She always seemed cold and hard to me. Plus there's just something off-putting to me about wearing the jewelry items that were the late Queen Astrid's wedding gifts. I think that it would've been less cold-seeming if she'd done what Queen Louise of Sweden did--not wear such personal items but hold them for the daughter or daughters-in-law of her predecessor. It just seems rather classless. Plus, didn't she later sell some of them?
Cold,hard and a scheming "gold digger".The King,a "prisoner" at Laeken at the start of the war,came under the spell of this daughter of the governor of east-flanders,and she was "with child" ,as the ancient phrase goes,in no time.They then were secredly married at Laeken,and that certainly was a blow to the Belgians in war time,while still in mourning for their beloved Astrid as well.That Leopold wasn't accepted by the Belgians as their King after the war,was a blow to her,she had hopes of becoming Queen hidding a brick wall.But there was Baudouin,as he lived at Laeken as well,Lilian,and his father,tryed to influence him,to put it mildly,in the early years of his Reign.About the time of the wedding of Baudouin and Fabiola,there was a crisis,and not merely because of Fabiola's dislike of this scheming lady.Upon return from their honeymoon,they found Laeken "empty",Leopold and Lilian had moved out to Argenteuil Castle, and so did most of the furniture and art,virtually all there was was gone.It took quite some time to get some,not all,belongings back.Then Lilian set hopes on her children,Prince Alexander and Princesses Marie-Christine and Marie-Esmeralda,keeping them "short",strict and loveless backfired.Instead of marrying into the Royal Houses of Europe,preferebly reigning houses at that,they ran out of the house as soon as they saw their chance,each having a crisis/issues with their parents.Alexander was sort of a rebel at first and a car salesman later,Marie-Christine took off to Canada and got married with a piano player,a disaster,but she never returned to Belgium while both her parents were still alive,Marie Esmeralda always seemed closest to her father but all the childrens choices in life were a blow to Baels.The children were all "in need of a shrimp" we'd say now,Baels was cruel,and certainly Marie Christine never got her act together again,fearing her mother would lock her up again,as she had done while a child and a teen.
