The Prince de Ligne on Marie-Antoinette

Our dear friend, Elena Maria Vidal, shares a stunning description of the misunderstood Queen of France by...a great Belgian nobleman. As I have said before, Marie-Antoinette's predicament always reminds me of the way Lilian Baels could never put a foot right, in the estimation of some.

The charms of her face and of her soul, the one as white and beautiful as the other, and the attraction of that society hence made me spend five months of every year in her suite, without absenting myself for a single day....

As for the queen, the radiance of her presence harmed her. The jealousy of the women whom she crushed by the beauty of her complexion and the carriage of her head, ever seeking to harm her as a woman, harmed her also as a queen. Fredegonde and Brunehaut, Catherine and Marie de' Medici, Anne and Theresa of Austria never laughed; Marie Antoinette when she was fifteen laughed much; therefore she was declared "satirical."

She defended herself against the intrigues of two parties, each of whom wanted to give her a lover; on which they declared her "inimical to Frenchmen;" and all the more because she was friendly with foreigners, from whom she had neither traps nor importunity to fear.

An unfortunate dispute about a visit between her brother the Elector of Cologne and the princes of the blood, of which she was wholly ignorant, offended the etiquette of the Court, which then called her "proud."

She dines with one friend, and sometimes goes to see another friend, after supper, and they say she is "familiar." That is not what the few persons who lived in her familiarity would say. Her delicate, sure sense of the becoming awed them as much as her majesty. It was as impossible to forget it as it was to forget one's self.

She is sensible of the friendship of certain persons who are the most devoted to her; then she is declared to be "amorous" of them. Sometimes she requires too much for their families; then she is "unreasonable."

She gives little fetes, and works herself at her Trianon: that is called "bourgeoise." She buys Saint-Cloud for the health of her children and to take them from the malaria of Versailles: they pronounce her "extravagant." Her promenades in the evening on the terrace, or on horseback in the Bois de Boulogne, or sometimes on foot round the music in the Orangery "seem suspicious." Her most innocent pleasures are thought criminal; her general loving-kindness is " coquettish." She fears to win at cards, at which she is compelled to play, and they say she " wastes the money of the State."

She laughed and sang and danced until she was twentyfive years old: they declared her *' frivolous." The affairs of the kingdom became embroiled, the spirit of party arose and divided society; she would take no side, and they called her "ungrateful."

She no longer amused herself; she foresaw misfortunes: they declared her "intriguing." She dropped certain little requests or recommendations she had made to the king or the ministers as soon as she feared they were troublesome, and then she was "fickle."

With so many crimes to her charge, and all so well-proved, did she not deserve her misfortunes? But I see I have forgotten the greatest. The queen, who was almost a prisoner of State in her chateau of Versailles, took the liberty sometimes to go on foot, followed by a servant, through one of the galleries, to the apartments of Mme. de Lamballe or Mme. de Polignac. How shocking a scandal! The late queen was always carried in a sedan-chair to see her cousin, Mme. de Talmont, where she found a rather bad company of Polish relations, who claimed to be Leczinskis.

The queen, beautiful as the day, and almost always in her own hair, — except on occasions of ceremony, when her toilet, about which she never cared, was regulated for her, — was naturally talked about; for everybody wanted to please her. The late Leczinska, old before her time and rather ugly, in a large cap called, I think, " butterfly," would sometimes command certain questionable plays at the theatre; but no one found fault with her for that Devout ladies like scandals. When, in our time, they gave us a play of that sort we used to call it the queen's repertory, and Marie Antoinette would scold us, laughing, and say we might at least make known it was the queen before her. No one ever dared to risk too free a speech in her presence, nor too gay a tale, nor a coarse insinuation. She had taste and judgment; and as for the three Graces, she united them all in herself alone. (The Prince de Ligne: His Memoirs, Vol.I, pp 197-201.)

Fit for a Princess

The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada has several pairs of Princess Lilian's shoes in its collection.

Princess Lilian was known for her glamour and sense of style, and this is evident in her elegant footwear. The shoes now in the Museum's collection were custom designed for Princess Lilian by Roger Vivier, one of the most innovative shoe designers of the 20th century. He maintained an eye for cutting edge design, referencing the history of fashion while incorporating modern elements of science and engineering. The Museum is delighted to have these shoes, rich in both history and beauty, in its collections. (Read full article)

The Life and Death of Queen Astrid

Here are some newspaper articles from 1935, reporting on Queen Astrid's death and recalling her life.  The Evening Independent described her talents as follows:  

From her girlhood, Queen Astrid was trained to many accomplishments. Slender and of medium height, she was fond of outdoor sports, was a good horsewoman, a beautiful dancer and adverse to pomp and display. Her dress was always simple. She spoke French and German almost as well as her native Swedish, and was a fair musician, with a pleasing voice.  

But in her domestic accomplishments, Queen Astrid shone with the greatest brilliance. She had been trained at a school of nursing and had made a special study of what she considered an art- the business of running a household. She knew this art from peeling potatoes to hanging curtains. (Read full article)

Memories of an Empress

Gio of History and Other Thoughts shares Belgian princess Marie-José's childhood impressions of her great-aunt, Carlota of Mexico.

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 +

Place de la Reine Astrid

In Paris, a small grassy triangle commemorates the beautiful Belgian queen who died tragically young in a automobile accident. The monument represents France and Belgium joining in friendship. Hauntingly, the Place de la Reine Astrid is near the infamous Alma Tunnel where Diana, Princess of Wales, also perished in a car crash. 

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.

The Art of Evariste Carpentier

Here are a few examples of the paintings of the Belgian impressionist, Evariste Carpentier (1845-1922). As Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians was such a great patroness of the arts, it seems appropriate to share them on this blog. Carpentier's paintings seem more cheerful to me than the works of many French impressionists.

Hirschstein

A magnificent panoramic view. The site of so much suffering on the part of King Leopold III and his family, the castle was later turned into a children's sanatorium.

The Royal Family in Captivity: Part III

Prince Baudouin, the heir to the throne, at Hirschstein

(Continued from Part I and Part II)

As we recently celebrated Epiphany, perhaps it is appropriate to recall how the royal hostages spent their first Christmas in captivity at the dreary fortress of Hirschstein. Shortly before Christmas, Hitler had sent a message to his prisoners, grandiosely inquiring if they had any wishes he might grant. Wary of being placed in their enemy's debt, King Leopold and his family had only one request: they would be glad to have a priest to celebrate midnight Mass. A man in clerical garb promptly arrived, claiming to be a priest from the medieval monastery of Klosterneuberg, founded, ironically enough, by St. Leopold of Babenburg, Margrave of Austria. Posing as sympathetic and solicitous, the man offered to hear the prisoners' confessions. The quick-witted Princess Lilian, who was familiar with Klosterneuberg, had the good sense to cross-question him first, to determine whether he were an impostor. Finding that he was unable even to give a correct reply concerning the location of his supposed monastery, she quietly told her husband that the man was certainly not from Klosterneuberg, and that she doubted whether he were a priest at all. As described in Un couple dans la tempête, however, King Leopold indulged his ironic sense of humor by agreeing to let the man hear his confession and by submitting to a series of highly indiscreet questions under the guise of fatherly pastoral care. As the impostor prepared to deliver absolution, however, his royal penitent stopped him and sent him away, unmasked. Together with his family and small band of faithful followers, all King Leopold could do to commemorate Our Savior's birth was to sing Minuit Chrétien and Stille Nacht, to piano accompaniment. Princess Lilian gave the royal children watercolors she had painted using a box of colors smuggled into her luggage on the journey from Brussels. She had fashioned the picture-frames out of branches gathered in the small garden of Hirschstein.

As always, the King was determined that his household should display dignity and courage in adversity and resist the temptation to despair. Christmas was not the first time that they had bravely improvised a humble, poignant celebration.  On July 21, 1944, just over a month after their deportation, they had fervently celebrated their national holiday, albeit with meagre means. They had managed to construct a Belgian flag, using strips of red, yellow and black fabric, stitched together with vegetable fibers. The flag was draped over the poorly tuned piano, and M. Weemaes was able to play a few measures of the Belgian national anthem, the Brabançonne, bringing tears to the eyes of his fellow sufferers. Throughout the long months at Hirschstein, the King and his officers wore their uniforms at table and the children's lessons and games continued. Princess Lilian even composed and directed a play, Pygmalion, giving roles to the different members of the family. Whenever possible, the children exercised outside, in the small garden. They suffered severely from malnutrition.  Albert eventually developed hunger edema; little Alexandre, rickets. In January, 1945, while the princes were helping to build a sled, Albert also seriously injured his thigh. Mishandled by an S.S. officer, the wound became dangerously infected and began to putrefy. At Lilian's insistence, the family's gaoler, the S.S.  Colonel Lürker, perhaps afraid of being blamed for the death of a royal hostage, summoned a distinguished physician from Dresden, Professor Lang, to treat the prince. The man was obliged to disinfect and bandage the gangrenous wound in silence, as he had been forbidden to speak with the prisoners.  Thankfully, Albert's leg was saved. A Nazi physician, Dr. Ghebart, also arrived to examine the boy, sadistically seizing the opportunity to shock Leopold and Lilian with descriptions of the experiments he had secretly performed upon political prisoners in concentration camps. The King's blood froze with horror. Leopold and Lilian also had the frightening feeling that their tormentor did not expect them to live to repeat the revelations. Further traumas would follow in February, with the Allied fire-bombing of Dresden. The inferno was clearly visible from the windows of Hirchstein, so dazzling that night and day were equally bright. On Ash Wednesday, the capital of Saxony lay in ashes. The icy Elbe carried countless charred and mangled corpses past the royal family's horrified eyes. Lilian especially remembered seeing the bodies of two women, floating hand in hand, surely mother and daughter. 

Meanwhile, at the beginning of February, in an ominous new development, the King had been threatened with separation from his entourage. Due to the advance of the Soviet army, he had been told, the royal family would be transported to a new place of detention in southern Germany. His suite would be moved to yet another location. Leopold immediately protested this scheme, refusing to be divided from any of his companions. To Ernst Kaltenbrunner, chief of the Gestapo, he sent the following telegram: "It has been communicated to me that an order of displacement could soon be given to me and that the persons who have voluntarily accompanied us in captivity would be directed to a different destination. I express the formal desire that these persons, for whose fate I am responsible, may continue to share my captivity and that they may not be suddenly isolated in this manner. In addition, there are, among these persons, three officers, for whom I demand a treatment compatible with their rank". Departure would be delayed until March, and the royal party would be allowed to travel together to their next prison, the villa of Strobl, Austria, opening a new chapter of their weary captivity.

(to be continued)