I am looking for a new king of Belgium.

Good Evening

In OTL Leopold of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, turned down the throne of Greece. After Belgium asserted its independence from the Netherlands on 4th October 1830, the Belgian National Congress considered several candidates and eventually asked Leopold to become King of the newly formed country. He was elected on 4 June, accepted, and became "King Leopold I of Belgium" on 26 June 1831.

I wish for Leopold to take the throne of Greece, becoming , and start up Greece into become a new power in Europe, like Italy or Austria, forming a small but impressive empire.
Ive already done this by making him build the first railway in continental Europe between Athens and Thessaloniki all with home grow industry and men.

All I need is a very good Prince/Duke to be King of Belgium. However, they can not be French or British due to my timeline :) . Or even the list of 'several candidates ' picked by the BNC as I can not find this either.

Thank you, in advance for your help

By Royal Appointment

Grand Duke of Eltham
 
French Prince Louis of Orléans, duke of Nemours; archduke Charles of Habsburg-Lorraine, duke of Teschen; and August de Beauharnais, duke of Leuchtenberg. IMHO the latter seems improbably. BTW there is no king of Belgium, the proper title is king of the Belgians.
 
Of the OTL candidates, the Arch Duke Charles of Teschen fits the conditions best, but AFAIR there was also the Duke of Arenberg as a native belgian candidate.

But as an aside: I see a small problem with the Athens-Thessaloniki railroad, namely that the latter city was not part of Greece until 1913. To have not only Thessaly (acquired in the 1880s) but parts of Macedonia inside 1830s Greece would require gigantic changes.
 
French Prince Louis of Orléans, duke of Nemours; archduke Charles of Habsburg-Lorraine, duke of Teschen; and August de Beauharnais, duke of Leuchtenberg. IMHO the latter seems improbably. BTW there is no king of Belgium, the proper title is king of the Belgians.


Of the OTL candidates, the Arch Duke Charles of Teschen fits the conditions best, but AFAIR there was also the Duke of Arenberg as a native belgian candidate.

But as an aside: I see a small problem with the Athens-Thessaloniki railroad, namely that the latter city was not part of Greece until 1913. To have not only Thessaly (acquired in the 1880s) but parts of Macedonia inside 1830s Greece would require gigantic changes.

Thank you both for the list of names, they will be a great help :)

I thought that both titles were the same, just worded differently, thanks for correction. As a royalist, I am crap with royal titles.

Oh ok thank you, I didn't know that, I'll have to find a new location or is it possible to link Greece and Macedonia together.
 
Well if the french candidate is refused and Leopold of Saxe-Coburg Gotha refuse the throne I seriously doubt we would have chosen a Habsburg too much bad history. We could pick a local nobility like the house of Arenberg or many others.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_noble_families_in_Belgium#Princes

I don't think Greece would have the mean to build the first railway of continental Europe in Belgium we were sitting on huge amount of coal and we were already industrialising before our independence.
 
Athens to Corinth might be a better, and more logical bet

I don't see a huge problem with a Beauharnais king, Portugal had one (as Prince Consort)

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 

Vitruvius

Donor
French Prince Louis of Orléans, duke of Nemours; archduke Charles of Habsburg-Lorraine, duke of Teschen; and August de Beauharnais, duke of Leuchtenberg. IMHO the latter seems improbably. BTW there is no king of Belgium, the proper title is king of the Belgians.

I wouldn't rule out August so quickly. He had a lot going for him. His father had an excellent reputation among most of ruling families in Europe due to his very honorable conduct at the end of the Napoleonic Wars and he had strong connections to the Bavarian Royal house and through his sisters to the Brazilian Braganzas, the King of Sweden, and several other German Houses. Most of these associations are with more moderate to liberal monarchs or families also a good fit to Belgium. And while his father is of French origins (noble no less, not just some commoner who rose through the ranks) its hard to pinpoint his nationality. Furthermore his French origins are Napoleonic which means he has no direct ties to the current regime in France which would limit the possibility of a union with France something most of the powers feared would happen with Nemours, as a member of the reigning house of Orleans. It was for all these reasons that August was selected as Prince Consort for Maria II of Portugal after he lost out on Belgium. Had he not died shortly after arriving there he would have founded a new Royal line.

IIRC he came in second to Nemours when the Belgians started voting among the candidates but Britain was going to veto Nemours anyways and Teschen was a distant third. So given one unacceptable choice and an also ran August looks very likely indeed.
 
I stand corrected. :) Still IMHO a native candidate, like Arenberg, might be interesting too.

Xgentis: not all were bad. IIRC Charles Alexander of Lorraine (younger brother of Francis Stephen) had a good reputation.
 
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