Childhood Prince Baudouin was born on 7 September 1930 at the
Château of Stuyvenberg in
Laeken, northern
Brussels, the elder son and second child of
Prince Leopold, then
Duke of Brabant, and his first wife, Princess
Astrid of Sweden. In 1934, Baudouin's grandfather King
Albert I of Belgium was killed in a
rock climbing accident; Leopold became king and the three-year-old Baudouin became Duke of Brabant as
heir apparent to the throne. When Baudouin was nearly five, his mother died in 1935 in Switzerland in the accident of an automobile that his father was driving. Later, in 1941, his father remarried to
Mary Lilian Baels (later became Princess of Réthy). This marriage produced three more children:
Prince Alexandre, Princess Marie-Christine (who is also Baudouin's goddaughter) and
Princess Marie-Esméralda. Baudouin and his siblings had a close relationship with their stepmother and they called her "Mother". His education began at the age of seven, his tutors taught him half his lessons in French and half in
Dutch. He frequently accompanied his father to parades and ceremonies and became well known to the public. Despite maintaining strict
neutrality during the opening months of
World War II, on 10 May 1940, Belgium was invaded by
Nazi Germany. Baudouin, his elder sister Princess Josephine-Charlotte and his younger brother Prince Albert, were immediately sent to France for safety and then to Spain. The
Belgian Army, assisted by the French and British, conducted a defensive
campaign lasting 18 days, but Leopold, who had taken personal command,
surrendered unconditionally on 28 May. Although the Belgian government escaped to form a
Belgian government in exile, Leopold elected to remain in Belgium, and was placed under house arrest at the
Palace of Laeken, from where he attempted to reach an understanding with the Germans, especially in respect of Belgian
prisoners of war who were being held in Germany. The children returned to Laeken from Spain on 6 August. Immediately following the
Normandy landings in June 1944, the king, his wife, and the royal children, were deported to
Hirschstein in
Germany and then to
Strobl in
Austria from where they were released in May 1945 by the United States
106th Cavalry Regiment. Until a political solution could be found, the king's brother,
Prince Charles, became
regent and the royal family lived at the
Château du Reposoir in
Pregny-Chambésy, Switzerland. Baudouin continued his education at a secondary school in
Geneva and visited the United States in 1948.
Reign and First Lady
Pat Nixon in May 1969 In a
referendum in March 1950, the public narrowly voted for King Leopold III to return from Switzerland and he was recalled on 4 June 1950. However, parliamentary dissent and public protests forced Leopold to delegate his powers to Baudouin on 11 August 1950, and finally to
abdicate in favour of Baudouin, who took the
oath of office as King of the Belgians on 17 July 1951. with some seeing the act as a humiliation for the king.
Death of Patrice Lumumba During the Congolese declaration of independence, Baudouin delivered a highly contested speech in which he celebrated
the acts of the first Belgian owner of the Congo, King Leopold II, whom he described as "a genius". At the same event, the first democratically elected prime minister of Congo,
Patrice Lumumba, gave a blistering response with
a speech that was highly critical of the Belgian regime. Lumumba cited the killings of many Congolese, as well as the insults, humiliation and the slavery they experienced. Lumumba's speech infuriated Baudouin and generated significant conflict between the two men. After the independence of Congo, the natural resource-rich
Katanga Province orchestrated a secession that received substantial military and financial support from the Belgian government, as well as from Belgian companies with business interests in Katanga. Baudouin strengthened his relationships with the Katangese politician
Moise Tshombé, whom he made a Knight in the Belgian
Order of Leopold. In the meantime, Belgium's government, as well as the CIA, supported or organized plots to assassinate Lumumba. In early December 1960, Lumumba and two colleagues,
Maurice Mpolo and
Joseph Okito, who had planned to assist him in setting up a new government, were imprisoned in military barracks located about from Leopoldville. They were underfed and mistreated, per
Mobutu Sese Seko's orders. Lumumba registered his objections, writing directly to Indian and U.N. diplomat
Rajeshwar Dayal, "in a word, we are living amid absolutely impossible conditions; moreover, they are against the law". Lumumba and his associates were released in mid-January 1961. Within hours, they were again captured and then transported to Katanga by the Congolese military and handed over to the Katangese authorities. They were beaten by Katangese officers and on January 17, they were executed on the orders of the Katangese leadership. The execution took place in the presence of Katangese President Tshombe, two Katangese ministers and Belgian officials. The firing squad was reportedly commanded by a Belgian Julien Gat. Lumumba was buried in a shallow grave but his body was later exhumed by Belgian police officer
Gerard Soete who dismembered Lumumba's body, and dissolved the corpse in acid. In 2001, a parliamentary investigation set up by the Belgian government concluded that Baudouin, amongst others, was informed of the assassination scheme developed by Mobutu and Tshombé. Both men had conspired with a Belgian colonel, Guy Weber, to "neutralize Lumumba, if possible physically." The king was informed of the plot, but did nothing to oppose the murder. His lack of intervention was described as "incriminating" by the parliamentary investigation, although there was no conclusive evidence found that the king ordered the specifics of the plans.
Western engagements and later reign As the
head of state of Belgium, Baudouin, along with French President
Charles de Gaulle, were the two prominent world leaders at the state funerals of two American presidents,
John F. Kennedy in November 1963 and his predecessor
Dwight D. Eisenhower in March 1969. At
Kennedy's funeral, Baudouin was accompanied by
Paul-Henri Spaak, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former three-time
Prime Minister of Belgium. At Eisenhower's funeral, his next visit to the United States, he was accompanied by Prime Minister
Gaston Eyskens. In 1976, on the occasion of his
silver jubilee, the
King Baudouin Foundation was formed, with the aim of improving the living conditions of the Belgian people. == Death and funeral ==