v09_1979 - BELGIQUE - ROYAUME DE BELGIQUE - LÉOPOLD Ier 5 francs tête laurée, tranche en relief 1848 Bruxelles

BELGIUM - KINGDOM OF BELGIUM - LEOPOLD I

(4/06/1831-10/12/1865)

Leopold (16/12/1790-10/12/1865) is the son of François de Saxe-Cobourg and the uncle of Victoria I. He fights Napoleon in the Russian army. Naturalized English in 1816, he married Charlotte of Hanover and found himself a widower the following year. Léopold had just refused the crown of Greece when he was elected King of the Belgians on June 4, 1831. The following year, he married Louise d'Orléans (1812-1850), the daughter of Louis-Philippe. She gives him three children including Leopold II and Charlotte, the unfortunate wife of Maximilian of Austria, shot in Mexico. He is morganatically married to the actress Caroline Bauer from whom he must separate to marry the daughter of the King of the French. The London Conference of July 1831 settled territorial problems and the treaty of eighteen articles was accepted by the National Congress on July 9, 1831. Leopold was triumphantly welcomed on July 21, 1831. He had to fight against the Dutch army and received the nickname of "shield of Belgium", safeguarding the independence of the "flat country" against the Prussia of William I and the France of Napoleon III. He relies politically on England.