Friday, September 3, 2010

Tragedy and Mystery

As in the case of the tragedy of Marche-les-Dames, the lack of a public inquiry into Queen Astrid's death gave rise to dark conspiracy theories.
Because the details of the accident were never made public, speculations and rumours surrounded the tragic death of Queen Astrid. She was said to be pregnant with her fourth child, something that was never confirmed. It was argued that perhaps the car had been sabotaged, and the accident was in reality an assassination attempt by the Gestapo, who, according to rumour, may also have been responsible for the death of King Albert. Some theories even went as far as claiming that the real King Leopold had been killed in the accident as well, but he had been replaced by a German look-alike, on the orders of Adolf Hitler. Although none of the rumours can be confirmed, nobody really seems to know the truth either. Only King Leopold could say what had happened, but he was never officially questioned, and refused to talk about the accident at all times.

2 comments:

The Royal Universe said...

You have some lovely blogs about Queen Astrid. I'm not sure, though, whether a public enquiry would have made that much difference to the conspiracy theorists; the inquest into Diana's death didn't stop all the nonsense. Of course, Astrid was on rather better terms with the rest of the royal family than Diana was!

May said...

Thank you for your kind words!

No, nothing is enough to stop conspiracy theorists, but the lack of an inquest provides one extra reason for doubts to persist, so I believe in making all the facts plain.