For days it had been raining in Switzerland. Leopold of Belgium and Queen Astrid, vacationing in the Villa Haslihorn near Lucerne, sent their three small children back to Brussels.

A year and a half later the new King Leopold was motoring with Queen Astrid near Lucerne, he at the wheel and she with a map in her lap. When his wife asked a question, the monarch leaned over and ...

Among the guests at the nuptials of Maria Laura and her groom, who is French and British, was the bride's father Prince Lorenz of Belgium, and mother, Princess Astrid of Belgium.