Albert I of Belgium

Biography

Albert was born in Brussels in 1875, the second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Reserved and studious, he prepared seriously for the throne, visiting working-class districts incognito and, shortly before his accession, touring the Belgian Congo, after which he urged reforms to protect its people. In 1900 he married Elisabeth of Bavaria, with whom he had three children, including the future Leopold III.

He succeeded his uncle Leopold II in December 1909, the first Belgian king to take the oath in Dutch as well as French. During the First World War, when most of Belgium was under German occupation, his wartime leadership earned him the names Soldier King and Knight King. He pursued secret contacts for a negotiated peace without success, and in 1918 commanded the Army Group Flanders in the offensive that freed occupied Belgium.

After the war he backed universal male suffrage through a government of national union, attended the Paris Peace Conference, where he argued against a punitive settlement with Germany, and spent much of his reign on reconstruction. In 1920 he renamed the royal house the House of Belgium, and in 1925 he founded Africa's first national park, now Virunga. A keen mountaineer, he died in a climbing accident at Marche-les-Dames in February 1934.