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115-520: Surrounded by gardens and terraces, this villa has received numerous writers and celebrities. Around 1900, the former missionary and chaplain to Leopold II, King of the Belgians , Félix Charmettant (1844–1921), purchased a parcel of land (4 hectares (9.9 acres)) on the newly subdivided peninsula of cap Ferrat. Here he had a villa constructed in the Moorish style by an unknown architect. In 1927,

230-482: A morganatic marriage and that he had bestowed upon her the title of Countess Montgomery. He would have broken this marriage when the possibility arose that he could become King of Greece . The son of Baron Stockmar denied that these events ever happened, and indeed no records have been found of a civil or religious marriage with the actress. Following a Greek rebellion against the Ottoman Empire , Leopold

345-470: A "visionary hero." According to Michel, "To use the word 'genocide' in relation to the Congo is absolutely unacceptable and inappropriate. ... maybe colonisation was domineering and acquiring more power, but at a certain moment, it brought civilisation." Michel's remarks were countered by several Belgian politicians. Senator Pol Van Den Driessche replied, "[A] great visionary? Absolutely not. What happened then

460-708: A Belgian. When both of these plans failed, Leopold shifted his aspirations of colonisation to Africa. After numerous unsuccessful schemes to acquire colonies in Africa and Asia, in 1876 Leopold organized a private holding company disguised as an international scientific and philanthropic association, which he called the International African Society , or the International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of

575-629: A colony as a private citizen. The Belgian government lent him money for this venture. During his reign, Leopold saw the empires of the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain as being in a state of decline and expressed interest in buying their territories. In 1866, Leopold instructed the Belgian ambassador in Madrid to speak to Queen Isabella II of Spain about ceding the Philippines to Belgium, but

690-667: A commission in the Imperial Russian Army and fought against Napoleon after French troops overran Saxe-Coburg during the Napoleonic Wars . After Napoleon's defeat, Leopold moved to the United Kingdom, where in 1816 he married Princess Charlotte of Wales , the only child of the Prince Regent (the future King George IV ). Leopold and Charlotte's marriage was happy, but it ended after a year and

805-632: A constitution for the new state. Fears of " mob rule " associated with republicanism after the French Revolution of 1789 , as well as the example of the recent, liberal July Revolution in France, led the Congress to decide that Belgium would be a popular , constitutional monarchy . The choice of candidates for the position was one of the most controversial issues faced by the revolutionaries. The Congress refused to consider any candidate from

920-473: A demotion for Charlotte. The couple lived initially at Camelford House on Park Lane , and then at Marlborough House on Pall Mall. After already having suffered a miscarriage the previous year, Princess Charlotte gave birth to a stillborn son on 5 November 1817. She suffered complications and, just after midnight on 6 November, also died. Leopold was said to have been heartbroken by Charlotte's death. Had Charlotte survived, she would have become queen of

1035-399: A distinctly Belgian character. Leopold extracted a fortune from the Congo, initially by the collection of ivory , and after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the people to harvest and process rubber. He ran the Congo using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal enrichment. Failure to meet rubber collection quotas was punishable by death. Meanwhile,

1150-575: A great number of buildings, urban projects and public works. According to the historians Wm. Roger Louis and Adam Hochschild , this was largely possible thanks to the profits generated from the Congo Free State , though this is disputed. These projects earned him the epithet of "Builder King" (Dutch: Koning-Bouwheer , French: Roi-Bâtisseur ). The public buildings were mainly in Brussels , Ostend , Tervuren and Antwerp , and include

1265-516: A half when Charlotte died after delivering a stillborn son. Leopold continued to enjoy considerable status in Britain. After the Greek War of Independence (1821–1830), Leopold was offered the throne of Greece under the 1830 London Protocol that created an independent Greek state, but turned it down, believing it to be too precarious. Instead, he accepted the throne of Belgium in 1831 following

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1380-416: A large fortune in Congo securities, only some of which the Belgian government and Leopold's three estranged daughters were able to win back. As Leopold's older brother, the earlier crown prince Louis Philippe , had died the year before Leopold's birth, Leopold was heir to the throne from his birth. When he was 5 years old, Leopold received the title of Duke of Brabant , and was appointed a sub-lieutenant in

1495-589: A large share of the local population could sell only to the state, which could set prices and thereby control the income the Congolese could receive for their work. For local elites, however, this system presented new opportunities, as the Free State and concession companies paid them with guns to tax their subjects in kind. Under his regime, millions of Congolese inhabitants, including children, were mutilated, killed or died from disease and famine. In addition,

1610-489: A larger semi-circular foyer (formerly the dining room), living room, kitchen, and service rooms and staff quarters. The tower housed the library. On the first floor, which is served by an elevator, are seven bedrooms and four bathrooms as well as service rooms, laundry and linen room. A staircase leads to the terrace. The villa La Mauresque is a private residence located at 52 boulevard du Général-de-Gaulle, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat at "Le Sémaphore". It has been classified with

1725-452: A major international scandal in the early 20th century, and Leopold was forced by the Belgian government to relinquish control of the colony to the civil administration in 1908. Leopold fervently believed that overseas colonies were the key to a country's greatness, and he worked tirelessly to acquire colonial territory for Belgium. He envisioned "our little Belgium" as the capital of a large overseas empire. Leopold eventually began to acquire

1840-604: A mistress Caroline Lacroix , a 16-year-old French prostitute, and they remained together until his death ten years later. Leopold lavished upon her large sums of money, estates, gifts, and a noble title, Baroness de Vaughan. Owing to these gifts and the unofficial nature of their relationship, their affair ironically lost Leopold more popularity in Belgium than any of his crimes in the Congo. Caroline bore two sons, Lucien Philippe Marie Antoine, Duke of Tervuren , and Philippe Henri Marie François, Count of Ravenstein . Their second son

1955-413: A new decree mandating that Africans in a large part of the Free State could sell their harvested products (mostly ivory and rubber) only to the state. This law extended an earlier decree declaring that all "unoccupied" land belonged to the state. Any ivory or rubber collected from the state-owned land, the reasoning went, must belong to the state, thus creating a de facto state-controlled monopoly. Therefore,

2070-593: A personal payment of 50 million to him. The Congo Free State was transformed into a Belgian colony under parliamentary control known as the Belgian Congo . Leopold went to great lengths to conceal potential evidence of wrongdoing during his time as ruler of his private colony. The entire archive of the Congo Free State was burned and he told his aide that even though the Congo had been taken from him, "they have no right to know what I did there". When

2185-635: A step likened to the Truth and Reconciliation Committee set up in South Africa after the apartheid regime was abolished. On 30 June, the 60th anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo's independence, King Philippe released a statement expressing his "deepest regret" for the wounds of the colonial past, and the "acts of violence and cruelty committed" in the Congo during colonisation but did not explicitly mention Leopold's role in

2300-424: A striking resemblance to Charlotte. Caroline was a cousin of his advisor Baron Christian Friedrich von Stockmar . She came to England with her mother and took up residence at Longwood House, a few miles from Claremont House . But, by mid-1829, the liaison was over, and the actress and her mother returned to Berlin. Many years later, in memoirs published after her death, she declared that she and Leopold had engaged in

2415-533: A time of some economic and social progress. He argued that people should recognize some positive aspects of the king as well as the negative, but hours after the six-metre (20   ft) statue was erected near Kinshasa's central station, it was officially removed. King Leopold I Leopold I (French: Léopold ; 16 December 1790 – 10 December 1865) was the first King of the Belgians , reigning from 21 July 1831 until his death in 1865. The youngest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , Leopold took

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2530-623: Is interred in the Royal Crypt at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken , next to Louise-Marie. Leopold was succeeded by his son, Leopold II , aged 30, who would rule until 1909. A monument in his memory was erected in Brussels at the initiative of Leopold II. Belgian naval vessels named in his honour include the Leopold I , a frigate acquired by Belgium in 2007. His monogram features on

2645-532: Is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Then, the Irish firm Moraga Ltd claimed the debt by acquiring the shares of LM Holding with approval from Firtash and his Ukrainian mother Maria Grigorovna Firtash ( Ukrainian : Марія Григорівна Фі́рташ ). La Mauresque is arranged around a central patio, on a rectangular plan. Two superimposed galleries, including one that is arcaded and the other on

2760-532: The Belgian Constitution came in 1893. Universal male suffrage was introduced, though the effect of this was tempered by plural voting . The eligibility requirements for the Senate were reduced, and elections would be based on a system of proportional representation , which continues to this day. Leopold pushed strongly to enable a royal referendum, whereby the king would have the power to consult

2875-619: The Catholic Party , Progressive Liberals and the Labour Party caused the Belgian Parliament to compel the king to cede the Congo Free State to Belgium in 1908. The deal that led to the handover cost Belgium the considerable sum of 215.5 million Francs. This was used to discharge the debt of the Congo Free State and to pay out its bond holders as well as 45.5 million for Leopold's pet building projects in Belgium and

2990-522: The Congo Free State , an area 76 times larger than Belgium, was established under Leopold II's personal rule and private army , the Force Publique . In 1894, King Leopold signed a treaty with Great Britain which conceded a strip of land on the Congo Free State's eastern border in exchange for a lifetime lease of the Lado Enclave , which provided access to the navigable Nile and extended

3105-514: The Franco-Prussian War , he managed to preserve Belgium's neutrality in a period of unusual difficulty and danger. Leopold pushed for a reform in military service, but he was unable to obtain one until he was on his deathbed. The Belgian army was a combination of volunteers and a lottery, and it was possible for men to pay for substitutes for service. This was replaced by a system in which one son in every family would have to serve in

3220-665: The French Riviera , including the Villa des Cèdres and its botanical garden , and the Villa Leopolda . Thinking of the future after his death, Leopold did not want the collection of estates, lands and heritage buildings he had privately amassed to be scattered among his daughters, each of whom was married to a foreign prince. In 1900, he created the Royal Trust , by means of which he donated most of his properties to

3335-491: The Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel since November 2008. The villa's gardens were the subject of a separate classification, which occurred at the same time as that of the house. Leopold II of Belgium Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as

3450-651: The Labour Party . Increasing social unrest and the rise of the Labour Party forced the adoption of universal male suffrage in 1893. During Leopold's reign other social changes were enacted into law. Among these were the right of workers to form labour unions and the abolition of the livret d'ouvrier , an employment record book . Laws against child labour were passed. Children younger than 12 were not allowed to work in factories, children younger than 16 were not allowed to work at night, and women younger than 21 years old were not allowed to work underground. Workers gained

3565-618: The Napoleonic Wars , Leopold went to Paris where he became part of the Imperial Court of Napoleon . Napoleon offered him the position of adjutant, but Leopold refused. Instead, he went to Russia to take up a military career in the Imperial Russian cavalry, which was at war with France at the time. He campaigned against Napoleon and distinguished himself at the Battle of Kulm at the head of his cuirassier division. By 1815,

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3680-596: The Nice registered LM Holdings co-owners David Brown and Robert Shelter-Jones who purchased the Villa La Mauresque and later "ceded friendship" of the property to Firtash, Dmitry Firtash became the owner of Villa La Mauresque for 50 million euros. LM Holdings secured a loan from Austrian bank Raiffeisen Bankengruppe and a $ 25 million loan in 2005 from Transolve Ltd, which is registered in several places, and another $ 25 million loan in 2006 from Mersiford Ltd, which

3795-1092: The Parc du Cinquantenaire/Jubelpark (1852–1880), memorial arcade and complex, the Basilica of the Sacred Heart (1905–1969) and Duden Park in Brussels (1881); the Hippodrome Wellington racetrack (1883), the Royal Galleries and Maria Hendrikapark in Ostend (1902); the Royal Museum for Central Africa and its surrounding park in Tervuren (1898); and Antwerpen-Centraal railway station in Antwerp (1895–1905). In addition to his public works, Leopold acquired and built numerous private properties for himself inside and outside Belgium. He expanded

3910-492: The Place Royale/Koningsplein in Brussels. A stand had been erected on the steps of the Church of St. James on Coudenberg , surrounded by the names of revolutionaries fallen during the fighting in 1830. After a ceremony of resignation by the regent, Leopold, dressed in the uniform of a Belgian lieutenant-general, swore loyalty to the constitution and became king. The enthronement is generally used to mark

4025-577: The United Netherlands rose up against Dutch rule. The rising, which began in Brussels , pushed the Dutch army back, and the rebels defended themselves against a Dutch attack. International powers meeting in London agreed to support the independence of Belgium, even though the Dutch refused to recognize the new state. In November 1830, a National Congress was established in Belgium to create

4140-516: The 1848 revolutions in Belgium was posed by Belgian émigré groups. Shortly after the revolution in France , Belgian migrant workers living in Paris were encouraged to return to Belgium to overthrow the monarchy and establish a republic. Around 6,000 armed émigrés of the " Belgian Legion " attempted to cross the Belgian frontier. The first group, travelling by train, was stopped and quickly disarmed at Quiévrain on 26 March 1848. The second group crossed

4255-414: The Belgian government took over the administration in 1908, the situation in the Congo improved in certain respects. The brutal exploitation and arbitrary use of violence, in which some of the concessionary companies had excelled, were curbed. Article 3 of the new Colonial Charter of 18 October 1908 stated that: "Nobody can be forced to work on behalf of and for the profit of companies or privates", but this

4370-414: The Belgian nation in perpetuity, and arranged for the royal family to continue using them after his death. On 15 November 1902, Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino attempted to assassinate Leopold, who was riding in a royal cortege from a ceremony at Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula in memory of his recently deceased wife, Marie Henriette . After Leopold's carriage passed, Rubino fired three shots at

4485-435: The Belgians on 21 July 1831, an event commemorated annually as Belgian National Day . The following year, he married Princess Louise of Orléans , with whom he had four children: Louis Philippe , Leopold , Philippe , and Charlotte , all first cousins of both Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha . The King had another two sons, George and Arthur, by his mistress Arcadie Meyer . Leopold's reign

4600-555: The Church's influence in politics and society, while supporting free trade , personal liberties and secularization . The Catholics wanted religious teachings to be a fundamental basis for the state and society and opposed all attempts by the liberals to attack the Church's official privileges. Initially, these factions existed only as informal groups with which prominent politicians were generally identified. The liberals held power through much of Leopold I's reign. An official Liberal Party

4715-636: The Congo Free State had long-lasting negative impacts. Ethnic groups subjected to more intensive rubber exploitation exhibited significantly lower economic development over a century later, driven by disruptions to traditional economic systems and human capital accumulation. Their work also examined how colonial co-option of local chiefs during the rubber era may have undermined leader accountability, linking to broader critiques of indirect rule strategies across Africa. The oppressive policies under Leopold's personal rule are seen as engendering entrenched underdevelopment with enduring economic and political consequences in

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4830-400: The Congo Free State to him. Leopold ran the Congo, which he never personally visited, by using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal gain. He extracted a fortune from the territory, initially by the collection of ivory and, after a rise in the price of natural rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber. Leopold's administration

4945-437: The Congo, she traveled on steamboats owned by the state and its company allies, who controlled where she went and what she saw. When she returned to England, Jones placed her articles in the newspapers. She stated "I have witnessed more atrocities in London streets than I have ever seen in the Congo." Thereafter, the king paid her a monthly salary to lobby members of Parliament. International opposition and criticism at home from

5060-649: The Congo. In 1878, under the auspices of the holding company, he hired explorer Henry Stanley to explore and establish a colony in the Congo region. Much diplomatic maneuvering among European nations resulted in the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885 regarding African affairs, at which representatives of 14 European countries and the United States recognized Leopold as sovereign of most of the area to which he and Stanley had laid claim. On 5 February 1885,

5175-642: The Congress was able to draw up a shortlist. The viable possibilities were felt to be Auguste of Leuchtenberg , son of Eugène de Beauharnais , and Louis, Duke of Nemours , son of the French King Louis-Philippe . All the candidates were French and the choice between them was principally between choosing the Bonapartism of Beauharnais or Leuchtenberg and supporting the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe. Louis-Philippe realized that

5290-658: The Constitution was ambiguous or unclear while generally avoiding involvement in routine politics. Leopold I's reign was also marked by an economic crisis which lasted until the late 1850s. In the aftermath of the revolution, the Dutch had closed the Scheldt to Belgian shipping, meaning that the port of Antwerp was effectively useless. The Netherlands and the Dutch colonies in particular, which had been profitable markets for Belgian manufacturers before 1830, were totally closed to Belgian goods. The period between 1845 and 1849

5405-415: The Dutch ruling house of Orange-Nassau . Some Orangists had hoped to offer the position to William I or his son, William, Prince of Orange , which would bring Belgium into personal union with the Netherlands like Luxembourg. The Great Powers also worried that a candidate from another state could risk destabilizing the international balance of power and lobbied for a neutral candidate. Eventually

5520-474: The East Indies. Similar methods of forced labour were employed to some degree by Germany, France, and Portugal where natural rubber occurred in their own colonies. Efforts by Leopold to dampen international criticism of human rights abuses included the sponsoring of an author, May French Sheldon , by his British consule Sir Alfred Lewis Jones on an expedition of the Congo Free State in 1891. While in

5635-552: The Force Publique were required to provide the hand of their victims as proof when they had shot and killed someone, as it was believed that they would otherwise use the munitions (imported from Europe at considerable cost) for hunting. As a consequence, the rubber quotas were in part paid off in chopped-off hands. Shortly after the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference (1889–1890), Leopold issued

5750-525: The Free State's sphere of influence northwards into Sudan. After rubber profits soared in 1895, Leopold ordered the organization of an expedition into the Lado Enclave, which had been overrun by Mahdist rebels since the outbreak of the Mahdist War in 1881. The expedition was composed of two columns: the first, under Belgian Baron Dhanis , consisted of a sizable force, numbering around 3,000, and

5865-553: The French candidates and the increased international pressure for a solution led to his reconsideration. On 22 April, he was finally approached by a Belgian delegation at Marlborough House to officially offer him the throne. Leopold, however, was reluctant to accept. On 17 July 1831, Leopold travelled from Calais to Belgium, entering the country at De Panne . Travelling to Brussels, he was greeted with patriotic enthusiasm along his route. The accession ceremony took place on 21 July on

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5980-677: The Queen of Portugal, Maria II . He promoted the marriage of his niece, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom , to his nephew, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . In foreign policy, Leopold's principal object was the maintenance of Belgian neutrality imposed by Article VII of the Treaty of London (1839) . Despite pressure from the Great Powers, especially over the Crimean War (1853–56), Belgium remained officially neutral throughout

6095-685: The Regent was displeased, he found Leopold to be charming and possessing every quality to make his daughter happy, and so approved their marriage. The same year Leopold received an honorary commission to the rank of Field Marshal and Knight of the Order of the Garter . The Regent also considered making Leopold a royal duke , the Duke of Kendal , though the plan was abandoned due to government fears that it would draw Leopold into party politics and would be viewed as

6210-524: The United Kingdom on the death of her father and Leopold presumably would have assumed the role of prince consort , later taken by his nephew Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . Despite Charlotte's death, the Prince Regent granted Prince Leopold the British style of Royal Highness by Order in Council on 6 April 1818. From 1828 to 1829, Leopold had an affair with the actress Caroline Bauer , who bore

6325-482: The Villa. Haxton was followed by other partners after Haxton's death in 1944. Maugham's last partner, Allan Searle, inherited Maugham's estate and the villa. In 1967, the villa was purchased by an American, Lynn Wyatt , a prominent figure in international society. The façades and the interior layout were modified – while retaining the classic style – at this time by the French architect Marcel Guilgot. In 2005, through

6440-430: The age of nine from pneumonia after falling into a pond. His death was a source of great sorrow for King Leopold. The marriage became unhappy, and the couple separated after a last attempt to have another son, a union that resulted in the birth of their last daughter, Clementine . Marie Henriette retreated to Spa in 1895, and died there in 1902. Leopold had many mistresses . In 1899, in his 65th year, Leopold took as

6555-422: The ambassador did nothing. Leopold quickly replaced the ambassador with a more sympathetic individual to carry out his plan. In 1868, when Isabella II was deposed as queen of Spain, Leopold tried to press his original plan to acquire the Philippines. But without funds, he was unsuccessful. Leopold then devised another unsuccessful plan to establish the Philippines as an independent state, which could then be ruled by

6670-573: The army . He served in the army until his accession in 1865, by which time he had reached the rank of lieutenant-general. Leopold's public career began on his attaining the age of majority in 1855, when he became a member of the Belgian Senate . He took an active interest in the senate, especially in matters concerning the development of Belgium and its trade, and began to urge Belgium's acquisition of colonies. Leopold traveled abroad extensively from 1854 to 1865, visiting India, China, Egypt, and

6785-496: The arrival of their Armée du Nord in Belgium forced the Dutch to accept a diplomatic mediation and retreat back to the pre-war border. Skirmishes continued for eight years, but in April 1839, the two countries signed the Treaty of London , whereby the Dutch recognised Belgium's independence. Leopold was generally unsatisfied with the amount of power allocated to the monarch in the Constitution, and sought to extend it wherever

6900-419: The assessment of the 1919 Belgian government commission: roughly half the population were killed or died during the Free State period. Hochschild points out that since the first official census by the Belgian authorities in 1924 put the population at about 10 million, these various approaches suggest a rough estimate of a population decline by 10 million. Smallpox epidemics and sleeping sickness also devastated

7015-419: The atrocities. Some activists accused him of not making a full apology. Leopold II remains a controversial figure in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the capital Kinshasa (known until 1966 as Leopoldville in his honor) his statue was removed after independence. Congolese culture minister Christophe Muzungu decided to reinstate the statue in 2005. He noted that the beginning of the Free State had been

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7130-411: The author Somerset Maugham purchased the property and commissioned Henri Delmotte, Marcel Guilgot, and the young American architect Barry Dierks to eliminate the villa's original neo-oriental elements, to classicize the façades and patio, and to modernize the layout by creating a staircase. Villa La Mauresque became Maugham's main residence until his death in 1965. Becoming a near-obligatory stop for

7245-474: The birth rate rapidly declined during this period. Estimates for the total population decline range from 1 million to 15 million, with a consensus growing around 10 million. Several historians argue against this figure due to the absence of reliable censuses, the enormous mortality of diseases such as smallpox or sleeping sickness and the fact that there were only 175 administrative agents in charge of rubber exploitation. Reports of deaths and abuse led to

7360-408: The border on 29 March and headed for Brussels. They were confronted by Belgian troops at the hamlet of Risquons-Tout and, during fighting, seven émigrés were killed and most of the rest were captured. To defuse tension, Leopold theatrically offered his abdication, if this was the wish of the majority of his people. The defeat at Risquons-Tout effectively ended the revolutionary threat to Belgium, as

7475-678: The choice of either of the Bonapartists could be first stage of a coup against him, but that his son would also be unacceptable to other European powers suspicious of French intentions. Nemours refused the offer. With no definitive choice in sight, Catholics and Liberals united to elect Erasme Louis Surlet de Chokier , a minor Belgian nobleman, as regent to buy more time for a definitive decision in February 1831. Leopold of Saxe-Coburg had been proposed at an early stage, but had been dropped because of French opposition. The problems caused by

7590-429: The colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim by committing the Congo Free State to improving the lives of the people. The central services of the state were located in Brussels. All officials within the Congo were Belgian, including those in administration, the army, and the courts. Belgian officers from the army played an essential role in the Congo’s governance. Even religious missions, especially Catholic ones, had

7705-485: The countries on the Mediterranean coast of Africa. His father died on 10 December 1865, and Leopold took the oath of office on 17 December, at the age of 30. He also served in the Belgian Senate during this time. Leopold became king in 1865. He explained his goal for his reign in an 1888 letter addressed to his brother, Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders : "the country must be strong, prosperous, therefore have colonies of her own, beautiful and calm." Leopold's reign

7820-456: The country's independence in 1830. The Belgian government offered the position to Leopold because of his diplomatic connections with royal houses across Europe, and because as the British-backed candidate, he was not affiliated with other powers, such as France, which were believed to have territorial ambitions in Belgium which might threaten the European balance of power created by the 1815 Congress of Vienna . Leopold took his oath as King of

7935-399: The daughter of King Louis Philippe of France. His eldest brother, Louis Philippe, Crown Prince of Belgium , died in infancy in 1834. As heir apparent, Leopold was granted the title of Duke of Brabant in 1840. The French Revolution of 1848 forced his maternal grandfather, Louis Philippe, to flee to the United Kingdom. Louis Philippe died two years later, in 1850. Leopold's fragile mother

8050-399: The death of several Belgian officers and the loss of his entire force. Nonetheless, Chaltin continued his advance, and on 17 February 1897, his outnumbered forces defeated the rebels in the Battle of Rejaf , securing the Lado Enclave as Free State territory until Leopold's death in 1909. Leopold amassed a huge personal fortune by exploiting the natural resources of the Congo. At first, ivory

8165-428: The deeply traumatized population. By 1896, African trypanosomiasis had killed up to 5,000 people in the village of Lukolela on the Congo River . The mortality statistics were collected through the efforts of British consul Roger Casement , who found, for example, only 600 survivors of the disease in Lukolela in 1903. Research by Lowes and Montero found King Leopold II's coercive labor practices for rubber extraction in

8280-486: The electorate directly on an issue, and use his veto according to the results of the referendum. The proposal was rejected, as it would have given the king the power to override the elected government. Leopold was so disappointed that he considered abdication . Leopold emphasized military defence as the basis of neutrality, and strove to make Belgium less vulnerable militarily. He achieved the construction of defensive fortresses at Liège , at Namur and at Antwerp . During

8395-557: The end of the revolution and the start of the Kingdom of Belgium and is celebrated each year as the Belgian national holiday . Less than two weeks after Leopold's accession, on 2 August, the Netherlands invaded Belgium, starting the Ten Days' Campaign . The small Belgian army was overwhelmed by the Dutch assault and was pushed back. Faced with a military crisis, Leopold appealed to the French for support. The French promised support, and

8510-560: The failed regicide , the king's security was questioned, because the glass of the landaus was 2 cm thick. Elsewhere in Europe, the news of this assassination attempt was received with alarm. Heads of state and the pope sent telegrams to the king congratulating him for surviving the assassination attempt. The Belgians rejoiced that the king was safe. Later in the day, in the Royal Theatre of La Monnaie before Tristan und Isolde

8625-586: The father of Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom . In 1797, at just six years old, Leopold was given an honorary commission of the rank of colonel in the Izmaylovsky Regiment , part of the Imperial Guard , in the Imperial Russian Army . Six years later, he received a promotion to the rank of Major General . When French troops occupied the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg in 1806 during

8740-461: The great number of buildings, urban projects and public works he commissioned. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State, a private colonial project undertaken on his own behalf as a personal union with Belgium. He used Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorised his claim and committed

8855-404: The ground floor, which is glazed, surround this patio. The entry façade is marked by a columnated porte-cochere. A tower marks the southeast corner of the building. The somber façades, which lack any ornamentation, are of plaster painted white. The roof is tiled, save for the terrace, which is cement. The interior, on the ground floor, which was modified during the renovation of 1967, included

8970-846: The grounds of the Royal Castle of Laeken , and built the Royal Greenhouses , as well as the Japanese Tower and the Chinese Pavilion near the palace (now the Museums of the Far East ). In the Ardennes , his domains consisted of 6,700 hectares (17,000 acres) of forests and agricultural lands and the châteaux of Ardenne , Ciergnon , Fenffe, Villers-sur-Lesse and Ferage. He also built important country estates on

9085-890: The king arguing that bringing Christianity to the country outweighs a little starvation, and uses many of Leopold's own words against him. Writer Arthur Conan Doyle also criticised the "rubber regime" in his 1908 work The Crime of the Congo , written to aid the work of the Congo Reform Association. Doyle contrasted Leopold's rule with British rule in Nigeria , arguing that decency required those who ruled primitive peoples to be concerned first with their uplift, not how much could be extracted from them. As Hochschild describes in King Leopold's Ghost , many of Leopold's policies, in particular those of colonial monopolies and forced labour, were influenced by Dutch practice in

9200-583: The literary and Riviera society, La Mauresque , from the point of Maugham's acquisition, received most of the celebrities who visited the Riviera: Winston Churchill , the Duke and Duchess of Windsor , Lord Beaverbrook and the Aga Khan mingled with such literary figures as T. S. Eliot , H. G. Wells , Rudyard Kipling , Ian Fleming , Noël Coward and even Virginia Woolf . Maugham and his partner Gerald Haxton lived together at

9315-459: The military. According to historian Jean Stengers, Leopold II’s imperialism was driven by economic advantage rather than political grandeur. Leopold sought to maximize profit through efficient exploitation, including forced labor and direct revenue. However, Stengers emphasizes that Leopold’s voracity was not solely for personal enrichment; it was also rooted in patriotism—a desire to ensure Belgium’s prosperity and embellishment. Leopold commissioned

9430-409: The native population, beatings, widespread killings, and frequent mutilation when production quotas were not met. One practice used to force workers to collect rubber included taking wives and family members hostage. Missionary John Harris of Baringa was so shocked by what he had encountered that he wrote to Leopold's chief agent in the Congo, saying: I have just returned from a journey inland to

9545-517: The people by her character and benevolence. Her beauty earned her the sobriquet "The Rose of Brabant". She was also an accomplished artist and musician. She was passionate about horseback riding , to the point that she would care for her horses personally. Some joked about this "marriage of a stableman and a nun ", the latter referring to the shy and withdrawn Leopold. The marriage produced four children: three daughters and one son, Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant . The younger Leopold died in 1869 at

9660-470: The pre-colonial population and the amount by which it changed under the Congo Free State, estimates for the Congolese population decline during Leopold's rule range from 1 million to 15 million. The causes of the decline included epidemic disease, a reduced birth rate, and violence and famine caused by the regime. Leopold was born in Brussels on 9 April 1835, the second child of the reigning Belgian monarch, Leopold I , and of his second wife, Louise ,

9775-409: The procession. The shots missed Leopold but almost killed the king's grand marshal , Count Charles John d'Oultremont. Rubino was immediately arrested and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment. He died in prison in 1918. The king replied after the attack to a senator: "My dear senator, if fate wants me shot, too bad!" ("Mon cher Sénateur, si la fatalité veut que je sois atteint, tant pis"!) After

9890-564: The region resulted in the Casement Report , which detailed the extensive abuses under Leopold's regime. A widespread war of words ensued. In Britain, former shipping clerk E. D. Morel with Casement's support founded the Congo Reform Association , the first mass human rights movement. Supporters included American writer Mark Twain , whose stinging political satire entitled King Leopold's Soliloquy portrays

10005-649: The region. Inspired by works such as Joseph Conrad ’s Heart of Darkness (1902), originally published as a three-part series in Blackwood’s Magazine (1899) and based on Conrad's experience as a steamer captain on the Congo 12 years earlier, international criticism of Leopold’s rule increased and mobilized. Reports of outrageous exploitation and widespread human rights abuses led the British Crown to appoint their consul Roger Casement to investigate conditions there. His extensive travels and interviews in

10120-714: The reigns of Leopold I and II, although Belgian historian Jan Anckaer has interpreted Leopold's diplomatic efforts in the Second Egyptian-Ottoman War in 1840 and Belgium's manufacture of arms for Russia during the Crimean War as breaches of neutrality. Leopold married Louise-Marie of Orléans (daughter of Louis Philippe I ) on 9 August 1832. They had four children: Queen Louise-Marie died of tuberculosis on 11 October 1850, aged 38. Leopold had two sons, George and Arthur, by his mistress Arcadie Meyer ( née  Claret ). George von Eppinghoven

10235-666: The right to be compensated for workplace accidents and were given Sundays off. Leopold's reluctance to use the Dutch language in public did little to solve the linguistic conflict in Belgium and made him more unpopular than his father with the Flemish Movement . However, his nephew and heir, Prince Baudouin , became something of a hero to the Flemings, and Leopold did make some speeches in Dutch shortly before and after Baudouin's premature death in 1891. The first revision of

10350-558: The second but eldest-surviving son of King Leopold I and Queen Louise , Leopold succeeded his father to the Belgian throne in 1865 and reigned for 44 years until his death, the longest reign of a Belgian monarch to date. He died without surviving legitimate sons; the current King of the Belgians, Philippe , descends from his nephew and successor, Albert I . He is popularly referred to as the Builder King (Dutch: Koning-Bouwheer , French: Roi-Bâtisseur ) in Belgium in reference to

10465-458: The situation in Belgium began to recover that summer after a good harvest, and fresh elections returned a strong Liberal majority. Because of his family connections and position at the head of a neutral and unthreatening power, Leopold was able to act as an important intermediary in European politics during his reign. As a result of this, he earned the nickname the " Nestor of Europe", after

10580-567: The start of Leopold's control are only "wild guesses", and that attempts by E. D. Morel and others to determine a figure for the loss of population were "but figments of the imagination". Adam Hochschild devotes a chapter of his 1998 book King Leopold's Ghost to the problem of estimating the death toll. He cites several recent lines of investigation, by anthropologist Jan Vansina and others, that examine local sources (police records, religious records, oral traditions, genealogies, personal diaries, and "many others"), which generally agree with

10695-536: The then Duchess of Kent , were all siblings. As a young man, Leopold II served in the Belgian military and achieved the rank of lieutenant-general. He also served in the Belgian Senate during this time. At the age of 18, Leopold married Marie Henriette of Austria , a cousin of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and granddaughter of the late Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II , on 22 August 1853 in Brussels. Lively and energetic, Marie Henriette endeared herself to

10810-573: The time of the final defeat of Napoleon, he had reached the rank of lieutenant general at only 25 years of age. Leopold received British citizenship in March 1816. Leopold married Princess Charlotte of Wales at Carlton House, London on 2 May 1816. Charlotte was the only legitimate child of Prince George, Prince Regent (later George IV), and therefore second in line to the British throne . The Prince Regent had hoped Charlotte would marry William, Prince of Orange , but she favoured Leopold. Although

10925-441: The village of Insongo Mboyo. The abject misery and utter abandon is positively indescribable. I was so moved, Your Excellency, by the people's stories that I took the liberty of promising them that in future you will only kill them for crimes they commit. Estimates of the death toll range from one million to fifteen million, since accurate records were not kept. Historians Louis and Stengers in 1968 stated that population figures at

11040-521: The wise mediator in Homer 's Iliad . Leopold played a particularly important role in moderating relations between the hostile Great Powers . In the later part of his reign, his role in managing relations between the United Kingdom and the French Empire of Napoleon III was particularly important. In 1835–1836, he promoted the marriage between his nephew Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and

11155-514: Was able to slightly expand the monarch's powers during his reign. He also played an important role in stopping the spread of the Revolutions of 1848 into Belgium. He died in 1865 and was succeeded by his son Leopold II. Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duke of Saxony , was born in Coburg in the tiny German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on 16 December 1790. He

11270-477: Was booed by the crowd in expression of disapproval of his rule. 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 . Attention to the Congo atrocities subsided in the years after Leopold's death. Statues of him were erected in the 1930s at the initiative of Albert I, while the Belgian government celebrated his accomplishments in Belgium. The debate over Leopold's legacy

11385-453: Was born in 1849, and Arthur von Eppinghoven in 1852. At Leopold's request, in 1862 his two sons were created Freiherr von Eppinghoven by his nephew, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ; in 1863 Arcadie was also created Baronin von Eppinghoven. Leopold died in Laeken near Brussels on 10 December 1865. His funeral was held on 16 December, on what would have been his 75th birthday. He

11500-426: Was born with a deformed hand , leading a cartoon to depict Leopold holding the child surrounded by Congolese corpses with their hands sliced off: the caption said "Vengeance from on high". They married secretly in a religious ceremony five days before his death. Their failure to perform a civil ceremony rendered the marriage invalid under Belgian law. After the king's death, it soon emerged that he had left his widow

11615-474: Was characterized by systematic brutality and atrocities in the Congo Free State , including forced labour, torture, murder, kidnapping, and the amputation of the hands of men, women, and children when the quota of rubber was not met. In one of the first uses of the term, George Washington Williams described the practices of Leopold's administration of the Congo Free State as " crimes against humanity " in 1890. While it has proven difficult to accurately estimate

11730-400: Was completed in 1835. When completed, it was one of the first passenger railways in continental Europe . The success of economic reforms partially mitigated the effects of the economic downturn and meant that Belgium was not as badly affected as its neighbours by the Revolutions of 1848 . Nevertheless, in early 1848, a large number of radical publications appeared. The most serious threat of

11845-456: Was deeply affected by the death of her father and her health deteriorated. She died of tuberculosis that same year, when Leopold was 15 years old. Leopold's sister Charlotte became Empress Carlota of Mexico in the 1860s. The British monarch at the time, Queen Victoria , was Leopold II's first cousin, as was Victoria's husband, Prince Albert , since Leopold's father, Albert's father, Duke Ernest I of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha , and Victoria's mother,

11960-435: Was exported, but this did not yield the expected levels of revenue. When the global demand for rubber exploded, attention shifted to the labour-intensive collection of sap from rubber plants. Abandoning the promises of the Berlin Conference in the late 1890s, the Free State government restricted foreign access and extorted forced labour from the natives. Abuses, especially in the collection of rubber, included forced labour of

12075-504: Was formed in 1846, although a formal Catholic Party was only established in 1869. Leopold, who was himself a Protestant, tended to favor liberals and shared their desire for reform, even though he was not partisan. On his own initiative, in 1842, Leopold proposed a law which would have stopped women and children from working in some industries, but the bill was defeated. Leopold was an early supporter of railways, and Belgium's first stretch of railway, between northern Brussels and Mechelen ,

12190-609: Was marked by a number of major political developments. The Liberals governed Belgium from 1857 to 1880, and during its final year in power legislated the Frère-Orban Law of 1879. This law created free, secular, compulsory primary schools supported by the state and withdrew all state support from Roman Catholic primary schools. The Catholic Party obtained a parliamentary majority in 1880, and four years later restored state support to Catholic schools. In 1885, various socialist and social democratic groups drew together and formed

12305-417: 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 industrialisation . As a result of the ambiguities in the Belgian Constitution , Leopold

12420-474: Was not enforced, and the Belgian government continued to impose forced labour on the natives, albeit by less obvious methods. The Belgian Congo gained independence in 1960 and became known as the Republic of the Congo . On 17 December 1909, Leopold II died at Laeken from an embolism , and the Belgian crown passed to Albert I , the son of Leopold's brother, Philippe, Count of Flanders . His funeral cortege

12535-652: Was offered the throne of an independent Greece as part of the London Protocol of February 1830 . Though initially showing interest in the position, Leopold eventually turned down the offer on 17 May 1830. The role would subsequently be accepted by Otto of Wittelsbach in May 1832 who ruled until he was finally deposed in October 1862. At the end of August 1830, rebels in the Southern provinces (modern-day Belgium) of

12650-604: Was particularly hard in Flanders, where harvests failed and a third of the population became dependent on poor relief, and have been described as the "worst years of Flemish history". The economic situation in Flanders also increased the internal migration to Brussels and the industrial areas of Wallonia , which continued throughout the period. Politics in Belgium under Leopold I were polarized between liberal and Catholic political factions, though before 1847 they collaborated in " Unionist " governments. The liberals were opposed to

12765-414: Was performed, the orchestra played The Brabançonne , which was sung loudly and ended with loud cheers and applause. Leopold was the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State , a private project undertaken on his own behalf. He used explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, an area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885,

12880-479: Was reignited in 1999 with the publication of King Leopold's Ghost by American historian Adam Hochschild, which recounts Leopold's plan to acquire the colony, the exploitation, and the large death toll. The debate then periodically resurfaced over the following 20 years. In 2010, Louis Michel , a Belgian member of the European Parliament and former Belgian foreign minister, called Leopold II

12995-564: Was shameful. If we measured him against 21st century standards, it is likely that Leopold would be hauled before the International Criminal Court in The Hague." In June 2020, a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Brussels protested the murder of George Floyd , causing Leopold II's legacy to become once again the subject of debate. MPs agreed to set up a parliamentary commission to examine Belgium's colonial past,

13110-408: Was the youngest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld , and Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf . In 1826, Saxe-Coburg acquired the city of Gotha from the neighbouring Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and gave up Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen , becoming Saxe-Coburg and Gotha . The dynasty of this name was therefore founded by Leopold's eldest brother, Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha ,

13225-516: Was to strike north through the jungle and attack the rebels at their base at Rejaf. The second, a much smaller force of 800, was led by Louis-Napoléon Chaltin and took the main road towards Rejaf. Both expeditions set out in December 1896. Although Leopold had initially planned for the expedition to carry on much farther than the Lado Enclave, hoping indeed to take Fashoda and then Khartoum , Dhanis' column mutinied in February 1897, resulting in

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