Adalbert I von Hohenzollern is the first and current King of Flanders-Wallonia. The third son of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II, he was elected by the Parliament of the successor state of Belgium (the current Flanders-Wallonia) on 17 February 1922.
History[]
Early life[]
The third son of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Empress August Viktoria, Adalbert was named in honor of one of the nephews of Kaiser Wilhelm I, an Admiral who took a significant part in the constitution of the Prussian Navy. To respect his illustrious namesake, after his military upbringing, which he attended with his brothers on Prinzeninsel and Prinzenhaus at Plön Castle, Adalbert attended the Navy School in Kiel, being trained as a naval officer. Living in Kiel, and often visiting royal courts from Beijing to Athens to represent his father, he married Princess Adelheid von Sachsen-Meiningen on 3 August 1914. During the Weltkrieg, he commanded the cruiser SMS Danzig, then spent the years 1915 to 1918 in command of a torpedo boat, before spending the rest of the war in Belgium, where he participated along with his mother in the building of many convalescent homes for German sailors.
King of Flanders-Wallonia[]
In 1921, the Peace with Honour with Britain left the status of Belgium mostly unsettled; the German occupation authorities had functioned with a federal model, giving to both Dutch-speaking Flemish and French-speaking Walloons a vague autonomy status. With the French Civil War and the syndicalist threat of the Commune of France on its borders, Belgium had to become a buffer state included in the Mitteleuropa system. Unfortunately, seven years of occupation and federal status had left the two Belgian populations ready for separatism and anarchy: with the exile of King Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, any trace of national unity had disappeared in Belgium. The Flemish nationalist Dr. August Borms proposed instead a single but federal kingdom of Flanders-Wallonia led by a member of the Hohenzollern dynasty. On 17 February 1922, Prince Adalbert, endorsed by his father, was unanimously elected by the Parliament. After Adalbert converted to Catholicism and renounced all his rights to the German throne, he became King Adalbert of Flanders-Wallonia, allowing the fragile kingdom of Flanders-Wallonia to stand through a national and monarchic figure.
Family[]
Adalbert married on 3 August 1914, at Wilhelmshaven, Princess Adelheid von Sachsen-Meiningen, born on 16 August 1891, second daughter of Friedrich Johann von Sachsen-Meiningen, himself second son of the Theater's Duke, Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen. Now Queen of Flanders-Wallonia as either Adelheid (for the Flemish) or Adelaïde (for the Walloons), she had three children with the King:
- Princess Victoria Marina, stillborn daughter (4 September 1915)
- Princess Victoria Marina of Prussia, born 11 September 1917
- Prince Wilhelm Victor, born 15 February 1919
See also[]
- Flanders-Wallonia
- August Borms