Baudouin of Belgium

Baudouin became King of the Belgians on 17 July 1951, the elder son of the controversial Leopold III and Princess Astrid of Sweden, who died when he was four. He was the last Belgian monarch to hold sovereignty over the Congo, which gained independence in 1960 and became the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He married Queen Fabiola, but they had no children. When he died on 31 July 1993, the crown passed to his younger brother, Albert II. In 2024, the Holy See opened the cause for his beatification, granting him the title Servant of God.