Despite all forecasts that kings were to be lost either to the darkness of history by the year 2000, or the wars bore by European Peoples that led to the extinction of many monarchies,still, at the very beginning of the twenty first century, ten of the countries on this continent are constitutional monarchies led by heir sovereigns. They are also some of the most powerful democracies in the entire world.
The Kingdom of Belgium
Royal Motto: “EENDRACHT MAAKT MACHT”
“UNITY GIVES FORCE!”
Belgium was initially under the possession of the dukes of Burgundy and, later on by the Hasburgs. During the French Revolution it became the Republic of Batavia and was attached to the kingdom Napoleon created for his brother, Louise Bonaparte.
After the fall of Napoleon, the allies decided to unite Belgium and Holland under the kingdom and the sovereignty of Prince of Orange later known as William I of The Netherlands.
This forced alliance lasts until the outburst of the revolutionary wave that hits Europe the summer of 1830. This causes Belgium to proclaim its independence on the fourth of October 1830. After a short period of international intervention in the area, meant to avoid its annexation to France, the United Kingdom proposed that the new born country should be led by a royal house in a neutral country, thus suggesting duke Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, Germany, who becomes King Leopold I of Belgium. In the twentieth century Belgium declares itself neutral, however, because it had been invaded during the two world wars, decides to put an end to its external pacific politics and adhere to NATO.
Belgian political organization is very complex. The federal system is divided in organisms that do not correspond only to geographic areas but also to linguistic ones. The state is led by the monarch whose activities are in fact ceremonial. The head of the government is the prime minister who coordinates a maximum number of 15 minister members of the party or coalition that holds the power.
The legislative power is based on a bicameral parliament made up of 150 representatives and 71 senators. In Belgium there are no national political parties as log as parties tend to be limited to the linguistic region of their electorate. However a single party is present both in the case of the francophone as well as the Flemish, without having a national organization: The Green Party (Écolo/Groen).
Leopold I becomes the first king of independent Belgium in 1831. The following year he marries Louise Marie d’Orleans. She was said to be the most unhappy bride of the century. Forced to get married at the age of 20 to a severe widower twenty years older than she; timid and fragile, the young queen will not succeed in quenching the passion of king Leopold I for a long time, reason for which the latter has a love affair with the daughter of an officer in the Belgian army.
Louise Marie and Leopold I had four children, three of which reach maturity: Leopold, the heir of the throne, Philippe and Charlotte.
Leopold II, the first son of the Belgian royal family is born in 1835. The constitution in 1830 provided that the crown was transmitted to the legitimate and natural descendants of Leopold I, to the male descendents thus excluding the female descendents and their descendants (until 1991 when the Salic law is abrogated, thus remaining only its descendant element).
