WARNING: EXPLICIT MATERIAL

King Leopold II of Belgium

Birth Name:

Leopold II

Birth Date:

April 9, 1835

Birth Place:

Brussels, Belgium

Death Date:

December 17, 1909

Place of Death:

Palace of Laeken, Avenue du Parc Royal / Koninklijk Parklaan, Laeken, Brussels, Belgium

Age:

Cause of Death:

Embolism

Cemetery Name:

Église Notre-Dame de Laeken

Claim to Fame:

World Leaders

Leopold II was the second King of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner and beneficiary of the riches extracted from the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. The Congo Free State, a private colonial project undertaken on his own behalf as a personal union with Belgium used the famed explorer Henry Morton Stanley to help him lay claim to the Congo, the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, the colonial nations of Europe authorized his claim and committed the Congo Free State to him. Leopold ran the Congo, which he never personally visited, by using the mercenary Force Publique for his personal gain. He extracted a fortune from the territory, initially by the collection of ivory and, after a rise in the price of rubber in the 1890s, by forced labour from the native population to harvest and process rubber. Leopold's administration was characterized by systematic brutality and atrocities in the Congo Free State, including forced labour, torture, murder, kidnapping, and the amputation of the hands of men, women, and children when the quota of rubber was not met. It is estimated that during his reign of terror in the Congo, 15 million died (out of a total population of 30 million) during the genocide and is considered by historians as the worst of European Colonialism.

The Rest of The Story …

Denial continues to run deep in the Belgium Royal Family of the atrocities carried out by Leopold II. Prince Laurent, brother of King Philippe, told the Sudpresse agency that abuses had occurred in the Congo Free State, Leopold’s personal fiefdom and source of wealth, but that Leopold was not to blame. “He never himself went to Congo,” he said. So I do not see how he could have made people there suffer.” As they say – you are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.

On November 15, 1902, Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino attempted to assassinate Leopold, who was riding in a royal cortege from a ceremony at Church of St. Michael and St. Gudula in memory of his recently deceased wife, Marie Henriette. After Leopold’s carriage passed, Rubino fired three shots at the procession. The shots missed the king but almost killed his grand marshal, Count Charles John d’Oultremont. Rubino was immediately arrested and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment where he died in prison in 1918.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Église Notre-Dame de Laeken

Parvis Notre-Dame 17, 1020

Laeken, Brussels,

Belgium

Europe

Grave Location:

Royal Vault

Grave Location Description

Over 200 years of Belgium Royalty are buried in the basement of this Catholic Church that was partially built on the blood of the Congolese people who were enslaved, raped, tortured and brutally maimed for nearly 50 years for the benefit and enrichment of King Leopold II of Belgium. But hey – enjoy your visit!