King Leopold III (1901-1983), Queen Astrid (1905-1935) and Princess Lilian (1916-2002)

Events would put this patriotism to a stern test. At the age of 12, Leopold saw his country overwhelmed by invading German forces during World War I. Leopold and his siblings were sent to safety in Britain. Their parents remained in Belgium, exposed to all the dangers of war. Reduced to a small strip of territory near the North Sea, King Albert, in collaboration with the armies of the Entente, led the Belgian army in trench warfare against the Germans for the next four years. Queen Elisabeth remained at her husband's side, devoting her time to the care of wounded soldiers and Belgian refugees.

Leopold soon insisted on returning to Belgium to take part in the defense of his country. Accordingly, at the age of 13, he became the youngest infantryman in the Belgian army. Throughout the war, the young prince alternated between school at Eton and "vacations" with his regiment. His father, King Albert, had instructed the regiment's Colonel: "Make him dig trenches, so that he may know what it is like to have blistered hands." Every morning, therefore, Leopold used to fill fifty sandbags to reinforce the parapets. He also undertook the complete course of training for the infantry recruit - physical exercises, lessons in handling arms and grenade throwing, drill and the maintenance of equipment.

Soon, Leopold, still only 13, insisted on being taken to the front line. By Providence, he survived many dangers. On one occasion, he manned an advance post within pistol range of the enemy. Another time, he was nearly hit by a bombshell, but his companion, a 65-year-old soldier, pushed him out of the way in the nick of time.

Allied victory and the return of peace saw Leopold and his family return to Brussels, in a newly liberated Belgium. The popularity of the Belgian royal family, widely admired at home and abroad for their wartime heroism, knew no bounds.

In 1926, Leopold married Princess Astrid of Sweden, a beautiful and gracious young woman. Leopold and Astrid were deeply in love. In 1927, they had a daughter, Princess Josephine-Charlotte, and, in 1930, a son, Prince Baudouin. (A third child, Prince Albert, would be born in 1934, after Leopold's accession to the throne). In the year of Baudouin's birth, Astrid, raised as a Lutheran, converted to Catholicism, the faith of her adopted country. She did so, however, without any pressure from the Belgian royal family, out of genuine religious conviction. Leopold found great happiness in his marriage and family life.

Meanwhile, he worked hard at understudying his father, King Albert, and preparing himself for his eventual role as sovereign. He was especially concerned with the plight of the Belgian Congo, irresponsibly exploited. In 1925 and 1933, Leopold undertook extensive tours of the Congo, and, both times, returned with apt criticisms of the colonial regime and suggestions for reform.

In 1934, while Leopold and Astrid were vacationing in Switzerland, King Albert died tragically in a mountaineering accident in Belgium. Deeply shocked and grieved, Leopold and Astrid returned to Belgium immediately for the King's funeral. Some days afterwards, Leopold swore his accession oath in Brussels, becoming King Leopold III of the Belgians. On this solemn occasion, Leopold declared: "I give myself entirely to Belgium."

His reign would be characterized by misfortune. In 1935, the year after his father's death, Leopold lost his wife under equally tragic circumstances, in a terrible car accident in Switzerland. Injured himself, and shattered by grief and shock, the King returned to Belgium for his wife's funeral. Against his doctor's orders, he insisted on following Queen Astrid's hearse on foot for four miles. To Astrid's close friend, Anna Sparre, the devastated King confided: "My life is over."

Leopold had lost, not only his beloved wife, but his Queen, his chief support and close collaborator in his royal function. Yet, despite his terrible personal grief, he persevered, alone, devoting his energies to Belgium, during a period of mounting political tension in Europe. Hitler and Stalin were threatening; World War II was fast approaching.

What a memory! One of the most beautiful of my life, hearing the first cry of my first child! You were so pretty, and later, so handsome! But this, you do not like people to tell you, or, at least, not too bluntly. Since then, so many joys, so many sorrows!

Anna Maria de Visscher was the scion of respectable bourgeoisie, the daughter of a mayor and the granddaughter of a minister. Her ancestors included illustrious figures, such as the Comte Félix de Muelenaere, a member of the National Congress that founded the Kingdom of Belgium, and three times Foreign Minister between 1831 and 1841. In 1905, Anna Maria married Henri Baels, a rising young Ostende shipowner, lawyer and politician, to whom she bore eight children, six daughters and two sons.

During the Nazi invasion of Belgium, while her husband, the Governor of West Flanders, circulated constantly to alleviate the plight of his province, Madame Baels worked for the Red Cross. The young Lilian assisted her mother in her task, transporting wounded French and Belgian soldiers by car to the St. John Hospital in Bruges, simultaneously flooded by refugees. She also helped to evacuate the elderly from the hospice of Alost, which was within the combat zone, exposed to enemy fire.

As the military situation headed towards disaster, however, Madame Baels decided to leave for France to bring two of her daughters, then ailing, to safety. Lilian drove the family car. At a restaurant in Bernay, near Lisieux, the news of the Belgian capitulation reached the four women. At Paul Reynaud's infamous broadcast, branding the Belgian king a traitor and felon, French and Belgian officers began vilifying Léopold III, tearing apart his photograph on the front cover of a magazine. Horrified, Lilian indignantly rebuked the officers. One spitefully retaliated by seizing the Baels' car key and throwing it into a ditch. After obtaining a replacement, the ladies proceeded to the south of France, renting a villa in Anglet, near Biarritz.

Madame Baels would have many sorrows in the years to come. Her husband and her son were unfairly accused of cowardice and treason, while her daughter Lilian was battered by gossip and slander. According to Lilian's account, as recorded in Un couple dans la tempête (2004), the news of her secret marriage with King Léopold upset and worried her mother, who foresaw that it would provoke a political storm. "My little one, you don't know what's in store for you. It will be appalling, they will all attack you, you will have a terribly hard life," she is quoted as saying (pp. 36-37). Anna Maria Baels, née de Visscher, died of heart failure in 1950, while the question of the King's return from exile was still being decided. On the grounds that her arrival, at such an emotional moment, might sway the people in Léopold's favor, Lilian was prevented from returning to Belgium to bid farewell to her dying mother.