Word: throned
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...only 200 deputies, it was crammed with 1,000 guests). At the ministers' left sat the diplomatic corps, to the right were Belgium's top justices, grave in fur-trimmed gowns. Next to them were Senators and Representatives. Under a huge red velvet canopy stood the throne of Belgium, a formidable chair-newly gilded and fitted with red upholstery-which had been lugged down from the Parliament building's attic...
...slowly. His large eyes were solemn behind horn-rimmed glasses. His mouth was set hard. His slim, square shoulders seemed a bit too slight for the heavy bullion of the lieutenant general's epaulets they bore. At the first step of the red-carpeted dais before the throne, he stopped, turned, and bowed right & left. A hush hung over the chamber ; the young man's black shoes glistened in the subdued light. He raised his right hand with two long, slim fingers pointing upward and in a tensely precise voice, he vowed: "I swear to observe the constitution...
...moment later, on the 120th anniversary of Belgium's birth as a nation, Baudouin Albert Charles Leopold Axel Marie Gustave, Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut and fifth King of the Belgians, sat on his throne for the first time...
...bravely, refused to take a back seat while his ministers ran the country. His willfulness had led him into many dark hours, the darkest of which was his surrender of the Belgian army to Hitler in 1940. In recent years, Leopold's stubborn refusal to give up the throne of which more than half his people felt he was no longer worthy deeply rent Belgium...
Last week, after 17 years as sovereign, Leopold III, King of the Belgians, did what he could to make amends and restore harmony among his people. Before a distinguished group of 250 in the Royal Palace's white-and-gold throne room in Brussels, the stern, still handsome and young-looking (at 50) monarch relinquished his right to reign to his 2O-year-old son Baudouin. "It is with pride," Leopold told the boy, "that I transmit to you the noble and heavy mission of henceforth bearing the crown * of a Belgium which has remained, despite the most terrible...