Baudouin (Belgium)

The fifth king of Belgium .

The eldest (second) son of King Leopold III and Princess Astrid of Sweden , and the older brother of Albert II . He is the uncle of the current King Philip , the half-cousin of King Harald V of Norway , and the 8th cousin of King George V of England .[1] He is 9th cousin to Edward VIII and George VI .[2]

Born as the eldest son of King Leopold III , he was brilliant from an early age and followed his father to Switzerland in 1940 when his father surrendered to Nazi Germany . After Leopold III abdicated in 1951, On June 17 he became king.

However, his appearance as an overly devout Catholic raised the eyebrows of some people. For example, when the Belgian parliament passed a bill legalizing abortion in 1990 , Baldwin refused to promulgate the bill because he was a Catholic. Accordingly, the cabinet suspended the king's powers and promulgated its own legislation. The refusal to sign or the suspension of the King's authority was not a major problem as it was an agreement between the Cabinet and the King, but it was criticized by some citizens.

Baldwin is said to have been a very emotional king, and in 1959 he recognized the independence of the Belgian Congo .[3] The problem is that in his speech to the Congolese parliament celebrating Congo's independence, this man described Congo's independence as the culmination of work that began with the genius and courage of Leopold II , and defended and glorified Belgian rule of the Congo (...).

Listening to this, the angry Congo independence activist and independent Leopoldville Congo Prime Minister Patris Rumumba criticized Belgian colonialism in front of him and made a complaint about Belgium's brutality.

Although there is no conclusive evidence that Baldwin participated in the specific assassination plan, the official investigation revealed that he was at least aware of it. Incidentally, the assassination of Lumumba is criticized as being particularly brutal in its methods, such as dissolving the body in acid, leaving only the gold teeth behind .

Boduen married through a matchmaker with Aragon (1928–2014), but his marriage was happy. Nevertheless, there was no child, but the Belgian people's curiosity about why there was no child was amplified. In the meantime , it was revealed that Queen Fabino was miscarriage five times, which was a public secret . In 2008, Queen Fabino revealed in an official interview, and one of them was a legacy. It is said that he did not get a great sense of loss because he had no children.

Finally, in 1993 , King Baudouin July 31st He died of a heart attack , but since he had no children to inherit the throne, the succession passed to his younger brother, Prince Albert II .

He inherited the throne on behalf of his father, who fled to another country, and reigned for 42 years, and after the period of rebuilding in Europe after World War II, the reign was over after reigning from Belgium's modernization.[4]

It was during his reign that Belgium transitioned from a single state to a federal state, usually from 1966 to 1993.

The Stade Rois Baudouin , a football stadium in Aisel, Brussels , Belgium , is named after him. It is the stadium where the famous Heysel disaster occurred in 1985 , and the name was changed in memory of Baldwin when the stadium was renovated in 1995 after his death.

He visited Korea in 1992, a year before he passed away, and met President Roh Tae -woo .