Belgian royalty. Leopold II became king of the Belgians upon his father’s death, and he reigned from 1865-1909, a time of great industrial and colonial expansion.
Leopold Louis Philippe Marie Victor was the eldest son of Leopold I and his second wife, Marie-Louise. He was a member of the Belgian army, and in 1846, he became Duke of Brabant. After succeeding his father to the throne, the country underwent an escalating conflict between the Liberal and Catholic parties over education and suffrage issues; however, Leopold concentrated on a buildup of the nation’s defenses.
In 1876, efforts to colonize the “Dark Continent” of Africa began, and he turned to Sir Henry Stanley for help, employing him to acquire as much land in the Congo Basin as he could. Leopold intended to make this area into a private state under his exclusive ownership. Stanley was able to make numerous treaties with the natives in the Congo, and as a result, Leopold had a legitimate claim to the area. He named himself sovereign of the Congo Free State-Independent State of the Congo. Wanting to export the valuable resources of the area, he further financed explorations between 1879-84, despite the fact that much of Europe considered his acts to be atrocities.
Tens of thousands of people were murdered and died of European diseases, as well as being used as slaves at gunpoint to work brutally hard collecting ivory, tapping rubber, mining copper, building railroads and hauling raw material on their backs. Eventually Leopold lost his financial backing, and in 1908, was forced to sell his land to Belgium, which renamed the holdings the Belgian Congo.
In 1853, at age 18, Leopold married Maria Henrietta, daughter of the Austrian archduke Joseph, palatine of Hungary. It was a diplomatic arrangement between incompatible people who never did share love. They apparently went for some weeks after the marriage without having a sexual union. When they visited Queen Victoria on their honeymoon, she appraised the situation, concluding that they were too shy or inexperienced and had Prince Albert speak to them discretely about the facts of life. They proceeded to have a daughter, Louise, in 1858; a son, Leopold, in 1859; a second girl, Stephanie, in 1864; and a third, Clementine, in 1872. Sadly, their son died at the age of nine of pneumonia, leaving a nephew, Albert I, to succeed him as king. Leopold kept a series of young mistresses over the years.
He was the target of an assassination attempt on 11/15/1902. Leopold II died from a brain tumor on 12/17/1909, Laeken, Belgium.
Link to Wikipedia biography