X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Léopold I of Belgium


Basilica of the Sacred Heart, Brussels

In the mid-19th century, King Leopold I dreamed of turning the uninhabited Koekelberg hill into a royal residence area.

George Dawe

He enjoyed the patronage of the Duke and Duchess of Kent and also that of Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold.

Self-proclaimed monarchy

On 4 June 1831, a National Congress proclaimed HSH Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Saxony as first King of the Belgians.

Xavier de Mérode

The son of Félix de Mérode-Westerloo who held successively the portfolios of foreign affairs, war, and finances under Leopold I of Belgium, and of Rosalie de Grammont, he was allied through the House of Mérode to the aristocracy of France.


Andrew Combe

Early in 1836 he received the appointment of physician to King Léopold I of Belgium, with Dr. James Clark's recommendation, and moved to Brussels ; but his health again failed, and he returned to Edinburgh in the same year.

Ernest Frederick, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld

# Franz Frederick Anton, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (b. Coburg 15 July 1750 – d. Coburg, 9 December 1806), father of Leopold I of Belgium and grandfather of Leopold II, Empress Carlota of Mexico, Queen Victoria of Great Britain, and her husband Prince Albert.

Hendrik Conscience

But it was with the patronage of Leopold I that Conscience published his second book, Fantasy, in the same year 1837.

Jean Civiale

Among the many students of Civiale, Sir Henry Thompson, a British surgeon and urologist, took the instrument and the technique to Great Britain and became quite famous with it, after operating King Léopold I of Belgium.

Joseph Lebeau

By proposing the election of Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as King of the Belgians he secured a benevolent attitude on the part of the United Kingdom, but the restoration to the Netherlands of part of the duchies of Limburg and Luxembourg provoked a heated opposition to the 1839 Treaty of London, and Lebeau was accused of treachery to Belgian interests.

Léon Suys

Suys's father Tilman-François Suys was the architect of King Leopold I, and the cofounder of the Belgian Royal Commission of Sites and Monuments, of which his friend François-Joseph Navez was also a member.

The Frozen Deep

The first of these, on 4 July, was a command performance at the Royal Gallery of Illustration for Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their family; among the other guests were King Leopold I of Belgium, Prince Frederick William of Prussia, and his fiancée Princess Victoria, along with literary lights William Thackeray and Hans Christian Andersen.


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