In Memoriam: Queen Astrid of the Belgians

Born on this day in 1905, the granddaughter of Sweden's King Oscar II and Denmark's King Frederick VIII, it was clear that little Princess Astrid would live her life at the crossroads of European royalty; the older she got, the more likely it seemed in fact, for when she was just 13 days shy of 21 she married the future Leopold III of the Belgians.

Her three children would also grow up to be sovereigns: Joséphine-Charlotte became Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, and two subsequent sons became, in their turn, Baudouin I and Albert II of the Belgians. There's no telling what her fourth child would have become, though, because in August 1935, near Küssnacht am Rigi in Switzerland, her husband lost control of the car he was driving; it plunged into a ravine, killing the pregnant Astrid.

She was subsequently interred at the Church of Our Lady near the Royal Castle of Laeken, official home of the Belgian Royal Family, in Laeken, a suburb of Brussels. With all due respect to the present Queen, Paola, her mother-in-law remains, to this day, the most beloved of Belgian queens.
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