Baudouin of Belgium
Baudouin was King of the Belgians from 17 July 1951 until his death in 1993. He was the last Belgian king to be sovereign of the Congo, before it became independent in 1960 and became the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Baudouin was the elder son of King Leopold III and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden. Because he and his wife, Queen Fabiola, had no children, at Baudouin's death the crown passed to his younger brother, King Albert II.
In 2024, the Holy See opened the cause for his beatification, prompting criticism from Catholics who believe that such a figure should not be considered for canonization, especially by the Vatican itself.
Biography
Childhood
Prince Baudouin was born on 7 September 1930 at the Château of Stuyvenberg in Laeken, northern Brussels, the elder son and second child of Prince Leopold, then Duke of Brabant, and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden. In 1934, Baudouin's grandfather King Albert I of Belgium was killed in a rock climbing accident; Leopold became king and the three-year-old Baudouin became Duke of Brabant as heir apparent to the throne. When Baudouin was nearly five, his mother died in 1935 in Switzerland in the accident of an automobile that his father was driving. Later, in 1941, his father remarried to Mary Lilian Baels. This marriage produced three more children: Prince Alexandre, Princess Marie-Christine and Princess Marie-Esméralda. Baudouin and his siblings had a close relationship with their stepmother and they called her "Mother". His education began at the age of seven, his tutors taught him half his lessons in French and half in Dutch. He frequently accompanied his father to parades and ceremonies and became well known to the public.Despite maintaining strict neutrality during the opening months of World War II, on 10 May 1940, Belgium was invaded by Nazi Germany. Baudouin, his elder sister Princess Josephine-Charlotte and his younger brother Prince Albert, were immediately sent to France for safety and then to Spain. The Belgian Army, assisted by the French and British, conducted a defensive campaign lasting 18 days, but Leopold, who had taken personal command, surrendered unconditionally on 28 May. Although the Belgian government escaped to form a Belgian government in exile, Leopold elected to remain in Belgium, and was placed under house arrest at the Palace of Laeken, from where he attempted to reach an understanding with the Germans, especially in respect of Belgian prisoners of war who were being held in Germany. The children returned to Laeken from Spain on 6 August.
Leopold had established a royal Scout group at the palace for his sons, whose members were drawn from the various Belgian Scout associations. In April 1943, the wearing of uniforms was banned by the occupation forces and although Leopold was told that the royal group was exempt, insisted that the ban should apply to them too. However, Baudouin was about to be invested as a Scout and persuaded his father to delay the ban for one day so that the ceremony could take place.
Immediately following the Normandy landings in June 1944, the king, his wife, and the royal children, were deported to Hirschstein in Germany and then to Strobl in Austria from where they were released in May 1945 by the United States 106th Cavalry Regiment. However, the royal family were prevented from returning to Belgium by the "Royal Question" over whether Leopold had collaborated with the Nazis; the surrender in 1940, his refusal to join the government-in-exile, his fruitless visit to Adolf Hitler at the Berghof in November 1940 and his unconstitutional marriage to Lilian whose father was believed to be pro-Nazi. Until a political solution could be found, the king's brother, Prince Charles, became regent and the royal family lived at the Château du Reposoir in Pregny-Chambésy, Switzerland. Baudouin continued his education at a secondary school in Geneva and visited the United States in 1948.
Reign
In a referendum in March 1950, the public narrowly voted for King Leopold III to return from Switzerland and he was recalled on 4 June 1950. However, parliamentary dissent and public protests forced Leopold to delegate his powers to Baudouin on 11 August 1950, and finally to abdicate in favour of Baudouin, who took the oath of office as King of the Belgians on 17 July 1951. In 1960, Baudouin declared the Belgian colony of Congo independent. During the parade following the last ceremonial inspection of the Force Publique, the royal sabre of the king was momentarily stolen by Ambroise Boimbo. The photograph, taken by Robert Lebeck, was widely published in world newspapers, with some seeing the act as a humiliation for the king.Death of Patrice Lumumba
During the Congolese declaration of independence, Baudouin delivered a highly contested speech in which he celebrated the acts of the first Belgian owner of the Congo, King Leopold II, whom he described as "a genius". At the same event, the first democratically elected prime minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, gave a blistering response with a speech that was highly critical of the Belgian regime. Lumumba cited the killings of many Congolese, as well as the insults, humiliation and the slavery they experienced.Lumumba's speech infuriated Baudouin and generated significant conflict between the two men. After the independence of Congo, the natural resource-rich Katanga Province orchestrated a secession that received substantial military and financial support from the Belgian government, as well as from Belgian companies with business interests in Katanga. Baudouin strengthened his relationships with the Katangese politician Moise Tshombé, whom he made a Knight in the Belgian Order of Leopold. In the meantime, Belgium's government, as well as the CIA, supported or organized plots to assassinate Lumumba.
In early December 1960, Lumumba and two colleagues, Maurice Mpolo and Joseph Okito, who had planned to assist him in setting up a new government, were imprisoned in military barracks located about from Leopoldville. They were underfed and mistreated, per Mobutu Sese Seko's orders. Lumumba registered his objections, writing directly to Indian and U.N. diplomat Rajeshwar Dayal, "in a word, we are living amid absolutely impossible conditions; moreover, they are against the law". Lumumba and his associates were released in mid-January 1961. Within hours, they were again captured and then transported to Katanga by the Congolese military and handed over to the Katangese authorities. They were beaten by Katangese officers and on January 17, they were executed on the orders of the Katangese leadership. The execution took place in the presence of Katangese President Tshombe, two Katangese ministers and Belgian officials. The firing squad was reportedly commanded by a Belgian Julien Gat. Lumumba was buried in a shallow grave but his body was later exhumed by Belgian police officer Gerard Soete who dismembered Lumumba's body, and dissolved the corpse in acid.
In 2001, a parliamentary investigation set up by the Belgian government concluded that Baudouin, amongst others, was informed of the assassination scheme developed by Mobutu and Tshombé. Both men had conspired with a Belgian colonel, Guy Weber, to "neutralize Lumumba, if possible physically." The king was informed of the plot, but did nothing to oppose the murder. His lack of intervention was described as "incriminating" by the parliamentary investigation, although there was no conclusive evidence found that the king ordered the specifics of the plans.
In June 2025, Baudouin's close associate Étienne Davignon, a former Belgian junior diplomat to Congo, was requested to be tried for war crimes for his alleged involvement in the unlawful detention, deprivation of a fair trial, and torture of Lumumba in September 1960. It is expected to be decided in January 2026 whether a trial will take place. Davignon has denied the allegations.
Western engagements and later reign
As the head of state of Belgium, Baudouin, along with French President Charles de Gaulle, were the two prominent world leaders at the state funerals of two American presidents, John F. Kennedy in November 1963 and his predecessor Dwight D. Eisenhower in March 1969. At Kennedy's funeral, Baudouin was accompanied by Paul-Henri Spaak, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former three-time Prime Minister of Belgium. At Eisenhower's funeral, his next visit to the United States, he was accompanied by Prime Minister Gaston Eyskens.In 1976, on the occasion of his silver jubilee, the King Baudouin Foundation was formed, with the aim of improving the living conditions of the Belgian people.
Death and funeral
Baudouin died from a heart attack on 31 July 1993, while on holiday at the Villa Astrida in the southern Spanish town of Motril, after a 42-year reign. Although in March 1992 the king had been operated on 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 15 hours when the news broke.Within hours, the gates and enclosure of the royal palace 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 came to pay their respects. Many waited in line up to 14 hours in sweltering heat to see their king one last time. The funeral service was attended by all other European monarchs – including Queen Elizabeth II – alongside Emperor Akihito of Japan. Non-royal guests at the funeral included more than twenty presidents and leaders. Only two reigning heads of state of sovereign states at the time were not invited: Saddam Hussein, and Mobutu, the first due to the Gulf War, the latter due to him being declared persona non grata partly thanks to Mobutu exposing information about Baudouin's brother and sister-in-law. The presidents and leaders who did attend the funeral included UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, European Commission President Jacques Delors, French President François Mitterrand, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, German President Richard von Weizsäcker, Polish President Lech Wałęsa, Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović, Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, Canadian Governor General Ray Hnatyshyn and former US President Gerald Ford.
King Baudouin was interred in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken in Brussels. He was succeeded by his younger brother, who became King Albert II.