The Cross of Laeken

From History and Other Thoughts comes this charming description of the first Queen of the Belgians, Louise d'Orléans, by her husband,...

A dynastic portrait showing young, intense Princess Elisabeth of Belgium, the future Nurse-Queen of the Great War, with her sons, Prince ...

Christina Croft shares a description by King Leopold I of the Belgians  of his late first wife, Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales.   “ ...

Gio writes of the tragic suicide of the obstetrician who attended the ill-fated Princess Charlotte of Wales , the first wife of the future K...

A postcard commemorating the 75th anniversary of Belgian independence in 1905, incidentally also the year the future Queen Astrid was bor...

Gio reviews a new biography of the tragic first wife of Leopold I. Charlotte was the daughter of the dissolute Prince Regent, who eventu...

Some portraits of the controversial mother and namesake of Queen Victoria, also a sister of Leopold, first King of the Belgians.  ...

In Leo XIII: A Light from Heaven  (1961) , Brother William J. Kiefer, S.M. discusses the time that Joachim Pecci, future Pope Leo XIII, sp...

Michael Palo thoughtfully reviews Belgium and the Monarchy: from National Independence to National Disintegration , an adapted English trans...

A description of his childhood and education, from the days of his marriage to Princess Charlotte.  His love of nature, political idealism a...

A lovely, detailed post about Belgium's first crown prince.  After his death, his mother, the devout Queen Louise-Marie, wrote to her fa...

A famous allegory of the young Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf (1757-1831), mother of King Leopold I, and grandmother of Queen Victoria, as...

This is a painting by the great Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun of Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1781-1860), an older sister of King Leop...

In contrast to the charming Dalton miniature of Queen Louise-Marie, we have this rather grim portrait of her husband, King Leopold I. I like...

The bridal gown of the first wife of the future King Leopold I of the Belgians.

At  Lost in the Myths of History,  Christina Croft shares a touching message of condolence, addressed by Queen Victoria to her uncle, King L...

Tomorrow, of course, will be Belgium's National Day, commemorating the swearing-in of the first King of the Belgians, Prince Leopold of ...

(Continued from Part I and Part II ) Ever since Paul Reynaud's tragic, unjust indictment of the King, on May 28, 1940 , an endless seri...

We must not trust every word of others or feeling within ourselves, but cautiously and patiently try the matter, whether it be of God. Unha...

And kings in general... I'd rather not dwell on this silliness, but I find I must be strict for a bit. We're witnessing far too muc...