"Un Sogno"

In his biography of Marie-José, Luciano Regolo, who had many interesting conversations with the Queen during her last years, tells a touching story of a dream she related to him one day:

La regina mi disse che aveva fatto un sogno. "Era bellissimo, un astronauta veniva a prendermi e mi portava sulla luna. Vedevo i crateri, le distese desertiche dagli strani riflessi...Tutto sembrava così vero, comprese le mie cadute. Non riuscivo a stare in piedi per l'assenza di gravità. E inciampavo di continuo...Poi di ritorno da quel viaggio, incontravo mio fratello Charles e gli raccontavo tutto. Allora lui mi diceva: "Perché ti meravigli? Tu hai sempre vissuto sulla luna!" Poi, però, mi chiedeva il numero di telefono dell'astronauta: "Quasi, quasi ci vado anch'io lassù."

The Queen told me she had had a dream. "It was so beautiful, an astronaut came to take me and brought me to the moon. I saw the craters, the desert wastes, through strange reflections...Everything seemed so real, including my falls. I could not stand on my feet, because of the absence of gravity. And I tripped constantly... Then, on my return from this trip, I met my brother Charles and told him everything. And he said to me: "Why are you amazed? You have always lived on the moon!" But then, he asked me for the astronaut's telephone number. "It just may be that I, too, will go there."

Marie-José's dream is especially poignant given the tragic story of Prince Charles (1903-1983), second son of King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. As a child, Charles troubled Albert and Elisabeth with his disobedience, unwillingness to work, tantrums, and rages. As a young man, his caustic ways and irregular private life would be a continual source of anxiety for his parents, and, later, for his older brother, Leopold.

Charles harbored bitter resentment against his family, and, in particular, against Leopold. Charles' close friend, the Belgian painter Alfred Bastien, described him as "constantly in rebellion against his father, his mother, his whole family..." He also portrayed Charles' feelings of rivalry with Leopold as "beyond all imagination." This enmity would have grave consequences during the "Royal Question," when Charles served as Regent of Belgium.

Many Belgians credit Charles with "saving the monarchy" by assuming the Regency and complying with Leopold's opponents. Charles is portrayed, in consequence, as a great benefactor of Belgium. Referring to the monarchy, Charles reportedly claimed: "C'est moi qui ai sauvé le brol." ("It was I who saved the lumber"). Such a contemptuous way of referring to his country's leading civic institution would hardly seem to be the mark of a laudable public servant. Furthermore, it might have been better to refuse to exercise the Regency once Leopold was liberated from German captivity. This would have sent a clear message to the Belgians that the actions of Leopold's enemies, aimed at artificially prolonging the King's "incapacity to reign," and preventing his return to Belgium, were unlawful. As it was, Charles' regency provided these revolutionary measures with a screen of legitimacy. The regency, thus, served to seriously undermine the monarchy.

Charles evinced a disloyal attitude towards Leopold during the Royal Question. He behaved coldly towards the King, on the occasion of their official meetings, in Austria and Switzerland, after Leopold's liberation. Charles did not defend Leopold from the many calumnies launched against him during his regency. He even tried to suborn the King's wife, Princess Lilian, by offering her (in concert with one of Leopold's leading opponents, Prime Minister Achille van Acker) a lavish civil list, and other sumptuous advantages, if she left Leopold in exile and returned to Belgium with Prince Baudouin. Scandalized by this insulting proposal (doubtless intended to make her appear selfish and mercenary), Lilian indignantly rejected it. In 1950, after a plebiscite called for Leopold's return from exile and resumption of his royal function, Charles reacted with rage and grief. According to Bastien, soon after hearing the results of the plebiscite, the Prince came to visit him and collapsed, sobbing, upon his shoulder. Such was his hatred of his older brother!

What was the origin of this bitterness? Leopold, who maintained a surprisingly charitable attitude towards Charles, provided some sensitive insights, shortly before his abdication, in a conversation with Jacques Gautier, a close friend. According to Leopold, Charles suffered, from childhood, from a severe inferiority complex, which, Leopold believed, had been fostered by Marie-José's English governess. According to Leopold, she continually told Charles that he was less loved, less admired than Leopold, and that even his parents neglected him. (Very strange, I must say, it was not at all the governess' place to make such comments). Charles, apparently, was so afflicted by feelings of inferiority that his short stature as a child reduced him to despair. At age 16, when he finally caught up with his siblings in height, he viewed it as a major triumph.

The accounts of Charles' behavioral problems as a child make me wonder if, today, he would have been diagnosed as suffering from some disorder. If so, it may be that an unidentified condition was treated as a moral problem by his family, sowing the seeds of resentment and bitterness.

Charles never admitted that he had wronged his brother; nor did he defend him, in the decades after Leopold's abdication, against the continual repetition of old slanders. As a result, although relations between them varied over the years, Leopold and Charles were never truly reconciled. Leopold, nonetheless, was terribly shaken by Charles' death, only a few months before his own, in 1983. He privately visited Charles' lying-in-state, and remained for a long time by his casket, trembling, obviously deeply moved. He made the sign of the Cross...

Perhaps Marie-José's dream represents a hope for her brother?

(The photo of Marie-José is from this source, where more images of the Queen can be viewed)

References:

Cleeremans, Jean. Léopold III, homme libre. 2001.

Keyes, Roger. Echec au Roi: Léopold III, 1940-1951. 1986.

Regolo, Luciano. La regina incompresa: tutto il racconto della vita di Maria José di Savoia. 2002

Verwilghen, Michel. Le mythe d'Argenteuil: demeure d'un couple royal. 2006.

The Queen & Her People

Astrid at a military review in Brussels. She admired her husband so much that she joined the crowds to see him parading at the head of his regiment. 
Visiting a school. 
Showing her love to a Belgian child. 

Astrid was famous for her naturalness and simplicity. While still Crown Princess, she used to stroll her children up and down the street in their carriages, incurring the disapproval of court officials. "These promenades break protocol," they protested. Astrid merely replied: "But I'm just another mother, am I not?" Complaints were even made to King Albert, but, informal and natural himself, he took his daughter-in-law's part.

In any case, Astrid's straightforward, tender disposition won the hearts of the Belgian people. 

"Moi aussi, je servirais avec plaisir"

Another story from Le Roi Albert et les Missions illustrates King Albert's admiration for the Catholic missionaries in the Belgian Congo, and sheds light on his own spirituality. 

...(N)on contente de s'exprimer en des circonstances solennelles, cette admiration reconnaissante se traduisit également, combien de fois! en des audience privées...

Ne citons qu'une conversation avec le Père Prieur d'Orval... On parlait du dévouement. 

'L'année passée,' rappela le Roi, 'j'étais au Congo. Le Frère Gillet, de la Compagnie de Jésus, nous avait fait les honneurs de son magnifique jardin botanique. Et, à midi, étant coadjuteur, il servait à table.

Le Gouverneur Général se penche à mon oreille: "Cela doit bien humilier le Frère Gillet de remplir cet office?" 

Je lui réponds: "Mais pourquoi? Moi aussi, je servirais bien... Vous verrez. Après le dîner nous le lui démanderons."

Nous allons donc le trouver. "Est-ce que cela vous à gêné de nous servir?"

Il réplique: "Mais non, je n'y ai même pas pensé... - "Vous voyez," dis-je au gouverneur....

Moi aussi, je servirais avec plaisir. Quand le monde s'éloigne de l'Evangile, il fait fausse route, retournant aux erreurs de la civilisation romaine où tout était basé sur l'orgueil et la force, tandis que la doctrine de Christ repose sur l'humilité et la charité.' 

...Not content with expressing this grateful admiration on official occasions, he also did so - how many times! in private audiences...

Let us take one example - his conversation with the Prior of Orval (a Benedictine monastery in Belgium)... They were discussing abnegation.

'Last year,' the King recalled, 'I was in the Congo. Brother Gillet, of the Society of Jesus, had done us the honors of his splendid botanical garden. And, at noon, being coadjutor, he served at table.

The Governor-General bent over my ear: "It must be humiliating for Brother Gillet to perform this service?"

I replied: "But why? I, too, would gladly serve... You will see. After lunch, we will ask him."

So we went to find him. "Did it irritate you to serve us?"

He answered: "No, I did not even think about it..." - "There, you see," I said to the governor.

I, too, would serve with pleasure. When the world distances itself from the Gospel, it takes the wrong path, returning to the errors of Roman civilization, where everything was based on pride and force, whereas the doctrine of Christ rests upon humility and charity.' 

 "He who would be greatest among you must be the servant of all." King Albert seems to have made this injunction the rule of his life. 

"Courage, courage, vous êtes encore soldat!"

In 1925, to celebrate their Silver Wedding, King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium traveled to India. There is a touching account, by a Belgian missionary priest, Father Jacquemotte, of his meeting with the King at the Jesuit College in Darjeeling. The priest had formerly been a soldier in World War I. The story is related in the lovely book, Le Roi Albert et les Missions, (1935), by Joseph Masson, S.J. Albert and Elisabeth were always staunch supporters of the Catholic missionaries; this account reveals the King's deep admiration for their heroism. 

Sous ma soutane de missionaire, écrit le Père, mon coeur de soldat bat plus fort que jamais. Comme autrefois à l'Yser, je suis en position devant mon général en chef qui me serre cordialement la main...

"Vous étiez à l'artillerie?" 

"Oui, Sire, à Ramscapelle, un jour... en septembre 1918; vous êtes venu nous serrer la main dans notre abri... depuis ce jour-là, je ne vous avais plus revu."

Silencieux, on se regarde, on se comprend... Ramscapelle!

"Puis, vous êtes passé à l'aviation comme pilote?"

"Oui, Sire...et puis, après cela, j'ai mal tourné... je me suis fait Jésuite."

Le Roi rit de bon coeur: "Continuez, continuez, la cause que vous défendez et si belle."

"Sire, il n'y a, je crois, que deux causes sacrées: Dieu et la Patrie."

"Mais votre vie doit être bien dure. Comment supportez-vous le climat. J'ai vu dans la plaine de vieux missionaires, aux Indes depuis cinquante ans...Quel courage...c'est admirable!.. L'éloignement ne vous est-il pas si pénible?"

"Sire, c'est un sacrifice. Aussi vous devinez notre joie de vous revoir. Jamais, on ne l'avait éspéré... "

"Vous ne revenez pas en Belgique?"

"Non, Sire, jamais."

A cette réponse brève, où se révèle la donation, le Roi reste un instant rêveur: puis, il conclut avec force:

"Courage, courage, vous êtes encore soldat!"

"Under my missionary's cassock," the Father writes, "my soldier's heart beats faster than ever. Just as before, on the Yser, I am standing before my commander-in-chief, who is cordially shaking my hand..."

"You were in the artillery?"

"Yes, Sire, at Ramscapelle, one day... in September 1918, you came to shake our hands in our shelter ... since that day, I had never seen you again."

In silence, they gaze at each other, they understand... Ramscapelle!

"Then, you entered the air force, as a pilot?"

"Yes, Sire... and then, after that, I turned out badly... I became a Jesuit."

The King laughed heartily. "Continue, continue: the cause you are defending is so beautiful."

"Sire, there are, I believe, only two sacred causes: God and Country."

"But your life must be very hard. How do you endure the climate! I have seen, in the plain, old missionaries, in India for fifty years...What courage... it is admirable!.. Is the distance from home not too painful?"

"Sire, it is a sacrifice. So you can imagine our joy at seeing you again. We would never have hoped for it..."

"You are not returning to Belgium?"

"No, Sire, never."

At this brief response, which revealed the gift of self, the King remained thoughtful for a moment: then, he concluded, forcefully:

"Courage, courage, you are still a soldier!" 

Fathers & Sons

King Albert I, with his two sons, Leopold and Charles, during the First World War.
King Leopold III with his sons, Baudouin and Albert. During the Second World War, a version of this picture was sold for the benefit of children of Belgian POW's.

Inside the Royal Palace

Clocks from the royal collection. 
The Empire Room.
The Salon de Goya. 

(Photographs from the Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Belgian Royal Household. Credits and licensing information here, here, and here)

La Grande Guerre des Soignants

Dr. Patrick Loodts, author of the splendid site, Médecins de la Grande Guerre,  has written a book, in collaboration with his daughter, Isabelle Masson-Loodts, on Belgium's medical personnel during the First World War. Faced with an appalling lack of equipment at the beginning of the war, these heroic men and women struggled against tremendous odds to care for its victims.

From the book description: 

Durant la Première Guerre Mondiale, au milieu d'un continent tombé par l'oeuvre des nationalismes exacerbés, dans la plus grande des barbaries, des hommes et des femmes, isolés dans des abris ou des baraquements signalés d'un croix rouge, ont fait preuve d'une merveilleuse imagination pour soigner le mieux possible les victimes de la guerre. Grâce à eux, la médecine fit, en quatre ans, des progrès considérables. Jamais ces soignants ne perdirent foi en leur idéal, malgré les moyens dérisoires à leur disposition et le peu de considération dont ils joussaient au début des hostilités. 

Au travers du récit des progrès médicaux réalisés durant ce conflit et des témoignages de médecins, infirmières et brancardiers ayant pour la plupart oeuvré en Belgique, les auteurs nous expliquent pourquoi La Grande Guerre des Soignants ne doit pas être oubliée!

During the First World War, in the midst of a continent fallen prey to exacerbated nationalisms, surrounded by the worst barbarities, men and women, isolated in shelters or camps marked with a red cross, demonstrated amazing ingenuity in their efforts to care, as best they could, for the victims of war. Thanks to these people, in four years, medicine made considerable progress. These caretakers never lost faith in their ideal, despite the laughable means at their disposal, and the lack of consideration they experienced at the outset of hostilities.

Through the discussion of the medical progress achieved during the conflict, and through the testimonies of doctors, nurses, and stretcher-bearers, who worked, for the most part, in Belgium, the authors make clear to us why the Great War of the medical personnel must not be forgotten!

From the preface by Dominique Hanson, director of Belgium's Royal Museum of the Army and Military History:

...C'est le premier mérite de cet ouvrage. Il jette un éclairage sur différentes facettes de la problematique médicale au sein de l'armée belge durant le premier conflit mondial. Il suit tout d'abord l'organisation ou plutôt la réorganisation de son service médical au fur et à mesure des opérations militaires jusqu'à la stabilisation du front, puis, au fil des grands épisodes conduisant à l'Armistice... Son deuxième mérite et de présenter une iconographie non seulement variée mais remarquable et originale. 

...(I)l est heurex que l'auteur soit un médecin. Ses propos et commentaires sont moins désincarnés et plus humains que ne risquent de l'être ceux d'un historien maniant le scalpel froid et méthodique de la critique historique. 

...This is the first merit of this work. It sheds light on the different facets of medical issues within the Belgian army, during the first worldwide conflict. It follows, first of all, the organization, or, rather, the reorganization of Belgium's medical service, alongside the development of military operations, up to the stabilization of the front; then, in the context of the major episodes leading to the Armistice...Its second merit is to present illustrations which are not only varied, but remarkable and original.

...It is fortunate that the author is a doctor. His comments and discussions are less abstract and more human than those of a historian, coldly and methodically wielding the scalpel of historical criticism, might be...

I encourage anyone who understands French to listen to this interview with Dr. Loodts and his daughter; they discuss their topic with such warmth and passion! 

Mystical Brussels

Views of the medieval church of Laeken from Historic Brussels' photostream at Flickr.

A little-known remnant of the mystical and religious mediaeval past of Brussels, Belgium, dating from approximately the year 1275, still stands today in the middle of the Laeken Cemetery (Cimetière de Laeken - Begraaftplaats van Laken).

A place of history and pilgrimages, visions and miracles, this remnant of a great mediaeval church is only a few dozens of metres behind one of the grand sights of Brussels- the relatively new but impressively gothic-styled Our Lady of Laeken Church (Notre-Dame de Laeken - Onze Lieve Vrouw van Laken) with its origins in the 1850s. It is also not far from the palace residence of the Belgian royal family.

The origins of the churches in this locale are shrouded in legend and myth. 

The Laeken neighbourhood is part of modern Brussels, but it is a couple of kilometres north and a little west of the old city centre. When the first city walls were being built around 1000 years ago, the Laeken area would have been a village a number of hundreds of metres beyond those Brussels defensive ramparts.

According to legend, the first church on this spot, dates from the personal consecration of the Bishop of Rome, Pope Leo III (c. 750-816, elected pope in 785). Leo III was the same Pope who crowned Charlemagne (c.747-814) to be the new Emperor of a new Western "Holy Roman Empire." Charlemagne's throne was at Aachen in what is now Germany, not far from the modern Belgian border, and thus not very distant from Brussels.

It is not known if this legend is correct, that the Pope himself had come to honour this place in the time of Charlemagne. But it is very clear that by about 1000 years ago, this was a place of pilgrimage and religious devotion, focused on Mary the mother of Jesus.

Pilgrims and travellers came to pray here. People had religious visions. Miracles were said to take place here. With all the traffic and attention, the early places of prayer gave way to larger construction, until a quite substantial church was built in the later 1200s. What you see here in the photographs, is the portion of the original church that still stands today... (more)

King Albert Rock-Climbing

This picture is one of my favorites; the King seems so calm and steady. 

The Royal Nursery

Queen Astrid with her youngest son, Prince Albert.
Princess Josephine-Charlotte and Prince Baudouin with their new little brother.

I always find it very sad to think how these children must have suffered, between losing their mother at such a young age, living through war, deportation, and imprisonment, and, finally, during the "Royal Question," seeing their father so horribly attacked.