Prince Alexandre of Belgium

Prince Alexandre of Belgium (French: Alexandre Emmanuel Henri Albert Marie Léopold, Dutch: Alexander Emanuel Hendrik Albert Maria Leopold; 18 July 1942 – 29 November 2009) was the fourth child of King Leopold III of Belgium, and the eldest for Lilian, Princess of Réthy. King Baudouin and King Albert II of Belgium were his older half-brothers. Grand Duchess Joséphine-Charlotte of Luxembourg was his older half-sister. Background and youth Prince Alexandre was born in Laeken in Brussels. He had two younger full sisters: Marie-Christine and Marie-Esméralda. His godmother was his elder half-sister, Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium. Held under house arrest by the Germans until 1944, upon the invasion in Normandy, Léopold, his second wife, and his four children were transferred to Germany and Austria where they remained under house arrest, first in a fort at Hirschstein in Saxony during the winter of 1944–45, and then at Strobl, near Salzburg. They were freed by the U.S. Army in May 1945. After the war, the Royal Family was unable to return to Belgium and was forced to spend some years in Swiss exile before finally being able to return to Belgium in 1950 after a national referendum. Alexandre studied medicine for a while, later pursuing a career in trade. Suffering from serious heart problems, he was successfully operated upon in the USA. This decision raised criticism in Belgium by some who suggested that his surgery should have been performed in his own country. Unverified sources have claimed that, in September 1971, Prince Alexandre was responsible for a car accident that resulted in the death of a Belgian priest named l'abbé Froidure. The priest had survived concentration camps in WW2, organized a charitable organization still present in Brussels (Les Petits Riens/Spullenhulp), knew the royal family including King Baudouin, and died in a crash in front of his home. It has been suggested that the Belgian royal family controlled the official inquiry and avoided any further investigation or consequences.