Thank you Yseult, it is indeed one of the most beautiful portraits of Queen Louise Marie that I know. I have the same image in larger version that I'll post later.
But for now, I would start by talking about Leopold Ier.
Whoever becomes the first king of the Belgians - We say the king of the Belgians, not the king of Belgium, because it is only through the will of the Belgians who are not his subjects - was born in Cobourg, small duchy of the Holy Roman Empire north-east of Bavaria, on 16 December 1790, between an hour and two hours of the morning.
Until the age of eleven, he was raised by his grandmother, the Duchess Sophie and lost his father at the age of 15 years. As a teenager, he is preparing to play a major role in the Europe of his time and participate as an officer in the army of Tsar Alexander I in battles against Napoleon.
But her destiny really rocking in 1814, when he met the Princess Charlotte, daughter of the Prince of Wales and heir to the throne of England.
He married on 2 May 1816 and at the same temmps acquires British citizenship.
They are a happy couple but in November 1817, after a difficult childbirth, Charlotte dies in childbirth of a stillborn child. Inconsolable, Leopold lost, along with his young wife, all hope of presiding over the destiny of the empire.
Only many years later, taking advantage of the defection of the second son of Louis Philippe, the Duke of Nemours, that Leopold receives offer to go on the throne of Belgium. He accepted and was finally elected on 4 June 1831.
Leopold of Saxe Cobourg-Gotha as a child
As a young man
In 1814, at the time of his meeting with Princess Charlotte
His first spouse, Princess Charlotte of England
Princess Charlotte
