Monday, November 15, 2010
"Reines de pouvoir : la face cachée des reines de Belgique"
Les deux premiers mariages royaux sont des unions politiques destinées à renforcer la position de la Belgique : Louise-Marie pour avoir le soutien de la France, Marie-Henriette celui de l'Autriche. Elles ne seront pas heureuses et devront vivre avec les infidélités de leur époux. Marie-Henriette quitte même la Cour pour s'installer à Spa. Excepté quelques apparitions publiques, elles n'ont aucun rôle et aucune influence sur la vie du pays. Ainsi la reine Louise-Marie est contre la peine de mort et tente sans grand succès de rallier son mari Léopold Ier et son père Louis-Philippe à sa cause. [plus]
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Hmm...I'm not sure about this book. The marriage of Leopold and Astrid was 'arranged'? Maybe to some extent, but it seems clear that they really fell deeply in love, from many testimonies, such as this one:
ReplyDeletehttp://crossoflaeken.blogspot.com/2009/08/idyll-of-leopold-astrid.html
Astrid's Swedish friend, Anna Sparre, who knew her from childhood and cared about her, also dwells on the romance in detail in her memoirs and portrays Leopold as a very devoted husband, not a careless playboy...
I have seen this before and it seems to me some people want to always assume negative aspects of people rather than the positive, with some or with others. What the real details are no one knows and I doubt most of what books like this say about knowing the "real" story.
ReplyDeleteWell, these authors sounds pretty determined to interpret everything in the worst possible light. The Queen's charity drive was 'paternalist'? She traveled abroad for 'months' without her children? Some of this travel had to do with her royal duties, going to places like the Congo etc. with Leopold. Do people forget that she was also a 'mother' to her people, and had duties to fulfill to them, too, as well as to her own children?
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