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Mary Lilian Lucy Josepha Monique Baels was born in Highbury, London, England, one of eight children of Henri Baels, an attorney and fish trader from Ostend, Belgium, and his wife Anne Marie de Visscher, who were living in England during World War I.
In 1926, Henri Baels became Belgian Minister of Agriculture and King Leopold III appointed him Governor (royal representative) of the province of West Flanders. An avid golfer, and regular visitor to the Knokke-le-Zoute golf course, Baels's daughter Lilian attracted the attention of King Leopold, a widower, and the two became frequent golf partners. (The king's popular first wife, née Princess Astrid of Sweden, had been killed in an automobile accident in 1935 at age 29; her husband, who had been king for just a year, was at the wheel and lost control of the vehicle in what has been described as "a moment of inattention.") Eyebrows were raised at the still-grieving king's frequent outings with the alluring commoner but Queen Mother ElisabethHer Majesty Queen Elizabeth (nee The Honourable Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon ( 4 August 1900 30 March 2002) was the Queen consort of George VI of the United Kingdom. She is the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, the current British monarch. After her husband's death s reportedly played Cupid. According to an unauthorized biography of Lilian, Leopold's mother invited the young woman to distract the king from his troubles. The details of the couple's celebrated courtship will become clearer in 2033, when their love letters will be available for study.
On September 11September 11 is the 254th day of the year (255th in leap years). There are 111 days remaining. It is usually the first day of the Coptic calendar (in the period 1900 to 2099 A. The terms "September 11" and "9/11" have been widely used in the Western media, 19411941 is also the title of a Steven Spielberg movie made in 1979 see 1941 (film). Events January January 6 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address. January 10 Lend-Lease is introduced into the United St, Lilian Baels reportedly married the king in a religious ceremony. A biography of the monarch, written by Antoine Giscard d'Estaing , states that the marriage actually took place on December 6, with the September date given to conceal the fact that Lilian was pregnant with the couple's first child. The public announcement of the king's second marriage was made in December when Cardinal Van Roey , primate of Belgium, wrote an open letter to parish priests throughout the country. The letter revealed that the king's new wife would be known as Princess de Réthy, not Queen Lilian, and that any children they might have would have no claim to the throne. The marriage was considered morganatic, and the Réthy title does not appear to have been officially established in royal records, though it was the name by which she was popularly known (she was, however, made a royal Princess of Belgium).
That fateful date of December 6December 6 is the 340th day (341st on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 25 days remaining. Events: 1534 Spanish found Quito, Ecuador 1768 First edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica is published 1790 United States Congress mov, 19411941 is also the title of a Steven Spielberg movie made in 1979 see 1941 (film). Events January January 6 Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address. January 10 Lend-Lease is introduced into the United St has been called king's personal Pearl HarborPearl Harbor is a complex embayment on the island of O'ahu, Hawai'i, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a US Navy deep water naval base: headquarters of the US Pacific Fleet. The attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan on 7 December 194. The public disapproval was stunning. According to an obituary of Lilian that appeared in the London Telegraph on October 6October 6 is the 279th day of the year (280th in Leap years). There are 86 days remaining. Events 105 BC Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict a major defeat on the Roman army of Mallius Maximus 891 Formosus becomes Pope 1600 Jacopo Peri's Euridice the ea, 2002, a leading Belgian newspaper expressed the thoughts of many in the country at the time when it published the following words: "Sire, we thought you had your face turned towards us in mourning. Instead you had it hidden in the shoulder of a woman."
The king's new wife was widely suspected of Nazi sympathies (one source reports that upon hearing of the wedding, Hitler sent flowers and a letter of congratulations), and the marriage was to many Belgians an affront to the memory of the beloved Queen Astrid. Leopold's reputation would be further undermined by lingering questions about his wartime actions, among them his surrender of Belgium to the Germans in 1940, an action that resulted in the Belgian government in exile declaring the king unable to rule and naming as regent his brother, Prince Charles, Count of Flanders . (Revisionist historians have sifted through the evidence, however, and discovered that the king was braver and more concerned about the welfare of his country than he appeared and may well have been a scapegoat.) Unable to overcome the nation's low opinion of his remarriage and distressed by left-wing riots against his return to the throne after the war -- Leopold, his wife, and his four children had been held under house arrest by the Nazis in Belgium, Germany, and Austria, and spent some years in Swiss exile before returning to Belgium in 1950 after a national referendum -- the king handed over his constitutional powers to his son Baudouin on August 10, 1950. He relinquished the title of king 11 months later and became H.R.H. Prince Leopold of Belgium, Duke of Brabant.
Soon, however, concerns were raised by royal insiders that the Baudouin, who was 20 when he assumed the throne, might be in love with his glamorous stepmother, who was 14 years his senior. Secretly recorded telephone calls between young king and the princess raised alarms in ministerial circles. Disturbing, too, according to an article written by journalist Jean-Claude Broché after Princess de Réthy's death, was the pair's trip to the Tyrol in the winter of 1952-53, when they travelled in adjoining train compartments. (Information about that journey was publicly revealed when the journals of Achille Van Acker , a Belgian prime minister, were published.) As time went by, the concerns appear to have subsided but observers surely clucked after they learned of the unexplained actions of Princess de Réthy and Prince Leopold in the weeks after December 15, 1960, the day Baudouin married a Spanish noblewoman two years his senior, Dona Fabiola Fernanda María de las Victorias Antonia Adelaida de Mora y Aragon . When the newlyweds returned from their honeymoon, they discovered that Lilian and Leopold had abruptly moved out of Kasteel Laeken , the sprawling royal palace where they had lived with Baudouin for a decade, and set up house in a country castle near Waterloo. A prolonged and mysterious period of estrangement between the couples followed.
The three children of King Leopold III (later Prince Leopold of Belgium, Duke of Brabant), and his second wife, Princess Lilian of Belgium, are:
Princess Lilian of Belgium, Duchess of Brabant was interred next to her husband in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady in Laeken, Belgium. Her surviving stepchildren attended the funeral, as did her stepdaughter-in-law, the widowed Queen Fabiola. Her son and younger daughter and their spouses also were present at the ceremony; Daphné, her long-estranged eldest daughter, however, "stayed away," according to the royal-watching website www.nettyroyal.nl.
Baels, Mary Lilian Baels, Mary Lilian| Politics | Business | Finance |
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