Lilian, Princess of Réthy

Princess Lilian of Belgium, Princess of Réthy (born Mary Lilian Henriette Lucie Josephine Ghislaine Baels; November 28, 1916 – June 7, 2002) was the second wife of King Leopold III of Belgium.

Born in the United Kingdom and raised in Belgium, she became a volunteer as a car driver that transported wounded Belgian and French to the hospital in Bruges during World War II.

In 1933, Lilian Baels, as a student at the Institute of the Sacred Heart, saw her future husband King Leopold III of Belgium, then the Duke of Brabant, for the first time during a military review that was conducted by King Albert I at the location near to the school.

When the students in her class were given the task of writing an essay on a topic of their choice, Lilian decided to write on the then-Prince Leopold.

A few years later, when her father, then Governor of West Flanders, took his daughter to a public ceremony, she had the occasion to meet King Leopold, who presided at the event, for the second time.

In 1937, Lilian and her mother met the King, now a widower, again on another ceremonial occasion.

Soon afterwards, King Leopold III contacted Governor Baels to invite him and his daughter to join him in a golfing party the next day.

Lilian also saw the King in 1939 at a garden-party organised in honour of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, and later at the golf course at Laeken, where she was invited to lunch by King Leopold's mother, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium.

A final golf party near the Belgian coast occurred in May 1940, shortly before the Nazi invasion of Belgium.

Following the Nazi invasion of Belgium, Lilian's mother put herself at the service of the Red Cross during the Belgian and Allied military campaign against the invaders.

Lilian helped her mother actively in her new role, transporting wounded Belgian and French to the hospital of St. John in Bruges by car and helped to evacuate the elderly from an asylum in Aalst, which was inside the combat zone.

Meanwhile, her father, Governor Baels, attempted to alleviate the plight of his invaded province.

On 18 May, Henri Baels went in search of the Minister of the Interior, thinking he had left for France, to obtain his signature for an important relief measure.

On his journey, however, Governor Baels had a car accident and injured his legs.

He was admitted to a hospital in Le Havre.

As the military situation in Belgium headed towards disaster, his wife decided to bring her daughters to safety in France, and Lilian drove the family car on the trip.

Governor Baels' wife and daughters met him again, by pure chance, in a hospital in Poitiers.

Baels was subsequently accused of having abandoned his post as Governor without justification by fleeing to France.

He succeeded, however, in obtaining an audience with the King following the capitulation of the Belgian army on 28 May 1940 and the King's own imprisonment by the Germans at Laeken Castle.

Baels and his daughter Lilian, who drove him to the audience, explained the real circumstances of his departure from Belgium, and the Governor was thereby vindicated.

Subsequently, Lilian and her father returned to France and occupied themselves with the care of Belgian refugees in the region of Anglet.

After Belgium's liberation, Henri Baels was accused of collaborating with the Nazis during the war, while he lived in France.

Lilian married King Leopold III in 1941 and became consort of the Belgian monarch.

The couple produced three children.

She was also a stepmother to Leopold III's children from Queen Astrid and became the "first lady" of Belgium during the first nine years of her stepson King Baudouin's reign.

Her charity work revolved around medicine and cardiology.

Mary Lilian Baels was born in Highbury, London, England, where her parents had fled during World War I.

She was one of the nine children of Henri Baels from Ostend and his wife, Anne Marie de Visscher, a member of the Belgian nobility from Dentergem.

Lilian was initially educated in English, but, upon her parents' return to Belgium, she attended the College of the Sacred Heart in Ostend, where she learned Dutch.

Lilian continued her studies in French at the Institute of the Sacred Heart in Brussels.

She was also fluent in German.

Lilian completed her education by attending a convent school in London and attending finishing schools in France, Switzerland and Austria.

In addition to academic work, Lilian participated extensively in sports, such as skiing, swimming, golfing, and hunting.

Above all, however, she enjoyed, as did her father, literature and the arts.

As a teenager, she was presented to King George V and Queen Mary of the United Kingdom at Buckingham Palace.

In 1941, at the invitation of Queen Elisabeth, Lilian visited Laeken Castle, where King Leopold III, now a prisoner of war, was held by the Germans under house arrest.

This visit was followed by several others, with the result that Leopold III and Lilian fell in love.

Leopold proposed marriage to Lilian in July 1941, but Lilian declined his offer because "Kings only marry princesses," she said.

Queen Elisabeth, however, prevailed upon Lilian to accept the King's offer.

Lilian agreed to marry the King, but declined the title of queen.