Baudouin of Belgium

Baudouin (French Baudouin Albert Charles Léopold Axel Marie Gustave, Dutch Boudewijn Albert Karel Leopold Axel Marie Gustaaf, German Baudouin Albert Charles Leopold Axel Marie Gustav, born September 7, 1930 on Castle Stuyvenberg, sheets, Belgium, † July 31, 1993 at Castle Motril, Spain) was from 1951 to 1993 King of the Belgians and the eldest son of Leopold III. from the House of Saxe -Coburg and Gotha and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden. Baudouin is his French name, he was named Boudewijn in Dutch, in German ( the third official language ) usually Baudouin, but also Baldwin.

Life

The Royal Family was first deported to the Allied landings in 1944 by the German into Saxon Hirschenstein and in March 1945 to Strobl in Austria. On 7 May 1945 it came to the liberation by U.S. troops and King Leopold III. faced by the Belgian public with allegations that he had surrendered in the war against the Germans too early. He could therefore not immediately return to Belgium. The king's brother, Prince Charles of Belgium, therefore assumed the regency true on the grounds that his brother ' to govern the impossibility " in located.

And there was found no political solution to the controversy around the king, there was a referendum for or against the return of the king. The response of the electorate yielded a majority of 58 % in his favor, with strong regional differences. On July 22, 1950, the king returned to Brussels. However, after severe disturbances, especially of Walloon workers, thanked Leopold III. from and proposed to transfer his son, Prince Baudouin his royal powers. So on July 17, 1951, this from his oath to the Constitution and became the fifth King of the Belgians.

To celebrate its 25-year jubilee in 1976, the King Baudouin Foundation was launched, which has set itself to improve the living conditions of the Belgian population to the target.

Baudouin was very religious, so he refused in 1990 to sign a bill to liberalize the abortion law. This signature is necessary for a law to be legally valid. The Belgian government said Baudouin therefore on 4 April 1990, incapable of governing. For this case, the Belgian Constitution provides that the entire government takes over the function of head of state. After all the government members had signed the bill, the government declared the next day, April 5, 1990, Baudouin back for fit to govern.

Baudouin reigned 42 years until his death on July 31, 1993, when in Motril in southern Spain, he died at the Villa Astrida of heart failure. The mourning for the death of the " single Belgian " was felt in the population of all language boundaries deep. Baudouin was in the royal tomb in the Church of Our Lady in Laeken, Belgium, buried. Since he had no children, Baudoin's brother Albert II succeeded him.

A general meeting convened in 2002, Commission of the Belgian Parliament examined the events surrounding the assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice first E. Lumumba ( July 2, 1925 *, † January 17, 1961 ). The Democratic Republic of the Congo was released on June 30, 1960 in Independence. In its final report, the Commission came to the conclusion that King Baudouin knew of the plans to assassinate Lumumba. It is clear that the Belgian government supported the Lumumba hostile forces in the Congo logistically, financially and militarily. Much of the debt is directly attributed to King Baudouin who allegedly operated bypassing the political authorities of his own post-colonial politics.

Wedding

King Baudouin married on December 15, 1960 Doña Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragón ( born June 11, 1928 in Madrid, Spain), a former nurse and children's book author. The marriage remained childless. All pregnancies ended with the Queen stillbirths.

Drive up

Leopold I, King of the Belgians (1790-1865) ∞ 1832 princess Louise d' Orléans (1812-1850)

Prince Karl Anton (Hohenzollern) (1811-1885) ∞ 1834 princess Josephine of Baden (1813-1900)

Duke Max Joseph of Bavaria (1808-1888) ∞ 1828 princess Ludovica Wilhelmine von Bayern (1808-1892)

King Michael I. (Portugal ) (1802-1866) ∞ 1851 princess Adelaide of Löwenstein -Wertheim -Rosenberg (1831-1909)

King Oscar I (Sweden) (1799-1859) ∞ 1823 princess Josephine de Beauharnais von Leuchtenberg (1807-1876)

Duke William I (Nassau ) (1792-1839) ∞ 1829 princess Pauline of Württemberg (1810-1856)

King Christian IX. (Denmark) (1818-1906) ∞ 1842 princess Luise Wilhelmine of Hesse- Kassel (1817-1898)

King Karl XV. (Sweden) (1826-1872) ∞ 1850 princess Louise of Orange-Nassau (1828-1871)

Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders (1837-1905) ∞ 1867 princess Maria Luise von Hohenzollern -Sigmaringen (1845-1912)

Duke Carl Theodor in Bavaria (1839-1909) ∞ 1874 princess Maria Josepha of Portugal (1857-1943)

King Oscar II ( Sweden) ( 1829-1907 ) ∞ 1857 princess Sophia of Nassau (1836-1913)

King Frederick VIII ( Denmark) ( 1843-1912 ) ∞ 1869 princess Louise of Sweden (1851-1926)

Albert I, King of the Belgians (1875-1934) ∞ 1900 Elisabeth, Duchess in Bavaria (1876-1965)

Prince Carl of Sweden, Duke of Västergötland (1861-1951) ∞ 1897 Princess Ingeborg of Denmark Charlotte (1878-1958)

Leopold III. , King of the Belgians (1901-1983) ∞ 1926 Princess Astrid of Sweden (1905-1935)

King Baudouin (1930-1993)