Leopold I

Leopold I., King of the Belgians, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was elected king by a National Congress in 1831, the separation of Belgium from Holland having been proclaimed in the previous year. He was born in 1790, and had married in 1816 the Princess Charlotte of England, who died without children in 1817. In 1830 he had declined the crown of Greece. It was only by the help of England and France that he was able to hold his throne and territory against the Dutch, but in 1833 peace was made. Leopold I, sanctioned the first Continental railway, passed safely through the revolutionary period in the middle of the century, and made treaties of commerce with England in 1851 and with France ten years later. He reigned until 1865, and was succeeded by his son, Leopold II., born in 1835, who has chiefly signalised himself by his colonial enterprise in Western Africa. [Belgium, Congo.]