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Leopold's reign of exactly 44 years remains the longest in Belgian history. He was interred in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken. Leopold II's funeral procession passes the unfinished Royal Palace of Brussels, 22 December 1909. Attention to the Congo atrocities subsided in the years after Leopold's death.
Leopold's reign was marked by attempts by the Dutch to recapture Belgium and, later, by internal political division between liberals and Catholics. As a Protestant , Leopold was considered liberal and encouraged economic modernisation, playing an important role in encouraging the creation of Belgium's first railway in 1835 and subsequent ...
King Leopold II, whose rule of the Congo Free State was marked by severe atrocities, violence and major population decline.. Even before his accession to the throne of Belgium in 1865, the future king Leopold II began lobbying leading Belgian politicians to create a colonial empire in the Far East or in Africa, which would expand and enhance Belgian prestige. [2]
Proclamation from Inspector-general Ghislain to the population of the Congo, announcing the annexation of the territory by Belgium in 1908. Leopold II offered to reform his Congo Free State regime, but international opinion supported an end to the king's rule, and no nation was willing to accept this responsibility.
Leopold rejected cooperation with the government of Nazi Germany and refused to administer Belgium in accordance with its dictates; thus, the Germans implemented a military government. Leopold attempted to assert his authority as monarch and head of the Belgian government, although he was a prisoner of the Germans.
Portrait of Leopold I of Belgium is an 1840 portrait painting by the German artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter depicting Leopold I of Belgium. [1] [2] A German-born prince, Leopold had become the first King of the Belgians following the Belgian Revolution of 1830 that overthrew Dutch rule. He married a French princess Louise of Orléans in 1832.
Portrait of Prince Leopold is an 1821 portrait painting by the British artist Sir Thomas Lawrence depicting Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, who later became the first King of Belgium. Leopold had been married to the prospective heir to the British throne Princess Charlotte of Wales from 1816 until her death in childbirth the following year.
Seven days following Leopold I's death, his oldest son Prince Leopold was sworn in as Leopold II on 17 December 1865. He arrived on horseback at the Palace of the Nation with his brother Philippe and received enthusiastic public praise. [12] He then walked into an unadorned hemicycle.