Talk:Leopold III of Belgium

message: "After his abdication, he was given the title Prince Léopold of Belgium, Duke of Brabant."
This is simply incorrect. Contrary to the Dutch queens who reverted to the title 'Princess of the Netherlands' after their abdication, Léopold retained the title of King after his abdication (just like Grand Duke Jean of Luxemburg is still known as Grand Duke Jean). That he was given the title "Duke of Brabant" is simply absurd in my opinion - this is the automatic title of the heir apparent, and, after his abdication, it was still possible that King Baudouin would have children, which would mean that there might have been more than one Duke of Brabant. Erwin 09:36, 15 Jan 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Title after abdication

message: The Flemish newspaper De Standaard did an "audit" of Wikipedia. About this article, they write the following:
:The English version contains a considerable number of errors. Leopolds first wife Astrid didn't die when she drove down a ravine, but into a lake [fixed by now]; he didn't make himself unpopular by capitulating unilaterally in 1940, quite to the contrary; he didn't return to Belgium in 1945... This unbalanced little article presents Leopold as a determinded resistant, but why did he become so unpopular with his people then? Karl Stas 20:05, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Is the Flemish or French version of this article better?  Perhaps one of these could be used as a basis to improve the article? john k 20:52, 19 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Several of these issues seem to have been addressed since then.  Are there still issues? Elphion (talk) 17:35, 14 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: An outside review

message: I see no mention of the horific crimes against humanity that occured in the Congo under his rule. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 167.75.254.253 (talk) 18:18, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Wrong Leopold, I am afraid. See Leopold II of Belgium.--Pan Gerwazy 14:40, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Leopold and the atrocities of the Congolese 

message: Baically, this article is too apolegetic of Leopold: it does not mention his personal visits to Hitler, it does not mention the row his wife had with Baldwin and Fabiola over furniture, paintings and memorabilia he took with him whe abdicating. On the other hand, it makes the extraordinary claim that Leopold tried to rule Belgium after the surrender to the Germans, and there is not a shred of evidence that he ever tried that: he considered himself a prisoner who as a result could not act as King. It is true that he consulted advisors when one minister who had been unable to reach unoccupied France, returned to Belgium. Since all the King's actions have to be "covered" by a minister, he could constitutionally have taken over, but the advisors ruled against it, because he had given himself up as prisoner. The minister later escaped to Britain. It is true that prisoners of war do not normally marry, but that is a different story. Leopold having no power after the surrender also means that it is rather silly to cleim he saved the lives of many Belgians by remaining in the country. In fact, the surrender itself probably saved a lot of lives, but afterwards, any difference with other occupied countries was caused by the fact that the nazis installed a military government, and not a civil one. ostensibly, that may have been because the Head of State was still in the country, but most probably it was because HItler did not how to dela with the three main collaborationists sides: unitarist Henri De Man, the VNV and the French-speaking fascists under Leon Degrelle.
In fact, the whole thing is badly sourced or unsourced except for some of the criticism added later. That is not a good thing.--Pan Gerwazy 08:55, 22 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I have to agree. It does not read encyclopaedic. Jooler 01:14, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

text: I think so about the Battle of Dunkirk but not about the beginning of the war (in the Ardennes. There are also Belgian (Frenchspeaking) sources about that and what is more from an author who was (nehertheless), in favour of Lepold III.  I can help for that. I already wrote about it. José Fontaine (talk) 22:28, 8 February 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: It's important to recall that he was King of the Belgians, a neutral country, and wanted to preserve the illusion of neutrality in 1944; a mistake of emphasis, perhaps, but the Allies were about to occupy his country with their forces. What doesn't come across in the article is that surrendering in person in 1940 meant that his country would be run by the German army and not by the SS. Contrast with Holland where tens of thousands died under Reichskommissariat Niederlande; Belgium lost several hundred. That was practical patriotism even if it didn't suit Churchill in 1940. Keyes is still the best English-language source on the surrender.86.42.193.126 (talk) 23:10, 6 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  General tone of the article+sources 

message: This article has so many grammatical errors that I question the overall qualifications of whoever authored the bulk of it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.228.131.34 (talk • contribs) 05:17, 21 November 2008
:I think the informations are absolutely fiable, but am not a native locutor. Is it possible to correct the grammar? José Fontaine (talk) 09:25, 21 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I think a lot of the article was at least partly machine translated.  I fixed the worst section (WW2 etc) but some parts could probably use more work.  TastyCakes (talk) 17:39, 21 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: No, as far as I am concerned, I didn't use machine. I need help.José Fontaine (talk) 00:18, 22 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi, José. I saw you trying to get the article less POV, thank you for your work. I wanted to copy edit to correct the grammar and to make the text less "Simple English" (do not take this personally, I have myself worked at wikis in other languages and I know how frustrating it can be when people tell you that your text does not look "encyclopaedic"). However I almost ran into a major problem: several things you write about the political testament are also in the chapter I inserted about it. Any idea how to proceed? Do we remove your text to the earlier chapter or do we reconstruct the time line? --Paul Pieniezny (talk) 16:24, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I understand what you mean: I am thinking of a proposal, I 'll write it on this talk page. You are civil about my simple English : thank you very much! I have other ideas about this topic. I 'll write also them here. Hartelijk! José Fontaine (talk) 17:24, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Terrible grammar 

message: "King Leopold died ........He is interred next to Queen Astrid in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady in Laeken. The princesse de Réthy is buried in the churchyard. That's not what is says here - which is correct? Giano (talk) 21:54, 18 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Buried? 

message: The template for the POV flag refers to the talk page, but I'm not sure which of the sections above addresses it, or whether the objections have been met in the many edits since 2008.  I've just reorganized the article, pulled together descriptions of the same events from different areas of the article, and tried to to represent all opinions represented in the text.  I also discarded several details that don't seem relevant (like the relative standing of the King's secretary vis à vis the Regent's secretary).  So I invite your response:  do we still have neutrality problems, and if so, what are they? Elphion (talk) 17:35, 14 September 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: There being no response in nearly a year, I've removed the POF flag. -- Elphion (talk) 19:01, 1 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Neutrality flag

message: Recent edits identify the king as an "out-spoken antisemite" -- I've reverted these since they were unsourced.  Leopold's attitude toward Jews is certainly an important and valid topic to include, but it needs to be done carefully and responsibly. -- Elphion (talk) 15:10, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Antisemitism 

message: Did King Leopold Poison Third of His Enemy? (evtl., with a mercury-containing toxin.) I am Hystorian. Write a book about Royal House Baudouin.
::: This would shed light on the further development of events in the history of the Kingdom. It is also interesting to see [Stalin's] role in the change of the royal government of Belgium.
UserRoyalist (talk) 13:05, 9 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sentence :From 1944 until 1950, Leopold's brother, Charles , served as prince regent while Leopold was declared unable to reign.  Leopold's controversial actions during the Second World War resulted in a political crisis known as the Royal Question .  In 1950, the  

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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