Leopold I, King of the Belgians (1790-1865) had several families. By Charlotte Augusta of Wales (1796-1817), he had two babies, lost to miscarriage, and a son who died at birth, followed shortly thereafter by his mother. By Louise-Marie of Orléans (1812-1850), Leopold had four children: Prince Louis-Philippe, Crown Prince of Belgium (1833-1834), Leopold II, King of the Belgians (1835-1909), Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders (1837-1905) and Princess Charlotte, Empress of Mexico (1840-1927). In his later years, by his young, brash and unpopular favorite, Arcadie Claret Meyer, the King has been alleged to have had two sons, George and Arthur, who were both created Barons von Eppinghoven.
The Exiled Belgian Royalist gives interesting summaries of the lives of Leopold's children by Queen Louise. Their three surviving offspring, Leopold II, Prince Philippe and Empress Carlota were all very different personalities. Leopold II had the intelligence and satirical eye of both parents. He possessed his father's political shrewdness, financial sense and ambition, albeit, unfortunately, without his tact and charm. A tireless colonial imperialist and builder of monuments, Leopold II may have inherited his insistence on grandeur partly from his mother, although he sadly lacked her counterbalancing humility and sweetness. Queen Louise complained of the Belgians' petty ways; her son, however much one may dislike many of his methods, undeniably strove, as he saw it, to make Belgium great.
By contrast, Leopold's brother Philippe had Louise's retiring manner, her love of home and family, her propriety and piety. Despite his admirable traits, however, I have to admit that I find him less interesting than his more dynamic brother and sister. It is Carlota whom I probably find to be the most appealing of the siblings. She seems to have united so many of the best qualities of the first King of the Belgians and his Queen; beauty, brilliance, grand aspirations, energy, determination and charisma, but also kindness, gentleness and charity. What a pity her promising life was so tragically marred.
8 comments:
Of course Carlota is easily my favorite of the bunch (too bad I cannot share some of her admirable qualities rather than mental illness). Besides her good character I admire her zeal and ambition, her desire to do something great and make a favorable impact on the world. To some extent I could admire the zeal and ambition of Leopold II as well if only his character did not make him so hard to admire.
Not proven that he had two illegitimate children - Arcadie was known to have relationships with other men.
Information about her children not being Leopold's from a member of her own family. There is no proof and neither child looked like the other for a good reason.
Interesting. Do you have more information on the family member of Arcadie's who said this? I could include it in a new post.
This article has now been modified to point out the paternity of Arcadie's sons is only alleged.
Thank you, May, for updating the information. Without DNA tests, it can only be alleged. I find that a lot of the information about Arcadie Claret seems to only come from unsubstantiated and sometimes unreliable sources, or in some cases, a single source!
Due to privacy I will not reveal the name of the family member - it was a relatively long time ago I received the information. My own curiosity got to me and I started doing my own research and it just backed up what I was told. I will have to leave it at that. :)
From my knowledge of historical facts Leopold II was not a good person or Monarch. He engineered but closed his eyes and ears to the atrocities in the "Congo Free State" under his watch. All while he treated the Congo as his personal fiefdom and taking the wealth of the Congo as fully his. He oversaw the murder of close to 10 million Congolese people yet people say now "he did not know it was taking place". Where is the International Criminal Court of Justice requiring that Belgium pay restitution to the Congolese peoples ?
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