General Notes

Leopold III, b. Nov. 3, 1901, d. Sept. 25, 1983, succeeded his father, Albert
I, to the Belgian throne in 1934. A strong-willed monarch, he refused to go
into exile after the German conquest of Belgium in 1940 and became the target
of criticism so bitter that he abdicated in 1951.

An advocate of a more independent foreign policy for Belgium before World War
II, Leopold twice urged mediation of the conflict between Nazi Germany and the
Western Allies in the months immediately before and after the outbreak of war
in 1939. After the German invasion in May 1940, he took command of the army
and led its resistance for 2 weeks before surrendering. He rejected the
government's appeal to join them in a government-in-exile and stayed in
Belgium as a self-proclaimed prisoner of war in his castle at Laken.

After the Allied invasion in June 1944, Leopold was taken to Germany. He was
liberated by American troops in Austria in May 1945. Much bitter opposition to
his return existed in Belgium because of his wartime conduct. When finally the
Catholic People's party obtained a majority in his favor in a referendum in
1950, he went home. He met such fierce hostility, however, manifested in
strikes and other protests, that he abdicated on July 16, 1951, in favor of
his son Baudouin.