King Leopold III of Belgium was of the house of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, which incidently still rules by blood both in Belgium AND in England. Yousee that House was the name of Prince Albert who married Queen Victoria. When he died she was so mournful she declaired her own house of hanover was over and that her children would bear her beloveds name.
The reason that Queen Elizabeth is not called Saxe-Coburg Gotha is one of title, and not blood. Technically speaking she is still a blood relative within the house of Saxe-Coburg Gotha...but during the time between wars, her Grandfather, King George did a clever thing and changed his surname by deedpoll because he thought it too Germanic! Instead he decided all his future heirs would be named after his favourite Castle...hence Windsor
You can clearly see that King Leopold and Queen Astrid of Sweeden, were very much in love. Sadly, this story has an unhappy ending for both. A year after his succession to the throne of Belgium, in 1935, the pair went on holiday to switzerland. There was a car crash and the royal car ended up in the lake. Queen Astrid was carrying the Fourth heir at the time, and both she and her unborn child were killed.
Mindful of the expansion of German Imperialism, King Leopold fortified and believed that he had adequet sources to stave off an invasion from Germany, so he turned down the application to join the allied forces and instead declared himself neutral. He was very sorely mistaken, and the third reich descended on the neatherlands and washed through his land.
The Government decided to flee to Paris, anything rather then surrender to Adolf Hitler, but being a military man, and a soldier in the first world war, King Leopold refused to go. This made the Government very angry, they fled to france whereupon they accused him of treason as soon as he had been forced to surrender. They claimed he had acted unconstitutionally and they wanted a new King.
Leo was arrested by the Germans and taken before Adolf Hitler. Leo had two things to say to Hitler which would clear him post the war of charges of Treason. The first was that he would not do any form of governance under the Nazi banner, and secondly, he wanted his Kingdom and its independance back.
Herr Hitler declined to aquiest to his requests
Unfortunate circumstances left Leopold in exhile after the war for six years because as the Germans began to withdraw they took their prisoners with them. Which included Leopold and his second wife (they married in secret of course) So he was aghast to find by the time the United States Army had liberated him in Switzerland his Government had popped home from France and changed the locks
they didnt want him back.
Or rather...some of them did and some of them didnt...infact Belgium ended up in civil crisis with uprisings so bad they had to do a referendum, and Leopold won...but with only 57 percent of the vote, the unrest continued after his return until 1951 when to stop all out civil war, he abdicated.
King Leopold III died the year after I was born. He lies in rest between his two wives
perhaps not a sad ending after all...six children, three to each wife succeeds him...one of his Grandchildren sits upon his Throne this day