Leopold I of Belgium

Leopold was born at Ehrenburg Palace in Coburg in the small German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on 16 December 1790. He was the eighth child and third and youngest surviving son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld by his second wife, Countess Augusta Reuss of Ebersdorf. In 1826, Saxe-Coburg had 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, the father of Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom. Leopold was baptised on 17 December 1790, with his baptismal name remaining the same as his birth name, in honour of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor. Leopold's paternal grandmother, Princess Sophie Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, often assisted in parenting duties and signalled that he was her favourite grandson.

From 1797, Leopold was tutored by Charles-Theodore Hoflender, a graduate of the University of Jena and a professor in Coburg. Under Hoflender, he studied Biblical history, Christianity, mathematics and languages, including Greek, Latin and Russian. In 1799, Leopold and his siblings also became tutored by Johann Philipp Hohnbaum, who specialised in teaching physical education and in teaching history of Great Britain, the Holy Roman Empire and Saxony. Hohnbaum cited that Leopold was fascinated by history and conflicts such as the Thirty Years War. Lutheran pastor Gottlieb Scheler taught Leopold catechism. Historian Olivier Defrance wrote that Scheler's teaching of Pietism had a lasting influence on Leopold. From 1804, aged thirteen, Leopold kept a diary and learnt English, French and Italian. Leopold often heard stories of military experience from his great-uncle, Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and inherited his father's passion for pigeon racing and floriculture.

Military career

Russian Imperial army

In 1796, Leopold's older sister, Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, married Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich of Russia, making the House of Romanov her house by marriage. The following year, at just six years old, Leopold received an honorary Russian military title in the Izmaylovsky Regiment, part of the Imperial Guard, in the Imperial Russian Army: the rank of captain on 7 May 1797 and subsequently colonel on 11 September 1798. Leopold also began to specialise in the Russian language. On 19 March 1801, he was transferred to the Imperial Guard Cavalry Regiment, when six years later, aged twelve, he received a promotion to the rank of major general.

In 1805, at fourteen years old, Leopold accompanied his older brother, Ernest, Hereditary Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, to Moravia, where the headquarters of Alexander I, Emperor of Russia were located; however, neither Leopold nor Ernest partook in combat. Following the Battle of Austerlitz, during the Napoleonic Wars, French troops occupied the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg in 1806. Leopold and his father, Francis, took refuge in Saalfeld; however, Francis died on 9 December 1806, six days before the Treaty of Poznan assigned the Duchy to the Confederation of the Rhine, thus abolishing the Duchy's sovereignty. When Napoleon learned that Ernest had previously fought against the French, he removed the Duchy from the Confederation, before seizing the properties of Leopold's family. Leopold and his mother were confined to a section of one of the confiscated castles and were not let out. During this time, Leopold wrote to his sister, Princess Sophie of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld: "The poor country of Cobourg is terribly penalized; It must pay 981,000 francs; it's huge. Our coffers and our estates, in short all our income, were confiscated by the Emperor Napoleon. No appanage can be paid." After intervention by the Russian Emperor, Napoleon declared the Duchy to be part of the Confederation of the Rhine once more by adding it to the Treaty of Tilsit. Ernest as the new reigning Duke was allowed to return to Coburg in July 1807.

Leopold soon went to Paris where he became part of the Imperial Court of Napoleon. Napoleon's wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, took a protective attitude of Leopold, who met Napoleon in October 1808. According to the historian Carlo Bronne, Napoleon was in awe of Leopold and briefly considered making him his aide-de-camp. In Spring 1808, Leopold contracted typhoid fever and when he recovered, he shortly became regent of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld when Ernest visited Russia. Napoleon later offered Leopold the position of adjutant, but he refused and instead went to Russia to take up a military career in the Imperial Russian cavalry, which then later went to war with France. Leopold accompanied Emperor Alexander I in September 1808 and represented his home Duchy at the Congress of Erfurt, where Napoleon failed to strengthen Franco-Russian relations while the Duchy's interests were ignored. He wrote to Alexander I for assistance, leading to Napoleon demanding that he resign from the Russian army.

Marriage to Charlotte of Wales

In Spring 1814, Leopold accompanied Emperor Alexander to England, where Princess Charlotte of Wales was seeking a spouse. Charlotte was the only legitimate child of Prince George, Prince Regent (later George IV), and therefore second in line to the British throne. George had hoped Charlotte would marry William, Prince of Orange, but Charlotte favoured Leopold. Emperor Alexander was also opposed to Charlotte marrying William as he believed a future personal union between Great Britain and the Netherlands would become a maritime superpower and dominate the seas. Leopold and Charlotte lost contact for months, and the latter often wrote to the former asking that he return to Britain to propose to her. Leopold received British citizenship in March 1816. Finally, the pair married at Carlton House in London on 2 May 1816. Although George 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 a demotion for Charlotte. The couple lived initially at Camelford House in Park Lane, and then at Marlborough House in The Mall.

Leopold and Charlotte moved into Claremont House in August 1816. When Charlotte later suffered a miscarriage, Leopold became concerned for her health. When Charlotte again fell pregnant, she was advised by her obstetrician, Sir Richard Croft, to drastically reduce her diet; however, Leopold's physician, Christian Stockmar, heavily disagreed with this advice. 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.

Deep down, I was made for a life of family intimacy [...]. I wanted to be quiet and happy with my mouse [Charlotte] and nothing more [...] Charlotte was a very pretty woman and she possessed to a very high degree of what the English call countenance.

Had Charlotte survived, she would have become queen of 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. Stockmar, who became Leopold's private secretary, advised him to stay in Britain rather than returning to Coburg and despite Charlotte's death, George granted Leopold the British style of Royal Highness by Order in Council on 6 April 1818. However, the British public was opposed to the annuity of 50,000 pounds sterling paid by the British government to Leopold, who was no longer even a member of the British royal family. From 1828 to 1829, Leopold had an affair with the actress Caroline Bauer, who bore a striking resemblance to Charlotte. Caroline was a cousin of 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 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 Stockmar denied that these events ever happened, and indeed no records have been found of a civil or religious marriage with the actress.

Following Charlotte's death, Leopold assisted members of his family in acceding to various European thrones. He encouraged his sister, Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, to marry George's brother, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, after her first husband, Emich Carl, 2nd Prince of Leiningen, had died. Victoria and Edward were the parents of the future Queen Victoria, who was born in 1819 and lost her father in 1820. Leopold allowed her and her mother to live with him in Claremont House and convinced George, who was now monarch, that he should give apartments in Kensington Palace to them. Leopold went on to support George's wife, Caroline of Brunswick, in marital disputes and even visited Caroline during George's crowning, leading to disdain from George. Leopold nonetheless remained in Britain for another fourteen years after the death of Charlotte but regularly travelled Europe.

In 1819, Leopold received Niederfüllbach Castle in Coburg and began preparing to make it his main residence. Leopold's brother, Ernest, had married Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, who went on to inherit the Duchy of Saxe-Gotha, though Ernest insisted he reigned over it. From there, Ernest's Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Louise's Duchy of Saxe-Gotha merged to form the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Before the couple divorced in 1826, Ernest and Louise had two sons, the future Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Albert, who went on to marry Queen Victoria. Whilst in Paris, Leopold was encouraged to marry Marie-Caroline of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Duchess of Berry, the widowed daughter-in-law of Charles X of France; however, Leopold declined due to differing views and opinions on matters with the French royal house.

Domestic policy, politics and infrastructure

While the drafters of the Belgian Constitution aimed to make Belgium a constitutional monarchy, making the monarch a neutral and impartial arbiter, Leopold had managed to assign himself significant powers, such as assuming multiple ministries and taking charge of many diplomatic, administrative and military domains. From 1831 to 1846, politics in Belgium was divided between Liberal and Catholic parties, along with unionist governments. Catholicism had always been the dominant religion in Belgium, yet Leopold had always refused to convert from his Lutheran faith and favoured the Liberals. To appease to the public, he sought to maintain cordial relations with the Holy See, though Louis de Lichtervelde suggests it may have been to reassure and consolidate his own power against "the only other force" (Catholicism) which was more popular than him. Leopold also believed that the Church would act as a means of unity for Belgium, which was linguistically divided.

Historians believe that the fall of the Theux government in April 1840 was feared by Leopold as it was it marked the first time in modern Belgian history, and under his reign, that a government had collapsed. Leopold was opposed to Lebeau forming government as his party had voted against Barthélémy de Theux de Meylandt, which caused the government's collapse. In 1846, the Party for Freedom and Progress convened to strengthen the cooperation between the executive and legislature, and as a result of new Bills passed by Charles Rogier's government, the role of the monarch was reduced and Liberals dominated politics, advocating for free trade, freedoms, liberties and secularisation. During the second half of Leopold's reign, the Liberals remained in power. While meeting with the government, Leopold made it clear that he believed the appointment and dismissal of ministers was his prerogative under the Constitution, and demanded that he be informed in advance of all government, ministerial and administrative decisions.

Throughout Leopold's reign, Belgium experienced economic and industrial progress, despite economic crises during the early decades of his reign. The period between 1845 and 1849 was particularly hard in Flanders, where harvests failed and a third of the population became dependent on poor relief, and has 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. Despite this, Leopold worked closely with the government to develop infrastructure, which he promised in his enthronement speech: "Multiple efforts will be directed towards the improvement and extension of agriculture, commerce and industry; they contribute to spreading prosperity among the various classes of inhabitants and to cementing harmony." In 1842, Leopold failed to pass laws to regulate child and women labour. He wanted to ban them from working in certain industries, such as harvesting in which he believed they dominated; however, the Bill he proposed was defeated, and child labour continued to be abused. For example, in 1850, the coal industry employed nearly 3300 women, 4400 boys and 1221 girls under the age of sixteen in underground labour. In agriculture, similar statistics existed with harsh working conditions and low wages. An investigation was conducted in 1853 and 1854 by Édouard Ducpétiaux found that the average Belgian worker had to devote 65.8% of their wage to basic needs. Leopold never recognised or tended to the issue of low wages.

Leopold was an early supporter of railways. Belgium's first stretch of railway, between northern Brussels and Mechelen, was completed in May 1835. It was the first steam passenger railway in Continental Europe. The development of railways allowed for the growth of the industry and in an 1847 speech, Leopold remarked: "Freight transport and railway revenues continue to increase at a remarkable rate. Measures are being prepared to increase them further and to introduce improvements in the operation of this important service." Multiple historians attribute the development and production of cast iron, steel, coal, glassworks and cloth weaving to Leopold's reign. Earlier in 1835, Leopold had inaugurated the National Bank of Belgium, which solidified the 1832 creation and circulation of the Belgian franc. Leopold appeared on coinage and postage stamps, which had helped to congeal the legitimacy of his reign in the early years.