In 1951, which European country saw the abdication of King Leopold lll in favour of his son Baudouin?
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Abdication is the act of formally relinquishing monarchical authority.

Terminology

The word abdication derives from the Latin abdicatio meaning to disown or renounce (from ab, away from, and dicare, to dedicate or relinquish). In its broadest sense abdication is the act of renouncing and resigning from any formal office, but it is applied especially to the supreme office of state. In Roman law the term was also applied to the disowning of a family member, such as the disinheriting of a son. Today the term commonly applies to monarchs, or to those who have been formally crowned. An elected or appointed official is said to resign rather than to abdicate.

Western classical antiquity

Among the most notable abdications of antiquity are those of Lucius Cornelius Sulla, the Dictator, in 79 BC, Emperor Diocletian in AD 305, and Emperor Romulus Augustulus in AD 476.

British and Commonwealth history

Perhaps the most notable abdication in recent history is that of King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom and the Dominions. In 1936 Edward abdicated to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson, over the objections of the British establishment, the governments of the Commonwealth, the Royal Family and the Church of England. It was the first time in history that the British or English crown was surrendered entirely voluntarily. Richard II of England, for example, was forced to abdicate after power was seized by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke, while Richard was abroad.

During the Glorious Revolution in 1688, James II of England and VII of Scotland fled to France, dropping the Great Seal of the Realm into the Thames, and the question was discussed in Parliament whether he had forfeited the throne or had abdicated. The latter designation was agreed upon in spite of James's protest, and in a full assembly of the Lords and Commons it was resolved "that King James II having endeavoured to subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and people, and, by the advice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this kingdom, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant."  The Scottish parliament pronounced a decree of forfeiture and deposition.

In Scotland, Mary, Queen of Scots, was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son, James VI.

Today, because the title to the Crown depends upon statute, particularly the Act of Settlement 1701, a royal abdication can only be effected by an Act of Parliament; under the terms of the Statute of Westminster 1931, such an act must be agreed by the parliaments of all extant signatories of the Statute. To give legal effect to the abdication of King Edward VIII, His Majesty's Declaration of Abdication Act 1936 was passed.

Japanese history

In Medieval Japan abdication was used very often, and in fact occurred more often than death on the throne. In those days, most executive authority resided in the hands of regents (see Sesshō and Kampaku), and the emperor's chief task was priestly, containing so many repetitive rituals that it was deemed the incumbent Emperor deserved pampered retirement as an honored retired emperor after a service of around ten years. A tradition developed that an emperor should accede to the throne relatively young. The high-priestly duties were deemed possible for a walking child; and a dynast who had passed his toddler years was regarded suitable and old enough; reaching the age of legal majority was not a requirement. Thus, many Japanese emperors have acceded as children, some only 6 or 8 years old. Childhood apparently helped the monarch to endure tedious duties and to tolerate subjugation to political power-brokers, as well as sometimes to cloak the truly powerful members of the imperial dynasty. Almost all Japanese empresses and dozens of emperors abdicated and lived the rest of their lives in pampered retirement, wielding influence behind the scenes, often with more power than they had had while on the throne (see Cloistered rule). Several emperors abdicated while still in their teens. These traditions show in Japanese folklore, theater, literature and other forms of culture, where the emperor is usually described or depicted as an adolescent.

Before the Meiji Restoration, Japan had eleven reigning empresses, who were usually crowned as a sort of a "stop gap" measure when a suitable male was not available or some imperial branches were in rivalry so that a compromise was needed. Over half of Japanese empresses abdicated once a suitable male descendant was considered to be old enough to rule.

Since the Meiji Restoration and the subsequent reorganization of imperial succession, no emperor has abdicated and all have died on the throne. There is also no provision for abdication in the Imperial Household Law, the Meiji Constitution, or the current 1947 Constitution of Japan.

After the defeat of Japan in World War II, many members of the imperial family, such as Princes Chichibu, Takamatsu and Higashikuni, pressured then Emperor Hirohito to abdicate so that one of the Princes could serve as regent until Crown Prince Akihito came of age. On February 27, 1946, the emperor's youngest brother, Prince Mikasa (Takahito), even stood up in the privy council and indirectly urged the emperor to step down and accept responsibility for Japan's defeat. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur insisted that Emperor Hirohito retain the throne. MacArthur saw the emperor as a symbol of the continuity and cohesion of the Japanese people.

Modern abdications

In certain cultures, the abdication of a monarch was seen as a profound and shocking abandonment of royal duty. As a result, abdications usually only occurred in the most extreme circumstances of political turmoil or violence. In the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth realms it is still seen in a particularly grave light, due to the abdication crisis of Edward VIII.

Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi, Sharif of Mecca abdicated the Kingdom of Hejaz in October 1924.

In recent decades, the monarchs or leaders of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Vatican City state, Qatar, Cambodia, and Bhutan have abdicated as a result of old age. In the Netherlands, the last three monarchs Wilhelmina, Juliana, and Beatrix have all abdicated. In all three instances, this was done to pass the throne to the heir sooner.

In June 2014, King Juan Carlos of Spain announced his intent to abdicate in favor of his son, Felipe. Felipe took the throne as King Felipe VI on June 19.

List

The following is a list of important abdications: Baudouin or Boudewijn (7 September 1930 – 31 July 1993) reigned as King of the Belgians, following his father's abdication, from 1951 until his death in 1993. He was the eldest son of King Leopold III (1901–83) and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden (1905–35). 

Because he had no children with his wife, Queen Fabiola of Belgium, the Crown passed to his younger brother, King Albert II of the Belgians (formerly Prince of Liège), following his death. 

He was a maternal first cousin of King Harald V of Norway, Princess Astrid of Norway, and Princess Ragnhild of Norway.  

Baudouin is the French form of his name, the form most commonly used outside Belgium; his Dutch name is Boudewijn.  (The English equivalent is Baldwin.)

Full name

Baudouin's full name was Baudouin Albert Charles Léopold Axel Marie Gustave de Belgique in French and Boudewijn Albert Karel Leopold Axel Marie Gustaaf van België in Dutch.

Ascent to the throne

Baudouin was a direct descendant of Joséphine de Beauharnais, wife of Napoleon. He was born in the Château du Stuyvenberg, near Laeken, Brussels, in Belgium, in 1930, the son of Prince Leopold, the then Duke of Brabant, and his wife, Astrid of Sweden. His father became King of the Belgians, as Leopold III, in 1934. Baudouin's mother died in 1935 in an automobile accident.

Part of Leopold III's unpopularity was the result of a second marriage in 1941 to Mary Lilian Baels, an English-born Belgian commoner, later known as Princess de Réthy. More controversial had been Leopold's decision to surrender to Nazi Germany during World War II, when Belgium was invaded in 1940; many Belgians questioned his loyalties, but a commission of inquiry exonerated him of treason after World War II.  Though reinstated in a plebiscite, the controversy surrounding Leopold led to his abdication.

King Leopold III requested the Belgian Government and the Parliament to approve a law delegating his royal powers to his son, Prince Baudouin, who took the constitutional oath before the United Chambers of the Belgian Parliament as Prince Royal on 11 August 1950. He ascended the throne and became the fifth King of the Belgians upon taking the constitutional oath on 17 July 1951, one day following his father's abdication.

The Congolese called the young king Mwana Kitoko ("beautiful boy").

Marriage

On 15 December 1960, Baudouin was married in Brussels to Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón. The King and Queen had no children; all of the Queen's five pregnancies ended in miscarriage. 

Notable events

During Baudouin's reign the colony of Belgian Congo became independent. The King attended the festivities; he gave a speech that received a blistering response by Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. 

Baudouin attended the State funeral of John F. Kennedy in November 1963, as the head of state of Belgium, and one of many dignitaries at that state funeral, along with Paul-Henri Spaak, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former three-time Prime Minister of Belgium.

In 1990, when Baudouin refused to sign into law a bill permitting abortion,  the cabinet assumed the power to promulgate the law while he was treated as "unable to govern" for twenty-four hours. 
  
In 1976, on the 25th anniversary of Baudouin's accession, the King Baudouin Foundation was formed, with the aim of improving the living conditions of the Belgian people.

He was the 1,176th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain in 1960 and the 930th Knight of the Order of the Garter.

Religious influences

Baudouin was a devout Roman Catholic.  Through the influence of Leo Cardinal Suenens, Baudouin participated in the growing Renewal Movement and regularly went on pilgrimages to the French shrine of Paray-le-Monial.

In 1990, when a law submitted by Roger Lallemand and Lucienne Herman-Michielsens that liberalised Belgium's abortion laws was approved by Parliament, he refused to give Royal Assent to the bill.  This was unprecedented; although Baudouin was nominally Belgium's chief executive, Royal Assent has long been a formality (as is the case in most constitutional and popular monarchies). However, due to his religious convictions, Baudouin asked the Government to declare him temporarily unable to reign so that he could avoid signing the measure into law.  The Government under Wilfried Martens complied with his request on 4 April 1990. According to the provisions of the Belgian Constitution, in the event the King is temporarily unable to reign, the Government as a whole fulfills the role of Head of State. All members of the Government signed the bill, and the next day (5 April 1990) the Government declared that Baudouin was capable of reigning again.

Death, succession, and legacy

Baudouin reigned for 42 years.  He died of heart failure on 31 July 1993 in the Villa Astrida in Motril, in the south of Spain.  Although in March 1992 the King had been operated for a Mitral valve prolapse in Paris, his death still came unexpectedly, and sent much of Belgium into a period of deep mourning.
Within hours the Royal Palace gates and enclosure were covered with flowers that people brought spontaneously. A viewing of the body was held at the Royal Palace in central Brussels; 500,000 people (5% of the population) came to pay their respects. Many waited in line up to 14 hours in sweltering heat to see their King one last time.  Along with other members of European royalty, Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom attended the funeral.

King Baudouin was interred in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, Brussels, Belgium.  He was succeeded by his younger brother, who became King Albert II.

Titles, styles and honours

Titles

*7 September 1930 - 17 February 1934: His Royal Highness Prince Baudouin of Belgium, Count of Hainaut
*17 February 1934 - 10 August 1950: His Royal Highness Prince Baudouin of Belgium, Duke of Brabant
*10 August 1950 - 17 July 1951: His Royal Highness Prince Baudouin, Prince Royal, Duke of Brabant
*17 July 1951 - 31 July 1993: His Majesty King Baudouin of the Belgians

Honours

National honours

* : Sovereign Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold     
* : Sovereign Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the African Star   
* : Sovereign Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Royal Order of the Lion
* : Sovereign Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown
* : Sovereign Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II

Foreign honours

* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín 
* : Grand Cross of the Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria, Grand Star 
* : Grand Cross of the National Order of the Leopard  
* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Elephant
*  Ethiopian Imperial Family: Knight Grand Collar of the Order of Solomon   
* : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Special Class 
** : Member of the Decoration of Merit
*  Greek Royal Family: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Redeemer 
* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of the Falcon 
*  Iranian Imperial Family: Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of Pahlavi   
*  Iranian Imperial Family: Recipient of the [http://irancollection.alborzi.com/Orders/pages/1971-imperial-anniversary-1.htm Commemorative Medal of the 2,500 year Celebration of the Persian Empire]  
* Italy
**  Italian Royal Family: Knight Grand Collar of the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation
**  Italian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
**  Italian Royal Family: Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the Crown of Italy
** : Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic 
*** : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre
**** : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Supreme Order of Christ   
*** : Bailiff Knight Grand Cross of Justice of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, 1st Class
* : Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of the Chrysanthemum
* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau 
* : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion   
* : Recipient of the Wedding Medal of Princess Beatrix, Princess of Orange and Claus Van Amsberg 
* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of St. Olav 
* : Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Prince Henry
* : 1, 171st Knight with Collar of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece  
* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Charles III 
* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Isabella the Catholic   
* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Royal Order of the Seraphim  
* : Knight Grand Cordon with Chain of the Order of the Royal House of Chakri 
* : Knight Grand Cordon with Chain of the Order of Chula Chom Klao
* : Stranger Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter  
* : Grand Cross of the Order of the Yugoslav Star, Great Star 

Ancestry Leopold III (3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983) reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the heir apparent, his son Baudouin. From 1944 until 1950, Leopold's brother, Charles, served as prince regent while Leopold was declared incompetent to rule. In 1950, the debate about whether Leopold could resume his royal duties provoked a political crisis known as the Royal Question.

Leopold III was born in Brussels as Prince Leopold of Belgium, Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and succeeded to the throne of Belgium on 23 February 1934 following the death of his father, King Albert I. He was invested as Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain in 1923, Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword (Portugal) in 1927 and Knight of the Order of the Garter (United Kingdom) in 1935.

Early life and family

Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant, was sent by his father to Eton College in the United Kingdom in 1915. After the war, in 1919, the Duke visited the Old Mission and Saint Anthony Seminary in Santa Barbara, California. He married Princess Astrid of Sweden in a civil ceremony in Stockholm on 4 November 1926, followed by a religious ceremony in Brussels on 10 November. The marriage produced three children:
* Joséphine-Charlotte, Princess of Belgium, born at the Royal Palace of Brussels on 11 October 1927, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. She was married on 9 April 1953 to Prince Jean, later Grand-Duke of Luxembourg. She died at Fischbach Castle on 10 January 2005.
* Baudouin, Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut, Prince of Belgium, who became the fifth King of the Belgians as Baudouin, born at Stuyvenberg on the outskirts of Brussels on 7 September 1930, and died at Motril in Andalusia, Spain, on 31 July 1993.
* Albert, Prince of Liège, Prince of Belgium,  who became the sixth King of the Belgians as Albert II, born at Stuyvenberg on 6 June 1934.  He abdicated in July 2013.

On 29 August 1935, while the king and queen were driving along the winding, narrow roads near their villa at Küssnacht am Rigi, Schwyz, Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Lucerne, Leopold lost control of the car which plunged into the lake, killing Queen Astrid.

Leopold married Lilian Baels on 11 September 1941 in a secret, religious ceremony, with no validity under Belgian law. They originally intended to wait until the end of the war for the civil marriage, but as the new Princesse de Réthy was soon expecting their first child, the ceremony took place on 6 December 1941. They had three children in total:

* Alexander, Prince of Belgium, born in Brussels on 18 July 1942. In 1991, he married Lea Inga Dora Wohlman, a marriage revealed only seven years later. He died on 29 November 2009.
* Marie-Christine, Princess of Belgium, born in Brussels on 6 February 1951. Her first marriage, to Paul Drucker in 1981, lasted 40 days (though they were not formally divorced until 1985); she subsequently married Jean-Paul Gourges in 1989.
* Maria-Esmeralda, Princess of Belgium, born in Brussels on 30 September 1956, a journalist, her professional name is Esmeralda de Réthy. She married Salvador Moncada, a noted pharmacologist, in 1998. They have a son and a daughter.

World War II

When World War II broke out in September 1939, the French and British governments immediately sought to persuade Belgium to join them. Leopold and his government refused, maintaining Belgium's neutrality. Belgium considered itself well-prepared against a possible invasion by Axis forces, for during the 1930s the Belgian government had made extensive preparations to deter and repel an invasion of the country by Germany such as the one that had occurred in 1914.

On 10 May 1940, the Wehrmacht invaded Belgium. On the first day of the offensive, the principal Belgian strong point of Fort Eben-Emael was overwhelmed by a daring paratroop operation and the defensive perimeter thus penetrated before any French or British troops could arrive. After a short running battle that eventually involved the armies of all four belligerents, Belgium was overwhelmed by the numerically superior and better-prepared Germans.

Nevertheless, the Belgian perseverance prevented the British Expeditionary Force from being outflanked and cut off from the coast, enabling the evacuation from Dunkirk. After his military surrender, Leopold (unlike Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, in a similar predicament) remained in Brussels to face the victorious invaders, while his entire civil government fled to Paris and later to London.

Surrender and constitutional crisis

On 24 May 1940, Leopold, having assumed command of the Belgian Army, met with his ministers for the final time. The ministers urged the king to leave the country with the government. Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot reminded him that capitulation was a decision for the Belgian government, not the king. The king indicated that he had decided to remain in Belgium with his troops, whatever the outcome. The ministers took this to mean that he would establish a new government under the direction of Hitler, potentially a treasonous act. Leopold thought that he might be seen as a deserter if he were to leave the country: "Whatever happens, I have to share the same fate as my troops." Leopold had long had a difficult and contentious relationship with his ministers, acting independently of government influence whenever possible, and seeking to circumvent and even limit the ministers' powers, while expanding his own.

French, British, and Belgian troops were encircled by German forces at the Battle of Dunkirk. Leopold notified King George VI of the United Kingdom by telegram on 25 May 1940 that Belgian forces were being crushed, saying "assistance which we give to the Allies will come to an end if our army is surrounded".  Two days later (27 May 1940), Leopold surrendered the Belgian forces to the Germans.

Prime Minister Pierlot spoke on French radio, saying that the king's decision to surrender went against the Belgian Constitution. The decision, he said, was not only a military decision but also a political decision, and the king had acted without his ministers' advice, and therefore contrary to the Constitution. Pierlot and his Government believed this created an impossibilité de régner:

It was impossible, however, to summon the Belgian Chamber of Representatives or Belgian Senate at this time, or to appoint a regent. After the liberation of Belgium in September 1944, the government asked Leopold's brother, Prince Charles, to serve as regent.

After Leopold's surrender, the British press denounced him as "Traitor King" and "King Rat"; the Daily Mirror published a picture of Leopold with the headline "The Face That Every Woman Now Despises". A group of Belgian refugees in Paris placed a message at King Albert's statue denouncing his son as "your unworthy successor".  French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud accused Leopold of treason. Flemish historians Valaers and Van Goethem wrote that Leopold III had become "The scapegoat of Reynaud",  because Reynaud was likely already aware that the Battle of France was lost.

Leopold's surrender was also decried by Winston Churchill. In the House of Commons on 4 June 1940 he said:

At the last moment when Belgium was already invaded, King Leopold called upon us to come to his aid, and even at the last moment we came. He and his brave, efficient army, nearly half a million strong, guarded our left flank and thus kept open our only line of retreat to the sea. Suddenly, without prior consultation, with the least possible notice, without the advice of his ministers and upon his own personal act, he sent a plenipotentiary to the German Command, surrendered his army and exposed our whole flank and means of retreat." 

In 1949, Churchill's comments about the events of May 1940 were published in Le Soir (12 February 1949). Leopold's former secretary sent a letter to Churchill saying that Churchill was wrong. Churchill sent a copy of this letter to the king's brother, Prince Charles, via his secretary André de Staercke. In his own letter Churchill wrote,

With regards to King Leopold, the words which I used at the time in the House of Commons are upon record and after careful consideration I do not see any reason to change them (...) it seemed to me and many others that the king should have been guided by the advice of his ministers and should not have favoured a course which identified the capitulation of the Belgian Army with the submission of the Belgian State to Herr Hitler and consequently taking them out of the war. Happily this evil was averted, and in the end, all came right. I need scarcely say that nothing I said at the time could be interpreted as a reflection upon the personal courage or honour of King Leopold." 

De Staercke replied that Churchill was right: "The Prince, Monsieur Spaak [Belgian Foreign Minister Paul-Henri Spaak] and I read your text, which states the precise truth and seems perfect to us." 

Belgian historian Francis Balace wrote that capitulation was inevitable because the Belgian Army was not able to fight any longer against the German army.  Even Churchill admitted that their position was perilous. In a telegram to Field Marshal Lord Gort on 27 May, only one day before the Belgian capitulation, he wrote, "We are asking them to sacrifice themselves for us." 

After the fall of France

Upon Leopold's surrender, the government ministers left for exile, mostly in France. When France fell at the end of June 1940, several ministers sought to return to Belgium. They made an overture to Leopold but were rebuffed:

Pierlot and his government saw that Western Europe had been conquered by the Germans completely and tried to make amends to their king. Would it be possible for them to return to Belgium and form a new government? Leopold showed his stubborn nature; he was insulted by his ministers... His reply was short: "The situation of the king is unaltered; he does not engage in politics and does not receive politicians."[http://www.theroyalarticles.com/articles/34/1/Belgian-Royal-Question---the-Abdication-Crisis-of-King-Leopold-III-of-the-Belgians/Page1.html The Royal Articles]

Because of the great popularity of the king, and the unpopularity of the civil government from the middle of 1940,  the government crisis persisted. The Royal Articles state:

This refusal [of the king to reconcile with the ministers] left the ministers with no other option than to move to London, where they could continue their work representing the independent Belgium. From the time of their arrival in London, they were confident about an Allied victory and soon were treated with respect by the Allies.... Pierlot and Spaak helped to build Leopold's reputation as a heroic prisoner of war and even said that the Belgians should support their king. But they had no idea what Leopold was doing in [the Royal Palace at] Laeken. He refused to reply to their messages and stayed cool toward them. What was he doing in the castle? Was he collaborating, did he oppose the Germans, or had he decided to just shut his mouth and wait to see how things would go?

On 2 August 1940, several ministers conferred in Le Perthus in France near the Spanish border. Prime Minister Pierlot and Foreign Minister Spaak were persuaded to go to London, but they were able to start out for London only at the end of August and could travel only via neutral Spain and Portugal. When they reached Spain, they were arrested and detained by the regime of Francisco Franco; they finally arrived in London on 22 October.

Meeting with Hitler

Leopold rejected cooperation with the Nazis and refused to administer Belgium in accordance with their dictates, thus the Germans implemented a military government. Leopold attempted to assert his authority as monarch and head of the Belgian government although he was a prisoner of the Germans. Despite his defiance of the Germans, the Belgian government-in-exile in London maintained that the king did not represent the Belgian government and was unable to reign. The Germans held him at first under house arrest at the Royal Palace of Laeken in Brussels. Having desired a meeting with Adolf Hitler since June 1940, Leopold III finally met with him on 19 November 1940. Leopold wanted Hitler to issue a public statement about Belgium's future independence. Hitler refused to speak about the independence of Belgium or issue a statement about it. In refusing to publish a statement, Hitler unintentionally preserved the king from being seen as cooperating with Germany, and thus engaged in treasonous acts, which would likely have obliged him to abdicate upon liberation of Belgium. "The [German] Chancellor saved the king two times." 

Second marriage

On 11 September 1941, while a prisoner of the Germans, Leopold secretly married Lilian Baels in a religious ceremony that had no validity under Belgian law, as Belgian law required a religious marriage to be preceded by a legal or civil marriage. On 6 December, they were married under civil law. The reason for the out-of-order marriages was never officially made public.

Jozef-Ernest Cardinal van Roey, Archbishop of Mechelen, wrote an open letter to parish priests throughout the country announcing Leopold's second marriage on 7 December. The letter from the Cardinal revealed that the king's new wife would be known as Princesse de Réthy, not Queen Lilian, and that any children they had would have no claim to the throne (though they would be Princes or Princesses of Belgium with the style Royal Highness). Leopold's new marriage damaged his reputation further in the eyes of many of his subjects.

The Political Testament

The ministers made several efforts during the war to work out a suitable agreement with Leopold III. They sent Pierlot's son-in-law as an emissary to Leopold in January 1944, carrying a letter offering reconciliation from the Belgian government-in-exile. The letter never reached its destination, however, as the son-in-law was killed by the Germans en route. The ministers did not know what happened either to the message or the messenger and assumed that Leopold was ignoring them.

Leopold wrote his Political Testament in January 1944, shortly after this failed attempt at reconciliation. The testament was to be published in case he was not in Belgium when Allied forces arrived. The testament, which had an imperious and negative tone, considered the potential Allied movement into Belgium an "occupation", not a "liberation". It gave no credit to the active Belgian resistance. The Belgian government-in-exile in London did not like Leopold's demand that the government ministers involved in the 1940 crisis be exonerated. The Allies did not like Leopold's repudiation of the treaties concluded by the Belgian government-in-exile in London. The United States was particularly concerned about the economic treaty it had reached with the government-in-exile that enabled it to obtain Congolese uranium for America's secret atom bomb program, which had been developed for use against Germany (although, as it turned out, Germany surrendered before the first bomb was ready).

The Belgian government did not publish the Political Testament and tried to ignore it, partly for fear of increased support for the Belgian Communist party. When Pierlot and Spaak learned of its contents in September 1944, they were astonished and felt deceived by the king. According to André de Staercke, they were dismayed "in the face of so much blindness and unawareness". 

Churchill's reaction to the Testament was simply, "It stinks."  In a sentence inspired by a quote of Talleyrand about the Bourbons after the restoration of the French monarchy in 1815, Churchill declared, "He is like the Bourbons, he has learned nothing and forgotten everything." 

Exile and abdication

Deportation and exile

In 1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered Leopold deported to Germany. Princess Lilian followed with the family in another car the following day under an SS armed guard. The Nazis held the family in a fort at Hirschstein in Saxony from June 1944 to March 1945, and then at Strobl, Austria.

The British and American governments worried about the return of the king. Charles W. Sawyer, US Ambassador to Belgium, warned his government that an immediate return by the king to Belgium would "precipitate serious difficulties". "There are deep differences even in the royal family and the situation holds dynamite for Belgium and perhaps for Europe".  "The Foreign Office feared that an increasing minority in French-speaking Wallonia would demand either autonomy or annexation to France. Winant, the American Ambassador to the Court of Saint James, reported a Foreign Office official's concern regarding irredentist propaganda in Wallonia."  and that "the French Ambassador in Brussels... is believed to have connived in the spreading of this propaganda". 

Leopold and his companions were freed by members of the United States 106th Cavalry Group in early May 1945. Because of the controversy about his conduct during the war, Leopold III and his wife and children were unable to return to Belgium and spent the next six years in exile at Pregny-Chambésy near Geneva, Switzerland. A regency under his brother Prince Charles had been established by the Belgian legislature in 1944.

Resistance to Leopold's return

Van den Dungen, the rector of the Free University of Brussels, wrote to Leopold on 25 June 1945 about concerns for serious disorder in Wallonia, "The question is not if the accusations against you are right or not [but that...] You are no more a symbol of the Belgian unity." 

Gillon, the President of the Belgian Senate, told the king that there was a threat of serious disorder: "If there are only ten or twenty people killed, the situation would become terrible for the king." 

The president of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, Frans Van Cauwelaert, was concerned that there would be a general strike in Wallonia and revolt in Liège. He wrote, "The country is not able to put down the disorders because of the insufficient forces of the police and a lack of weapons." 

In 1946, a commission of inquiry exonerated Leopold of treason. Nonetheless, controversy concerning his loyalty continued, and in 1950, a referendum was held about his future. Fifty-seven per cent of the voters favoured his return. The divide between Leopoldists and anti-Leopoldists ran along the lines of socialists and Walloons who were mostly opposed (42% favourable votes in Wallonia) and Christian Democrats and Flemish who were more in favour of the King (70% favourable votes in Flanders).

General strike of 1950

On his return to Belgium in 1950, Leopold was met with one of the most violent general strikes in the history of Belgium. Three protesters were killed when the gendarmerie opened automatic fire upon the protesters. The country stood on the brink of civil war, and Belgian banners were replaced by Walloon flags in Liège and other municipalities of Wallonia.  To avoid tearing the country apart, and to preserve the monarchy, Leopold decided on 1 August 1950 to withdraw in favour of his 20-year-old son Baudouin. His abdication took effect on 16 July 1951, though in reality the government had already forced the issue on 1 August 1950. In this postponed abdication  the king was, in effect, forced by the government of Jean Duvieusart to offer to abdicate in favour of his son. 

Post-abdication life

Leopold and his wife continued to advise King Baudouin until the latter's marriage in 1960. Some Belgian historians, such as Vincent Delcorps, speak of there having been a "dyarchy" during this period. 

In retirement, he followed his passion as an amateur social anthropologist and entomologist and travelled the world. He went to Senegal and strongly criticized the French decolonization process, and he explored the Orinoco and the Amazon with Heinrich Harrer. 

Leopold died in 1983 in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert (Sint-Lambrechts-Woluwe) following emergency heart surgery. He was interred next to Queen Astrid in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken. Leopold's second wife, the Princess de Réthy, was later interred with them.

Notable royal descendants

As of 2016, two of Leopold's grandsons are reigning monarchs: Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg since 2000, and King Philippe of Belgium since 2013.

Ancestry
Belguim Koenigreich Belgien Belgium/Belgie Kingdom of Belgium Belgian Beljum Königreich Belgien Belgique Belgium Beligum Kingdom of the Belgians Beljam Kingdom Of Belgium Belgum ISO 3166-1:BE Belgie Cockpit of Europe Koninkrijk België Beldjike Blegium Belgio The Quebec of Europe België Begium Royaume de Belgique Konigreich Belgien Koninkrijk Belgie People of Belgium Belgien Belgium/facts Administrative divisions of Belgium Belgium facts
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belgium
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Belgium
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