Albert Van Steenhoven

**Albert Van Steenhoven**

**Early Life**

Albert Van Steenhoven was born in de Steenhoven family, a family which lived in Oostende, Flanders. His parents ran a succesful trade business and made a lot of profit. This resulted they were very wealthy and sent Albert to the best schools of the Netherlands. As a child, Albert was seen as an ideal child as he was never rebelled against his parents, and always worked hard for school. The Flemish people already liked him since he was a child.

When he was in high school, he had to learn a lot of languages and economics. He hated to learn French, as he had trouble learning it. He was inspired by History, and loved learning all about the Flemish history. As he began to realize what the French have done in the past to the Flemish people, he created a hatred against them. This only increased by his studying problems and several French kids who bullied him back in Brussels.

He came out of high school very succesful, and was one of the highest schooled people in the Netherlands. His dream was to become Count of Oostende, and finally get a political position. It was during this time that Albert his double-sided personality got the better of him. His normal side, a calm and friendly man could no longer resist his alternate persona. His other personality however was much darker and cruel, with horrifying ideas to exterminate the French.

Appointment of Count

He was appointed by the Dutch King, Floris I van Pieper, as Count of Oostende. The Flemish people were happy that an famous Flemish citizen was finally appointed as Count. His charismatic speeches from the beginning made that the people adored him even more, and followed his ideas. He felt that there was a dislikement of the French aswell by the Flemish population, and made use of that. One of his first acts was the removal of all French flags in the City of Oostende. The anti-french spirit was increased greatly thanks to multiple of his actions, and riots against the French rose up quickly. Speech after speech, Albert promised how he would make Oostende better again. And it had effect, Oostende grew out to be a succesful city. This did not go unnoticed, and Albert was appointed Regent of Flanders.

**Promotion to Regent**

When Albert was promoted to Regent, he had to attend in several nationwide meetings and became involved in all sorts of things. His double-sided personality increased even more, sometimes going out of hand and letting others see his darker side. Together with Floris and Rick Kraag, they all planned an attack on France. Rick introduced a special and new gas, that could kill humans in seconds. Albert was full of this idea and stood behind it completely. Albert began mass-producing this gas and it was all transported to Flanders, in a safety bunker. After years of Anti-French propaganda, the entire Flemish population despised the french and riots occured all over near the French border. This resulted in several French Immigrants to be killed, and several were missing. The truth however was that those were kidnapped by Flemish soldiers, and brought to Albert. Albert his sickened mind experimented on those French citizens with the gas, and killed all of them. His mad ideas began to shock Floris I and some others, but no real action was taken.

Suddenly, Floris proposed to a French citizen. Albert was enraged at the Dutch King for doing such a thing, and ordered him to cancel the proposal at once. Floris refused, angering Albert greatly.

**Retirement**

Albert had plans to overthrow the Dutch throne and become King himself. He also explained his mad ideas towards the public to kill off the French, which ultimately triggered an opposition to form. A group of Flemish people reacted to these speeches, and said that this could end in the destruction of the netherlands and a bloody war. Upon further thought, most of the population woke up from their illusions and agreed to what the opposition said. Albert his power slipped out of his hands, while riots broke out against him. Piece by piece, Albert began realizing he was wrong himself. As he thought everything through, he realized what cruel things he did and what sick mind he had. His alternate persona lost the battle at last, as Albert fell back to being defeated and weak. He gave his last speech, stating that he would retire and his son, leopold take over. He explained that he was sick in the mind, and his ideas were mad. The remaints of his followers would be put back in place by their leader himself, as now they also realized they were wrong.

Albert was finally diagnosed with a double-sided personality and was placed under surveillance of several doctors and he retired to his mansion in Oostende. Since then, Leopold was regent of Flanders, but had almost no power, as the people would not fall into illusions once more.

Albert had a big impact on Flanders and Belgium during his entire career, and several coups have been attempted to grab the throne by followers of him after his retirement. All have failed, and have now marked the final blow to the Anti-French followers.