Editing Lilian Baels (section)

==Marriage and controversy==
In 1941, at the invitation of [[Elisabeth of Bavaria, Queen of Belgium|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.<ref>{{cite web|first=Brittani|last=Barger|url=https://royalcentral.co.uk/europe/belgium/granny-knows-best-the-grandparents-of-king-philippe-of-the-belgians-149206/|title=Granny Knows Best: the grandparents of King Philippe of the Belgians|date=18 September 2020|access-date=28 May 2021}}</ref> Instead, the King gave Lilian the title Princess of Belgium, a.k.a. Princess of [[Retie|Réthy]], with the style ''[[Royal Highness]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.senate.be/www/?MIval=consulteren/publicatie2&BLOKNR=5&COLL=H&LEG=2&NR=211&SUF=&VOLGNR=&LANG=fr|title=Éloge funèbre de S.A.R. la Princesse Lilian, Princesse de Belgique|work=Le Sénat de Belgique|language=fr |date=13 June 2002|access-date=16 July 2023}}</ref> It was agreed that descendants of the King's new marriage would be titled Prince/Princess of Belgium with the style ''Royal Highness'' but excluded from [[Succession to the Belgian throne|succession to the throne]].<ref name="Séguy 18–21">{{cite journal|last = Séguy |first = Philippe| date = 2008-04-29| title = Léa de Belgique: Il faut en finir avec le malheur| journal = Point de Vue| pages = 18–21|language = fr}}</ref>

Leopold and Lilian initially planned to hold their official, civil marriage after the end of the war and the liberation of Belgium, but in the meantime, a secret religious marriage ceremony took place on 11 September 1941, in the chapel of Laeken Castle, in the presence of King Leopold's mother Queen Elisabeth, Lilian's father Henri Baels, [[Jozef-Ernest van Roey|Cardinal van Roey]] (who worked as the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mechelen–Brussels|Archbishop of Mechelen]] and [[Primate (bishop)|primate]] of Belgium) and one of the King's old friends. Lilian was wearing Queen Elisabeth's bridal veil during her wedding. This actually contravened Belgian law, which required that the religious wedding be preceded by the civil one. Although Lilian and Leopold had originally planned to postpone their [[civil marriage]] until the end of the war, Lilian was soon [[pregnancy|expecting]] her first child, necessitating a civil marriage, which took place on 6 December 1941.<ref>{{cite web|first=Pierrick|last= Geais|url=https://www.vanityfair.fr/savoir-vivre/story/l-histoire-d-amour-entre-le-roi-leopold-iii-et-lilian-baels-qui-a-scandalise-la-belgique/13394|title=L'histoire d'amour du roi Léopold III qui a scandalisé la Belgique|work=[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]] |language=fr |date=12 February 2021|access-date=16 July 2023}}</ref> The civil marriage automatically made Lilian a Belgian princess. Lilian proved a devoted wife to the King and an affectionate and vivacious stepmother to his children by his first wife, Queen Astrid.<ref name="cleermans"/> Her stepchildren—[[Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium|Joséphine-Charlotte]], [[Baudouin of Belgium|Baudouin]], and [[Albert II of Belgium|Albert II]]—adored her and they called her "Mother".<ref name="pittsburgh">{{cite web|first=Sam|last=White|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19530703&id=r2AbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=q00EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6650,477813&hl=en|title=Europe's Most Slandered Princess|date=July 3, 1953|access-date=May 19, 2020|publisher=Pittsburgh Press}}</ref>

When the civil marriage of Leopold and Lilian was made public in a pastoral letter by Cardinal van Roey read throughout Belgian churches in December 1941, there was a mixed reaction in Belgium. Some showed sympathy for the new couple, sending flowers and messages of congratulations to the palace at Laeken.<ref name="jeancleermans"/> Others, however, argued that the marriage was incompatible with the King's status as a prisoner of war and his stated desire to share the hard fate of his conquered people and captive army, and was a betrayal of [[Astrid of Sweden|Queen Astrid]]'s memory. They also branded Lilian as a social-climber.<ref name="dujardin">''Léopold III,'' by Vincent Dujardin, Mark van den Wijngaert, et al.</ref> One of the leading Belgian newspapers rebuked King Leopold: "Sire, we thought you had your face turned towards us in mourning. Instead you had it hidden in the shoulder of a woman."<ref name="telegraph"/> Leopold and Lilian were also blamed for violating Belgian law by holding their religious marriage before their civil one. These criticisms would continue for many years, even after the war.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}

According to Lilian's account, the news of her secret marriage with King Leopold upset and worried her mother, who foresaw that it would provoke a political storm. Her mother quoted "My little one, you don't know what's in store for you. It will be appalling, they will all attack you, you will have a terribly hard life."<ref>''Un couple dans la tempête: le destin malheureux de Léopold III de Belgique et de la princesse Lilian '' (2004) (pp. 36-37).</ref> Queen Astrid's parents, [[Prince Carl, Duke of Västergötland|Prince Carl]] and [[Princess Ingeborg of Denmark|Princess Ingeborg of Sweden]], did not take the hard line against King Leopold's remarriage. Princess Ingeborg told a Belgian journalist that she couldn't understand all the animus in Belgium against the king's second marriage, that it was perfectly natural for a young man not to want to remain alone forever. She said she was happy about her son-in-law's new marriage, both for his own sake and for the sake of her grandchildren.