Leopold I, King of the Belgians (1790-1865), became the first King of the Belgians after Belgium had asserted its independence of the Netherlands in 1830.
The youngest son of Duke Francis Frederick of Saxony-Coburg-Saalfeld, Leopold became a British subject when he married Charlotte (1796-1817), the only child of the future George IV of England. In 1830 he rejected election as King of Greece, but the following year he accepted the crown offered by the Belgian National Congress.
Leopold repelled the Dutch attempts to reconquer the country and finally secured Dutch recognition of Belgian independence in 1839. He loyally observed the constitution, which gave basic political power to parliament, and encouraged collaboration among the political parties. Although he married a daughter of Louis-Philippe of France in 1832, Leopold supported a policy of neutrality for Belgium. He was instrumental in arranging the marriage in 1840 of his niece, Queen Victoria of England, to Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. His own daughter, Carlota, got married in 1857 to Maximilian, the future emperor of Mexico.