the case in most constitutional and popular monarchies). However, due to his religious convictions, Baudouin asked the Government to declare him temporarily unable to reign so that he could avoid signing the measure into law.^[10] The Government under Wilfried Martens complied with his request on 4 April 1990. According to the provisions of the Belgian Constitution, in the event the King is temporarily unable to reign, the Government as a whole fulfills the role of Head of State. All members of the Government signed the bill, and the next day (5 April 1990) the Government declared that Baudouin was capable of reigning again.

Death, succession, and legacy

Baudouin reigned for 42 years. He died of heart failure on 31 July 1993 in the Villa Astrida in Motril, in the south of Spain.^[11] Although in March 1992 the King had been operated for a Mitral valve prolapse in Paris, his death still came unexpectedly, and sent much of Belgium into a period of deep mourning. His death notably stopped the 1993 24 Hours of Spa sportscar race, which had reached the 15-hour mark when the news broke.

Within hours the Royal Palace gates and enclosure were covered with flowers that people brought spontaneously. A viewing of the body was held at the Royal Palace in central Brussels; 500,000 people (5% of the population) came to pay their respects. Many waited in line up to 14 hours in sweltering heat to see their King one last time. Along with other members of European royalty, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom attended the funeral.

King Baudouin was interred in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, Brussels, Belgium. He was succeeded by his younger brother, who became King Albert II.

Honours

Monogram

Monogram

National honours

•  Belgium:
  • Grand Master of the Order of Leopold^{[12][13][14][15][16]}
  • Grand Master of the Order of the African Star^[17][18][19]
  • Grand Master of the Royal Order of the Lion
  • Grand Master of the Order of the Crown
  • Grand Master of the Order of Leopold II

Foreign honours

•  Argentina: Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín^[20]
•  Austria: Grand Star of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria^[21]
•  Democratic Republic of the Congo: Grand Cordon of the National Order of the Leopard^[22][23]
•  Denmark: Knight of the Order of the Elephant
•  Germany: Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany^[24]
  •  Bavaria: Member of the Bavarian Order of Merit^[24]
•  Iceland: Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Falcon^[25]
•  Italy: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic^[26]
•  Holy See:
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
  • Knight of the Supreme Order of Christ^[27][28][29]
•  Sovereign Military Order of Malta: Bailiff Grand Cross of Justice of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
•  Japan: Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum^[30]
•  Luxembourg: Knight of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau^[31]
•  Netherlands:
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion^[32][33][34]
  • Recipient of the Wedding Medal of Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands and Claus van Amsberg.^[35]
•  Norway: Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St. Olav^[36]
•  Portugal: Grand Collar of the Order of Prince Henry
•  Spain:
  • 1,171^st Knight of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece^[37][38]
  • Knight of the Collar of the Order of Charles III^[37][39]
  • Knight of the Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic^[40][41][42]
•  Sweden: Knight with Collar of the Royal Order of the Seraphim^[43][44]
•  Thailand:
  • Knight of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri^[45]
  • Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Chula Chom Klao
•  United Kingdom: Stranger Knight of the Order of the Garter^[46][47]
•  Yugoslavia: Great Star of the Order of the Yugoslav Star^[48]

Dynastic honours

• Ethiopian Imperial Family: Knight of the Order of Solomon^[49][50][51]
• Greek Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Redeemer^[52]
• Iranian Imperial Family:
  • Member 1st Class of the Order of Pahlavi^[53][54][55]
  • Recipient of the Commemorative Medal of the 2,500 year Celebration of the Persian Empire^[56][57]
• Italian Royal Family:
  • Knight of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy

Ancestry

See also

• Kings of Belgium family tree
• Crown Council of Belgium
• Royal Trust
• Herman Liebaers (Marshal of the Royal Household)
• André Molitor (private secretary)
• Jacques van Ypersele de Strihou (private secretary)
• Pierre-Yves Monette (advisor)
• King Baudouin Ice Shelf, Antarctica

References

Bibliography

• Wilsford, David, ed. Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary (Greenwood, 1995) pp 25-31.

Other languages

• A. Molitor, La fonction royale en Belgique, Brussels, 1979
• J.Stengers, De koningen der Belgen. Van Leopold I tot Albert II, Leuven, 1997.
• Kardinaal Suenens, Koning Boudewijn. Het getuigenis van een leven, Leuven, 1995.
• Kerstrede 18.12.1975, (ed.V.Neels), Wij Boudewijn, Koning der Belgen. Het politiek, sociaal en moreel testament van een nobel vorst, deel II, Gent, 1996.
• H. le Paige (dir.), Questions royales, Réflexions à propos de la mort d'un roi et sur la médiatisation de l'évènement, Brussels, 1994.

External links

• Official biography from the Belgian Royal Family website