Leopold I was the first king of the Belgians, reigning from 21 July 1831 until his death in 1865.
Portrait by Nicaise de Keyser, 1856
Ehrenburg Palace in Coburg, where Leopold was born in 1790, pictured c. 1900
Napoleon and Alexander I depicted at the Congress of Erfurt
The charge of the cuirassiers at the Battle of Kulm
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908.
Leopold I of Belgium
…ministries. He also played an important role in stopping the spread of the Revolutions of 1848 into Belgium. He died in 1865 and was succeeded by his son, Leopold II. Leopold was born at Ehrenburg Palace in Coburg in the small German duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on 16 December 1790. He was the…
Queen Louise of Orléans with her son Prince Leopold, later Leopold II. Painting by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1838)
Young Prince Leopold by John Partridge (1841)
Leopold as a younger man in the uniform of the Grenadiers (Portrait by Nicaise de Keyser)