Belgium's Lost Prince

Above, we see a photograph of King Albert's older brother, Prince Baudouin of Belgium (1869-1891). Baudouin was the first child of the Count and Countess of Flanders. As the only legitimate son of his uncle, Leopold II, died as a child, Baudouin was raised as the heir to the Belgian throne. A young man of great promise, he died tragically of pneumonia (according to some accounts, complicated by renal hemorrhage) at age 22. He was deeply mourned by his family and people.

Baudouin was particularly close to his eldest sister, Henriette (pictured below). As their niece, Marie-José, describes in her memoirs, the two siblings shared a sense of family, and a love of religion, duty, country, and tradition. According to Henriette:

À vingt-et-un ans, Baudouin avait déclaré qu'il serait toujours un traditionnaliste, que seule dans la tradition subsiste la force. Il se déclarait: ni révolutionnaire, ni libéral, ni moderne... Il fallait du courage pour avouer cela dans notre démocratique Belgique!

At 21, Baudouin had declared that he would always be a traditionalist, that strength lay in tradition alone. He declared himself neither revolutionary, nor liberal, nor modern... It took courage to say this, in our democratic Belgium!

In contrast to his shy younger brother, Albert, Baudouin moved with ease in high society and enjoyed the companionship of his peers. Whereas Albert hated hunting and lacked interest in riding and dancing, Baudouin excelled in the traditional aristocratic pursuits.

In her diary, Henriette described Baudouin in the highest terms:

Baudouin était né chef. Depuis son enfance, il nous tenait tous trois en main. Comme il serait complété avec son frère Albert s'ils avaient été deux à servir leur patrie. Le cadet, Albert, a toujours préféré être le second et servir un chef plutôt de l'être lui-même... Albert a un coeur d'or, mais dès sa plus tendre enfance, il était coléreux et d'une extrême susceptibilité, tandis qu'en Baudouin nous n'avons jamais pu découvrir un seul défaut, à part sa trop grande modestie.

Baudouin was a born leader. From his childhood, he held all three of us by the hand. How well he would been complemented by his brother, Albert, if the two had been able to serve their country together! Albert, the younger one, has always preferred to take second place, and to serve a leader rather than to be one himself... Albert has a heart of gold, but, from his earliest childhood, he was irascible, and extremely sensitive, whereas, in Baudouin, we were never able to find a single fault, apart from his excessive modesty.

Henriette also discussed the similarities between the two brothers:

Albert a, comme Baudouin, cet instinct de la recherche: voir pour lui-même afin de ne pas être dupe et d'être armé pour gouverner... Tous deux parlaient le flamand et le wallon que ni le conte de Flandre ni le roi Léopold II ne connaissaient, et ils s'amusaient à s'exprimer en marollien et d'autres patois.

Albert, like Baudouin, has this instinct for finding things out: to see them for himself so as not be duped and so as to be equipped to govern... Both brothers spoke Flemish and Walloon, which neither the Count of Flanders nor King Leopold II knew, and enjoyed expressing themselves in Marollian and other dialects.

Albert greatly admired, and regretted, his older brother. During World War I, he told Henriette:

"Ah! Si Baudouin avait vécu, comme notre vie eût été differente et plus heureuse! Quelle force d'être deux au lieu d'un! Il aurait tout mieux fait que moi."

"Ah! If Baudouin had survived, how different our life would have been, how much happier! What strength to be two instead of one! He would have done everything better than I."

After Baudouin's death, the press launched a lurid campaign to slander his reputation. Malicious rumors circulated, to the effect that he had been killed over a love affair. In her grief and indignation, Henriette wrote:

Comment a-t-on lancé, après sa mort, ces tragiques et douloureux mensonges? C'est incompréhensible. Il est vrai qu'on ne peut admettre la vertu des princes et qu'on croit si facilement le mal! Il était le plus fort de nous tous, mais il a été terrassé en deux jours! Le tort a été de n'avoir pas annoncé qu'il s'était alité avec une forte fièvre. On inventa des histoires de rixes, d'assassinat même... pour une femme. On fit des rapprochements avec le drame de Mayerling, alors que Baudouin devenait agressif et violent lorsqu'il parlait de Rodolphe. Il avait ressenti une impression de dégoût dans ce qu'il avait vu à Vienne lors de l'enterrement de l'archiduc...

How could they launch, after his death, these tragic and painful lies! It is incomprehensible. It is true that people cannot recognize the virtue of princes, and that they so easily believe evil! He was the strongest of us all, but he succumbed in two days! The mistake was not to announce that he had been taken to bed with a high fever. People invented stories of brawls, even of murder... over a woman. They made comparisons with the drama of Mayerling, although Baudouin became agressive and violent whenever he spoke of Rudolf. He had experienced an impression of disgust at what he saw in Vienna during the Archduke's funeral...

Baudouin's fate prefigured that of his family; for years to come, tragedy and calumny would continue to stalk the Belgian royal house.

(above: one of the artistic works of the Countess of Flanders, dated not long after Baudouin's death; the sombre tones, perhaps, express his mother's grief)