Leopold was born in Coburg in the tiny German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on 16 December 1790. He was the youngest son of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, and Countess Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf. In 1826, Saxe-Coburg acquired the city of Gotha from the neighboring Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and gave up Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen, becoming Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
Leopold received a military education.
Born into the ruling family of the small German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Leopold took a commission in the Imperial Russian Army and fought against Napoleon after French troops overran Saxe-Coburg during the Napoleonic Wars.
After Napoleon's defeat, Leopold moved to the United Kingdom where he married Princess Charlotte of Wales, the only child of the Prince Regent (the future King George IV), thus situating himself as close as possible to the future sovereign of the United Kingdom.
Charlotte died in 1817, but Leopold continued to enjoy considerable status in Britain.
After the Greek War of Independence (1821–32), Leopold was offered the position of King of Greece but turned it down, believing it to be too precarious. Instead, Leopold accepted the kingship of the newly established Kingdom of Belgium in 1831.
The Belgian government offered the position to Leopold because of his diplomatic connections with royal houses across Europe. In addition, because he was seen as a British-backed candidate, he was not affiliated to other powers, such as France, which were believed to have territorial ambitions in Belgium which might threaten the European balance of power created by the 1815 Congress of Vienna.
Leopold took his oath as King of the Belgians on 21 July 1831, an event commemorated annually as Belgian National Day. His reign was marked by attempts by the Dutch to recapture Belgium and, later, by internal political division between liberals and Catholics. As a Protestant, Leopold was considered liberal and encouraged economic modernisation, playing an important role in encouraging the creation of Belgium's first railway in 1835 and subsequent industrialisation. As a result of the ambiguities in the Belgian Constitution, Leopold was able to slightly expand the monarch's powers during his reign. He also played an important role in stopping the spread of the Revolutions of 1848 into Belgium.
Leopold died in Laeken near Brussels on 10 December 1865, aged 74.
Leopold I was a German prince who became the first King of the Belgians following Belgian independence in 1830. He reigned between July 1831 and December 1865. He founded the Saxe-Coburg dynasty, which remains the ruling house of Belgium.
He became a founder and Grand Master of the Order of Leopold.
His reign was marked by attempts by the Dutch to recapture Belgium and, later, by internal political division between liberals and Catholics. As a Protestant, Leopold was considered liberal and encouraged economic modernisation.
On 2 May 1816, Leopold married Princess Charlotte of Wales at Carlton House in London. Charlotte was the only legitimate child of the Prince Regent George (later King George IV) and therefore second in line to the British throne. Charlotte had been engaged to the Prince of Orange, but finding him distasteful, broke it off in favour of Leopold. The Prince Regent was displeased, but found Leopold to be charming and possessing every quality to make his daughter happy, thus approving of their marriage. The same year he received an honorary commission to the rank of Field Marshal and Knight of the Order of the Garter. On 5 November 1817, after having suffered a miscarriage, Princess Charlotte gave birth to a stillborn son. She herself died the next day following complications. Leopold was said to have been heartbroken by her death.
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 Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Despite Charlotte's death, the Prince Regent granted Prince Leopold the British style of Royal Highness by Order in Council on 6 April 1818.
From 1828 to 1829, Leopold had a several-months long affair with the actress Caroline Bauer, who bore a striking resemblance to Charlotte. Caroline was a cousin of his advisor Christian Friedrich Freiherr von 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 Freiherr von Stockmar denied that these events ever happened, and indeed no records have been found of a civil or religious marriage with the actress.
In 1832, Leopold married his second wife, Louise-Marie of Orléans. Louise-Marie was the daughter of Louis Philippe I, the King of the French, enstated in 1830. Leopold and Louise-Marie had four children. The eldest, Louis Philippe, died in 1834. When their second son Leopold was born in 1835, he became crown prince (and later King Leopold II). Their third son was Philippe, the father of Belgium's third king, Albert I. Their youngest child was Charlotte, who would later marry Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico.
On 11 October 1850, Queen Louise-Marie died of tuberculosis, aged 38. Leopold also had two sons, George and Arthur, by a mistress, Arcadie Meyer (née Claret). George was born in 1849, and Arthur was born in 1852. At Leopold's request, in 1862 the two sons were created Freiherr von Eppinghoven by his nephew, Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; in 1863 Arcadie was also created Baronin von Eppinghoven.
(Coburg, 15 July 1750 – Coburg, 9 December 1806)
(19 January 1757 – 16 November 1831)
(7 June 1840 – 19 January 1927)
(24 March 1837 – 17 November 1905)
(9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909)
(24 July 1833 – 16 May 1834)
(1852-1940)
(1849-1904)
