The Royal Family on Vacation

Here is some rare footage of the 19-year-old Prince Albert of Liège with his father, King Leopold III, and step-mother, Princess Lilian, on vacation in Panama.  Albert's half-sister, Princess Esmeralda, is interviewed regarding her father's scientific expeditions, and speaks in English.

The Return of Old Friends

I am delighted that the wonderful website of the Cercle Léopold III is once more online.  For a long time, it seemed to have disappeared from cyberspace.  Founded on Belgian National Day, July 21, 2002, this Franco-Belgian association is dedicated to illuminating the controversial reign of Leopold III, and to preserving and defending his memory from false accusations.  "A fidelity to the honor of a man," is the motto of the organization.  Established in Prigonrieux, in Dordogne, and headquartered at the Château du Haut Pezaud, in Monbazillac, France, the Cercle Léopold III enjoys the patronage of Princess Marie-Esmeralda, the King's youngest daughter.  The late French writer Marcel Jullian, a friend of Leopold and his second wife, Princess Lilian, served as honorary president before his death.  Jacques Borgers, of the World Organization of the Periodical Press,  was given the presidency.  The association is open to membership by individuals of all nationalities.  The website is replete with many fascinating historical articles, book summaries, news updates, and beautiful photographs. Unfortunately, the texts tend to be only in French.

Catholic Princesses

This page has some beautiful photographs of the Confirmation and First Communion of Princess Marie-Christine in 1962 and of her younger sister, Princess Marie-Esméralda, in 1964.  Bishop Fulton Sheen officiated on both occasions.  Apparently, he was a friend of the girls' parents, King Leopold III and Princess Lilian. Still, I am not sure why a Belgian bishop was not chosen for the purpose.

Argenteuil: Pour garder intacte la mémoire du domaine royal

This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. Published by the late Prince Alexandre of Belgium, son of Leopold III and Lilian Baels, it is a magnificent pictorial history of the estate of Argenteuil. Superb photographs, in black and white, and in color, help to trace the development of Argenteuil, from the construction of the mansion in the Sonian Forest by American entrepreneur William Tuck in 1930 to the sale of the property to industrialist and philosopher, Jean-Marie Delwart, in 2004. Purchased by the Belgian government in 1949, Argenteuil was placed at the disposition of Leopold, Lilian, and their children from 1960-2002. 

The arrival of this politically inconvenient, rejected, but richly talented branch of the royal family inaugurated the golden age of the chateau. Lilian's lavish but exquisitely refined tastes transformed the bare and dilapidated mansion into a distinguished and elegant home for the former King of the Belgians. Here, with energy and passion, yet with discretion and delicacy, the royal couple devoted themselves to scientific, cultural and humanitarian pursuits; Leopold to his Fonds Léopold III Pour l'Exploration et la Conservation de la Nature and Lilian to her Fondation Cardiologique Princesse Lilian. 

After Leopold's death in 1983, Lilian cherished his memory and hoped to preserve the royal heritage of Argenteuil for future generations. In her Will, she requested that she be buried on the estate and that the chateau be maintained, essentially, as she left it, as a memorial to her husband and as a centre for scientific and cultural reunions. She hoped that, in the future, her descendants would be able to visit Argenteuil often, on their vacations. After Lilian's death in 2002, the Verhofstadt government respected none of these rather poignant last wishes. Instead, Lilian was interred at Laeken and the mansion was stripped bare and sold to the highest bidder. Nonetheless, books like Prince Alexandre's help to preserve at least the memory of the legendary royal estate. 

Esmeralda's London

I wish there were more online television interviews with Princess Esmeralda, youngest daughter of Leopold III and Lilian Baels. The few clips I have been able to hunt down on Youtube or Belgian news sites have an unfortunate way of being removed or becoming inaccessible to viewers in certain countries.

However, we must take advantage of whatever we have. Here is a interview with Anne Quevrin of Sudpresse.be from the eve of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.  Esmeralda, who lives in London, talks about her children's reactions to the celebrations. We often think of girls as the ones to be fascinated by weddings, finery and splendor, but the princess says her young son was more enthusiastic about the big event, finding it all magical. Her adolescent daughter cared less about it. Esmeralda also discusses the media excitement, Kate's influence as a fashion icon and the differences in etiquette between the royal courts of Belgium and Britain. The British monarchy has much stricter protocol and each guest invited to the wedding apparently received a list of rules regarding what to do and not to do.

Esmeralda takes Anne Quevrin walking and driving through London, explaining that she enjoys the multiculturalism and multilingualism of the city. She says English food is not her favorite, but she likes the way it has increasingly absorbed elements of other cuisines.

Remembering Princess Lilian

I am excited to announce that Princess Esmeralda, already the author of two photograph books dedicated to her father, Léopold III, mon père, and Léopold III, photographe, is releasing a new family album, this time focusing on her mother, to mark the upcoming tenth anniversary of Princess Lilian's death. Here is a brief video presentation of the book, Lilian, une princesse entre ombre et lumière, featuring clips of an interview with Esmeralda. Journalist Patrick Weber, author of many books on royalty, assisted in the composition of this intimate, sympathetic portrait of a terribly traduced lady. In the interview, Princess Esmeralda remembers her mother as warm, lively, curious, open, and deeply in love with her husband.

Interview with Prince Alexandre

Here is a brief, but touching interview with the late Prince Alexandre of Belgium, son of King Leopold III and Princess Lilian, and older brother of the lovely Princess Esmeralda, fourteen years his junior. The interview took place during the production of Nicolas Delvaulx's documentary, Léopold III, mon père, featuring the testimonies of Alexandre and Esmeralda. In the interview, Alexandre soberly discusses his youthful traumas. As a boy, he witnessed the tensions of the Royal Question at close hand. He slept badly during the royal family's exile in Switzerland, overhearing representatives of the Belgian government coming and going and raised voices in his father's study until the early hours of the morning. Later, as a teenager, Alexandre suffered severely from a heart condition which required surgery in Boston. The real reason for his trip to the United States was carefully hidden from him until the last moment. Journalists who arrived at the hospital to interview Leopold were instructed not to mention the impending operation.

The clip also touches on Alexandre's marriage to Léa Wolman, who had already been twice divorced. Esmeralda explains that her mother, who disapproved of Léa, initially refused even to consider the possibility of meeting her. Alexandre, who was very close to his mother, yet unable to contemplate life without his beloved, was placed in a painful dilemma. In the end, he decided to marry Léa without telling Lilian for seven years... I am not sure how he squared this step, however emotionally understandable, with his religion, since the Catholic faith prohibits divorce and remarriage while someone's first spouse is still alive. The clip includes a letter written by Alexandre to Lilian, imploring her to accept his choice of wife:

"Dear Maman, I want you to read this letter in all tranquillity, in the beautiful place of Hinteriss, which you love...I must speak to you of Léa. After 48 years, I am certain of knowing the most important woman of my life, except for you, of course. I profoundly wish that you would meet her. It is now four years since I discovered her. It is no longer possible for me to live without her. The happiness I feel with Léa is essential to me. I cannot do without it. ...Dear Maman, I would be so sad to make you unhappy. But you must accept to know her. What is certain is that you have many points in common. After fifty years, I will never find another such chance at happiness. Your son who loves you more than anything, Alexandre." 

Today, we also remember Alexandre's grandfather, King Albert I, who died so tragically on this day in 1934. What a pity that Leopold's children by Lilian never had a chance to meet him. May he rest in peace +

Léopold III: mon père

Léopold III, mon père, directed by Nicolas Delvaulx, is a moving RBTF documentary, available for sale on DVD. Princess Esmeralda, the King's youngest daughter, contributes richly to the film with her insights into her father's humanity. For the first time, she also discusses at length the fateful, heart-wrenching decision that fell to his lot, as to whether he should remain in Belgium to assist his people during the Nazi occupation or escape into exile with his government before being forced to surrender to the Germans.

In Esmeralda's company, we visit important places in Leopold's life, such as Eton, where he studied as a youth, suffering from the separation from his parents, King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth, during World War I. We travel to the castle of Hirschstein, on the Elbe, where he was held hostage with his family under harsh conditions from 1944-1945. Born in 1956, Esmeralda was fortunately spared this terrible experience.

On a more cheerful note, there is interesting footage of Leopold's tropical expeditions in his later years, supplemented with images of his collections of zoological specimens gathered from around the globe. We also gain a glimpse of the chalet of Hinteriss, in the Austrian Alps, a family holiday home charmingly decorated by Esmeralda's mother, the King's second wife, Princess Lilian.

Esmeralda's reflections upon her mother's life are quite poignant. As she used to tell her daughter, Lilian had the good fortune to marry the Prince Charming of her dreams. However, her wedding day, which ought to have been the happiest of her life, was actually the saddest, as she had to marry her beloved in secrecy and mourning, in a sombre black dress, in fact. The relentless hatred and opprobrium she faced for the rest of her life rendered her especially sensitive and emotionally vulnerable. She even remarked, with a certain ironic humor, that she was glad she would not be around to see all the brutal articles which would appear in the papers after her death. Also poignant are the interviews with Esmeralda's late brother, Prince Alexandre, who passed away during the production of the film. He comes across as a thoughtful, sensitive person.

Interview with Princess Esmeralda

Here is an interview with Princess Esmeralda, broadcast on C'est du Belge on February 25, 2011, prior to the screening of the RTBF documentary, Léopold III, mon père, narrated by the Princess. The clip also includes a virtual visit to one of the few monuments to the much-maligned fourth King of the Belgians, the memorial to the heroes of the Battle of the Lys (May 23-28, 1940), featuring an equestrian statue of Leopold III, in Kortrijk.

As always, I was impressed by Princess Esmeralda's gentle, irenic spirit. She emphasizes that she is glad to have been born during the most serene period of her father's life, after his abdication, when he finally had the time to concentrate on his family. She notes that her father forgave his political opponents, admitted errors on his own part and found peace after the tragic and tempestuous years of his reign. She also displays no bitterness over the treatment of her mother, Princess Lilian, viewing the Belgians' resentment of their King's second wife as an inevitable, if unfortunate, human reaction.

Night and Day

Princesses Marie-Christine and Marie-Esmeralda, the daughters of King Leopold III and Princess Lilian, as little girls and as young women.

February 6, 1951: The Birth of Princess Marie-Christine

A portrait of Princess Marie-Christine, at the age of fourteen, by Agustin Seguro. From childhood, the princess enjoyed the arts; she liked music, painting, and acting, and adored stuffed animals and pets. This image, then, seems quite emblematic of Marie-Christine's personality as a young girl, and it also, of course, shows off her ethereal, blonde beauty.

Today is a landmark anniversary, the 60th birthday of Princess Marie-Christine of Belgium, second child and eldest daughter of King Léopold III and Princess Lilian. Nearly a decade separated her birth from that of her eldest full brother, Prince Alexandre-Emmanuel, who came into the world, just over ten months after his parents' wedding, on July 18, 1942. For Marie-Christine's parents, it had been a dreadful decade, marked by the Second World War, the royal family's imprisonment in Germany and Austria from 1944-1945, and five years of exile in Switzerland from 1945-1950, all amidst the sordid intrigues and violent controversies of the "Royal Question". In 1950, left-wing strikes and riots had forced the newly-returned King Léopold to delegate his royal powers to his eldest son and heir, Prince Baudouin. He would formally abdicate on July 16, 1951, five months after his little daughter's birth. Five years later, Marie-Christine gained a younger sister: Princess Marie-Esméralda, born September 30, 1956. Despite the considerable age difference between the two girls, they were close playmates in their youth, according to Marie-Esméralda.

Salvador Moncada

Here are some excerpts from scientific talks by the distinguished Honduran-British pharmacologist, Sir Salvador Enrique Moncada, husband of Princess Marie-Esméralda of Belgium, and father of her two children, Alexandra Léopoldine (12) and Leopoldo Daniel (9). The family is pictured above.

Desolation at Argenteuil

Here is a rather sad slideshow of the estate of Argenteuil fallen into disrepair. The photographs date from 2004, two years after the death of Princess Lilian, and the same year that Jean-Marie Delwart purchased the property. Although I have nothing against Monsieur Delwart, I wish Argenteuil could have been maintained, as Lilian had hoped, as she left it, as a memorial to Leopold III and his second family. It seems tragic that such a rich chapter in Belgian royal history should slip into oblivion. I can understand why Madame Jeannine Degrève, the most faithful member of the household of Argenteuil, who had remained in Princess Lilian's service for 53 years, locked up the empty, deserted mansion for the last time with tears in her eyes.

It must have been even more painful for Prince Alexandre and Princess Esmeralda to see their youthful home stripped bare. While the state furnishings, borrowed in 1961, returned to Laeken, the children had to preside over the sale of many family treasures, including Princess Lilian's wardrobe and much of King Leopold's library, since they were unable to keep them at Argenteuil or accommodate them in their own homes. Their sister Marie-Christine's insistence on receiving her portion of her mother's inheritance in cash rather than in goods also made it necessary to sell family goods for profit. Furthermore, forced to empty Argenteuil in haste, Alexandre and Esmeralda could give only general instructions to those responsible for classifying the chateau's contents and setting items aside for sale. Objects of special historical value, intimately linked to the lives of past Belgian kings, were dispersed because Lilian's heirs could not oversee everything in detail.

Unfortunately, however, often unaware of these practical problems, many Belgians harshly criticized Alexandre and Esmeralda. In the press, they were portrayed as heartless, greedy individuals, crassly dilapidating the "national heritage" for money. The attacks seem quite unfair and ironic, as Lilian's heirs had battled, for months, to preserve Argenteuil, essentially intact, as a memorial to their parents' cultural, scientific and humanitarian work, and it was the Belgian state that had made this impossible... Ironically, too, there was a singular lack of public indignation at the government's sale of Argenteuil itself!


Photographs courtesy of Tatiana Faber

More photographs, of the interior of the mansion

A Daughter's Memories

A while back, I posted on the 2003 Sotheby's auction of the clothes and accessories of Princess Lilian of Belgium, and her daughter Princess Esmeralda's memories of her mother's glamor. Here are some photographs of a beaming Esmeralda posing with Lilian's dresses to promote the auction:
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1997534/AFP
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1997510/AFP
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http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/1997448/AFP

More on Marie-Christine

In "Ma mère telle qu'on l'a peu connue," an interview published September 26, 2002, in La Libre Belgique, Princess Marie-Esmeralda of Belgium commented on her sister's tragic estrangement from her family:

Elle-même a pris ses distances à partir du moment où, en 1980, elle est partie au Canada pour se marier et aussitôt divorcer. Elle a eu, à ce moment-là, une brouille avec mes parents qui a rejailli sur toute sa vie passée. Une coupure s'est faite en elle. Elle n'est jamais revenue en Belgique. Elle vit actuellement dans le Nevada, est remariée et n'a pas d'enfant. Mon frère et moi avons gardé le contact. Bien que de cinq ans plus jeune, j'étais très proche de ma soeur. Durant toute sa maladie, Maman a espéré un signe. Mais il ne s'est pas fait. Papa attribuait à Marie-Christine, au-delà de la reine Elisabeth, quelque chose du tempérament indépendant, excessif, imaginatif des Wittelsbach, du côté de Sissi, de Louis II...

She herself distanced herself from the moment in 1980 when she left for Canada to get married and then divorced. At that moment, she had a fight with my parents which spilled over her whole past life. There was a break in her. She has never returned to Belgium. She now lives in Nevada, has married again, and has no children. My brother and I have kept in contact with her. Although five years her junior, I used to be very close to my sister. Throughout her illness, Maman hoped for a sign. But it never came. Papa attributed to Marie-Christine, through Queen Elisabeth, something of the independent, excessive, imaginative temperament of the Wittelsbachs, on the side of Sissi, of Ludwig II...

Recently, Jorge raised the issue of Marie-Christine's tragic claim to have been physically molested in her youth and deeply wounded and disappointed by her family's reaction. According to Marie-Christine, she was raped as a teenager, by one of her cousins, no less, and when she told her mother, Lilian did not believe her and severely punished her. If the story is true, it is heartbreaking and I can understand why Marie-Christine would be very hurt. I have to say, though, that I cannot help wondering a bit about this story, since Marie-Christine has herself admitted she was always a liar (Michel Verwilghen, Le mythe d'Argenteuil, 2006, p. 54). I also cannot help wondering whether a real rape victim would use such a terrible trauma for publicity. In any case, though, the princess is obviously a very troubled lady, and I feel sorry for her.

Death of a Princess

On June 7, 2002, Princess Lilian of Belgium, born Mary Lilian Baels, widow of King Leopold III, died peacefully, after a long illness, at her home at Argenteuil, near Waterloo. One of her doctors, and close collaborators in the Princess Lilian Cardiological Foundation, Charles van Ypersele de Strihou, later testified:

During her long illness, the Princess never complained. Although aware of her prognosis, She nevertheless fought step by step with a courage that commanded the admiration of physicians and nurses. She kept her sense of humour, confronted the physicians with the limits of their art and obtained the best of their talents. She remained attached to life despite the hardship of illness and some moments of discouragement. A few weeks before her death, She confided gratefully that She had enjoyed her long, full life. (Charles van Ypersele de Strihou, "Princess Lilian: some personal recollections," in Proceedings of the Princess Lilian Cardiology Foundation Symposium to commemorate its Patron, HRH Princess Lilian of Belgium, "Cardiology and cardiovascular surgery at the onset of the XXIst century," Acta Cardiologica - An International Journal of Cardiology, suppl. to volume 59, 2004, p. 20, quoted by Michel Verwilghen in Le Mythe d'Argenteuil: demeure d'un couple royal, 2006, p. 39)

Verwilghen adds:

She who, during her life, had morally suffered so from the innumerable calumnies of which she was the victim, did not know the physical pains of the end of life. Some of her intimates said that Providence spared her a long and painful agony. As if she were falling asleep, she slipped, little by little, into unconsciousness, a few moments after the final auscultation. She ceased to breathe less than an hour later. Death came shortly before 1 pm, while Princess Lilian was surrounded only by her silent doctors and supported by her maid, whose sobs, restrained with difficulty, expressed her profound emotion.

The chatelaine of Argenteuil, who royally personified that marvelous corner of Belgium, transfigured by her talent, had left it, after living there for more than 41 years. Her mortal remains would rest there for eight days yet, before passing, for the last time, through the gates of the royal dwelling over which, at her suggestion, had been forged two "L's", interlaced and surmounted with a crown, monograms of Leopold and Lilian, evocative of their common destiny. (p. 40, translated from the French original)

Before her death, Lilian had the joy of becoming a grandmother twice, with the birth of Alexandra and Leopoldo to her youngest daughter, Marie-Esmeralda. It had been highly uncertain whether Lilian would ever have grandchildren, since Marie-Esmeralda married very late in life, and Alexandre and Marie-Christine, who had married earlier, never had children. But, at long last, Lilian had the consolation of knowing that the family she had founded with King Leopold would continue....Tragically, however, although she had hoped for a healing of the rift with her eldest daughter, Lilian died without ever being reconciled with Marie-Christine.

Belgium's Rebel Princess

One of the most tragic, rebellious and controversial Belgian royals is HRH Princess Marie-Christine, the second child and eldest daughter of King Leopold III and Princess Lilian. Marie-Christine Daphné Astrid Elisabeth Léopoldine was born February 6, 1951, just five months before her father's forced abdication. She came into the world at a painful time for her family, towards the end of the agonizing "Royal Question" that brought great grief and humiliation to her parents and nearly plunged her country into civil war. Tragedy would continue to mark Marie-Christine's life in the years to come...

Photographs of the young Marie-Christine (or " Daphné" as she was called, affectionately, in the family) reveal a beautiful, blonde girl, with the fair complexion and the fine, sensitive and noble features of her father, Leopold III.  A night-and-day contrast with her younger sister, Esmeralda, a dark brunette strongly resembling Lilian. During Marie-Christine's childhood, magazines reported that she was musically talented and that her grandmother, the music loving Queen Elisabeth, encouraged her in this interest. Marie-Christine also had an overriding romantic streak which led her to dream continually of shining knights and ideal loves (See Patrick Weber, Amours royales et princières (2006) pp. 168-169).

Rash, headstrong, restless and unhappy, feeling imprisoned in a "golden cage," Marie-Christine frequently rebelled against the restraints of her royal position. Her love interests, in particular, gave rise to a long series of family quarrels (Weber, pp. 168-169). Lilian wanted her children to make prestigious matches, and forcefully pressed her views, but her passionate and willful daughter stubbornly refused all the marriages her parents suggested. Meanwhile, Marie-Christine's own choices, apt to be wildly inappropriate for her regal station, met with their disapproval and consternation. Tragically, Marie-Christine also, apparently, fell into quite a dissolute lifestyle, experimenting with drugs and debauchery. Her relations with her parents, especially her mother, became more and more tormented. In 1981, at the age of 30, she moved to Canada, bitterly turning her back on Belgium forever.

Ahead of her lay dreams, disappointments, dissipation, financial ruin, sorrow and bitterness. She mingled with the Hollywood set and longed to be a movie star, but her fairytale dreams have never come to fruition. She has married twice, but never had any children. In 1981, against her alarmed parents' advice, she defiantly married Paul Drucker, a Quebecois bar pianist, thirteen years her senior, a widower with two children, and, reportedly, a homosexual. With Marie-Christine's connivance, the press then published lurid photographs of the newlyweds, scantily clad in their hotel room. Leopold and Lilian were appalled. For the old, ailing King Leopold, this final family rupture, coming after the estrangements from his brother Charles, and son Baudouin, was the last in a long series of painful ordeals. The marriage, predictably, proved a fiasco; within weeks, Marie-Christine had abandoned her husband to live with another man (see Weber, pp. 169 -170) and Michel Verwilghen, Le mythe d'Argenteuil: demeure d'un couple royal (2006), pp. 349-350). In 1989, after divorcing Drucker, Marie-Christine married a French restaurateur living in the USA, Jean-Paul Gougues. Over the years, Marie-Christine has moved around quite a bit, living, at different times, in Toronto, Las Vegas and San Diego.

In recent years, in vitriolic interviews and memoirs, Marie-Christine has bitterly attacked the Belgian royal family. In an article published April 17, 2007 in Humo magazine,  she even declared that "abolishing the monarchy might prove to be of benefit to Belgium." Claiming to have broken all contact with her family, she did not attend the funerals of her father, her mother, her half-brother, King Baudouin, or her brother, Prince Alexandre. She has consistently portrayed Princess Lilian, in particular, as a harsh, unloving, domineering, controlling, and even cruel mother.

I find this hard to believe. I know Lilian was a difficult woman at times, but we must remember that she also won the abiding love and devotion of her three step-children, Josephine-Charlotte, Baudouin and Albert, over many years. As for her two other children, Alexandre and Marie-Esmeralda, both have honored her memory with love and respect. Esmeralda, in particular, in her memoirs, recalls Lilian's tender care in creating a beautiful and elegant home at Argenteuil for her family. She also emphasizes that her relations (and, in fact, her siblings' relations) with their parents were very warm and affectionate. Surely, Marie-Christine's bitter statements ought to be weighed against these contrasting testimonies?

Lilian & Esmeralda

Above, we see the late Princess Lilian of Belgium, second wife of King Leopold III; below, her youngest daughter, Princess Marie-Esmeralda. Mother and daughter were certainly very alike in appearance! In character, too, according to Esmeralda. In Léopold III, homme libre, Jean Cleeremans quotes her as saying: "My mother and I have the same character; both of us are stubborn and lively." Both forceful, determined personalities, the two princesses had a relationship characterized by tension and conflict as well as love and tenderness. Fortunately, the love prevailed; their disputes always ended in reconciliation. Sadly, the same cannot be said of Lilian and her elder daughter, Princess Marie-Christine, who became tragically estranged from her mother and the rest of her family.

Princess Esmeralda has admirably defended the memory of her much-maligned parents. In 2002, following her mother's death, she granted an interview to La Libre Belgique, entitled "Ma mère telle qu'on l'a peu connue" ("My mother as few knew her.") It is a fascinating description of Princess Lilian, a very great lady despite certain faults of character. It is also a touching filial tribute. Esmeralda praised her mother's many charitable initiatives, especially her establishment of the Princess Lilian Cardiological Foundation, which has saved the lives of thousands. Here is an excerpt:

A l'occasion de son décès et toute sa vie durant, beaucoup de choses ont été écrites sur elle qui l'ont réduite au rang d'épouse de mon père. Ce qu'elle était effectivement puisqu'elle considérait qu'il était la passion de sa vie. Ma mère était une passionnée de manière générale, mais elle a fait énormément de choses dans la discretion. Une foule de gens en témoignent maintenant. Mon frère et moi ne cessons de découvrir qu'elle a aidé beaucoup de monde. Elle n'en parlait jamais. Il y avait en elle un besoin de générosité et de vouloir bien faire parfois mal perçu. Elle a été violemment critiquée, souvent par des gens qui ne l'avaient jamais rencontrée. Il arrivait que ce soit si excessif qu'elle préférait en rire plutôt de s'en montrer blessée. Seules les attaques contre mon père la mettaient très en colère. Fière et obstinée, elle était pourtant reservée. Elle savait l'issue de la maladie qui l'a emportée. Jamais elle ne s'est plainte, n'a manifesté la moindre peur ou faiblesse. 

On the occasion of her death, and throughout her life, many things were written about her which reduced her simply to my father's wife. That is, in fact, what she was, as she considered him the passion of her life. My mother was a passionate woman in general, but she did a tremendous amount discreetly. Many people are testifying to it now. My brother and I are constantly discovering that she aided many people. She never spoke of it. There was, in her, a need to be generous, to do good, which was sometimes taken ill. She was violently criticized, often by people who had never met her. Sometimes it became so extreme that she preferred to laugh about it rather than to appear wounded. It was only the attacks on my father that enraged her. Proud and obstinate, she was, nonetheless, reserved. She foresaw the outcome of the illness that carried her off. Yet she never complained, never exhibited the slightest fear or weakness. 

May she rest in peace. 

Leopold III & Proust's Questionnaire

Here, we see the King Leopold III with his youngest daughter, Princess Marie-Esmeralda. Leopold and Esmeralda enjoyed an especially close relationship; it reminds me of Marie-José's strong bond with her father, King Albert I. 

In her memoirs, Léopold III, mon père, Esmeralda relates that she once gave Marcel Proust's famous questionnaire to her father. Here are some of his answers. They provide interesting insights into Leopold's personality, desires, and ideals. 

Quel est selon vous le comble de la misère?

L'amour de l'argent.

Quel est votre idéal de bonheur terrestre?

Ménage et famille.

Votre vertu préférée?

La droiture

Votre couleur préférée?

Le jaune.

Votre fleur préférée?

Le lilas

Vos héroïnes dans la vie réelle?

Maman

Vos héroïnes dans l'Histoire?

La grande Catherine

Vos prénoms favoris?

Lilian, Esmeralda, Daphné, Alexandre

Vos poètes préférés?

Ceux de l'époque romantique.

Les caractères historiques que vous méprisez le plus?

Ceux qui ont voulu se faire passer pour autre chose que ce qu'ils étaient...

Le trait principal de votre caractère?

La fidélité en amitié

La réforme que vous admirez le plus?

Le début de socialisme

Le fait militaire que vous admirez le plus?

La campagne d'Italie

Ce que vous detestez le plus?

A part l'ananas, le mensonge et l'hypocrisie

Comment aimeriez-vous mourir?

De mort violente, le plus tard possible

Etat present de votre esprit?

Désabusé

Votre principal défaut?

La paresse

Votre principale qualité?

L'honnêteté

Votre occupation favorite?

Les voyages en dehors des chemins battus

Votre devise?

Vivons cachés pour vivre heureux!

***

What is, in your eyes, the depth of misery?

The love of money

What is your ideal of earthly happiness?

Marriage and family

Your favorite virtue?

Integrity

Your favorite color?

Yellow

Your favorite flower?

The lilac

Your heroines in real life?

My mother

Your heroines in history?

Catherine the Great

Your favorite first names?

Lilian, Esmeralda, Daphne, Alexander (1)

Your favorite poets?

The Romantics

The historical characters you despise the most?

Those who tried to appear other than they were...

Your chief character trait?

Fidelity in friendship

The reform you admire the most?

The beginning of socialism

The military exploit you admire the most?

The Italian campaign

What do you hate most?

Aside from pineapple, lying and hypocrisy

How would you like to die?

By violence, as late as possible

Your present state of mind?

Disillusioned

Your chief fault?

Laziness

Your chief quality?

Honesty

Your favorite occupation?

Traveling off the beaten path

Your motto?

Live hidden to live happily!

(1) the names of his second wife and their children

Princess Marie-Esmeralda of Belgium

Above we see a photograph of Princess Marie-Esmeralda of Belgium, youngest daughter of King Leopold III and his second wife, Princess Lilian. A journalist and a free-lance writer by profession, Esmeralda is married to Dr. Salvador Moncada, a renowned South American cardiologist. The couple have two children, Alexandra and Leopoldo. Esmeralda has devoted much time and effort to the defense of the memory of her much-maligned parents. She has published two books dedicated to her father, Léopold III, mon père and Léopold III photographe. She is the president of the Fonds Léopold III pour l'Exploration et la Conservation de la Nature.