Coins of Belgium 5 Francs Silver Coin 1853 Marriage Leopold and Marie Henriette
Marriage of Duke and Duchess of Brabant
Obverse: Bust of King Leopold I.
Obverse Legend: LEOPOLD PREMIER ROI DES BELGES.
Reverse: Marriage of Duke and Duchess of Brabant - Conjoined heads of Leopold and Marie Henriette, heads right; date: 21-22 AOUT 1853.
Composition: Silver.
Fineness: 0.9000.
Weight: 25.0000 g.
ASW: 0.7234 oz.
Diameter: 37 mm.
Marriage Leopold and Marie Henriette
In 1853 at the age of 18, he married Marie Henriette of Austria in Brussels on August 22. Marie Henriette was a cousin of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and granddaughter of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor through her father, Austrian archduke Joseph. Marie Henriette was lively and energetic, and endeared herself to the people by her elevated character and indefatigable benevolence, while her beauty gained for her the sobriquet of "The Rose of Brabant". She was also an accomplished artist and musician. A fine horsewoman, she was passionate about horseback riding to the point that she would care for her horses personally. Some joked about this "marriage of a stableman and a nun", the shy and withdrawn Leopold referred to as the nun.
Four children were born of this marriage, three daughters and one son, also named Leopold. The younger Leopold died in 1869 at the age of nine from pneumonia after falling into a pond. His death was a source of great sorrow for King Leopold, who lost his only heir. The marriage had become unhappy and the couple lived more or less separate lives. They separated completely after a last attempt to have another son, a union which resulted in the birth of their last daughter Clementine. In 1895 Marie Henriette retreated to Spa to live out the remainder of her days. She died there in 1902.
Leopold had many mistresses. In 1899 at age 65, Leopold took as a mistress Caroline Lacroix, a 16-year-old French prostitute, and they remained together for the next decade until his death. Leopold lavished upon her large sums of money, estates, gifts, and a noble title, Baroness Vaughan. Because of these gifts and the illegitimacy of their relationship, Caroline was deeply unpopular among the Belgian people and internationally. She and Leopold married secretly in a religious ceremony five days before his death; their failure to perform a civil ceremony rendered the marriage invalid under Belgian law. After the king's death, it was soon discovered that he had left Caroline a massive amount of wealth, which the Belgian government and Leopold's three estranged daughters tried to seize as rightfully theirs. Caroline bore two illegitimate sons who were likely Leopold's; the boys would have had a strong claim to the throne had the marriage been valid.