Editing Lilian Baels (section)

==Friendship with the Belgian royal family==
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. Leopold was at the time married to [[Astrid of Sweden]]. 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.<ref name="cleermans"/>

In 1937, again on another ceremonial occasion, Lilian and her mother met the King, who was now a widower after Queen Astrid's death in an automobile accident in 1935. 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, [[Elisabeth of Bavaria (1876–1965)|Queen Elisabeth of Belgium]]. A final golf party near the Belgian coast occurred in May 1940, shortly before the [[Battle of Belgium|Nazi invasion of Belgium]].<ref name="cleermans">Cleeremans, Jean. ''Léopold III, sa famille, son peuple sous l'occupation''; Keyes, Roger. ''Echec au Roi, Léopold III, 1940–1951''</ref>