Baudouin, << boh DWAN >> (1930-1993), was the fifth king of Belgium. He was born on Sept. 7, 1930, at Laeken Palace near Brussels, and he attended school in Brussels and in Switzerland. In 1940, the German army invaded Belgium and took Baudouin to Germany. Baudouin returned to Belgium in 1950 to assume the title of prince royal. He became king in 1951 when his father, King Leopold III, abdicated.
Baudouin married Fabiola de Mora y Aragon of Spain in 1960. On June 30, 1960, he granted independence to Belgium’s African colony, the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Baudouin, a popular king, helped ease tensions between the two major ethnic groups in Belgium: the Flemings and the Walloons. He died on July 31, 1993.
