Death
In August 1935, the King and Queen went incognito to Switzerland on holiday. Prince Albert remained in Brussels. Aged only 1, he was considered too young to travel that far. Joséphine-Charlotte and Baudouin had travelled with their parents to their holiday home, Villa Haslihorn in Horw, Switzerland. The children were sent back to Belgium with their nannies on 28 August. On 29 August 1935, the King and Queen decided to go for a last hike in the mountains before returning home. Their chauffeur was sitting in the back of the Packard One-Twenty convertible, the King was driving and the Queen looking at a map. As the Queen pointed out something to her husband the car went off the road, down a steep slope, slammed into a pear tree. Queen Astrid had opened her door to try to get out, but she was thrown out upon impact. Her body collided with the trunk of the tree, while the car slammed into a second tree. King Leopold was thrown out of the car as well, but he was only lightly injured. The car went on, only to stop in a lake. The chauffeur remained uninjured. It was 9:30 am on 29 August 1935. The Queen, pregnant with her fourth child, died from her injuries at the scene of the accident at Küssnacht am Rigi, near Lake Lucerne, Schwyz, Switzerland.
She was deeply mourned by her husband, King Leopold, by the Belgians, and by the Swedes. Belgium issued a postage stamp showing her portrait in black, known as the Astrid Mourning issue. A commemorative chapel was built in Switzerland at the site of the crash. The chapel has become a destination for Swedish and Belgian tourists. A museum nearby holds images and memorabilia of the event, including a shard from the windscreen and the log of the pear tree. The tree itself was downed by a storm in 1992. The car was sunk at the deepest past of the Vierwaldstättersee on the request of the king.
Queen Astrid is interred in the royal vault at the Church of Our Lady of Laeken, Brussels, beside her husband, King Leopold III of the Belgians, and his second wife, Princess Lilian of Belgium.
Read more about this topic: Astrid Of Sweden
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“Go; and if that word have not quite killed thee,
Ease me with death by bidding me got too.
Oh, if it have, let my word work on me,
And a just office on a murderer do.
Except it be too late to kill me so,
Being double dead: going, and bidding go.”
—John Donne (1572–1631)
“Old age is a tyrant that forbids us upon pain of death all the pleasures of youth.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“I asked myself, “Is it going to prevent me from getting out of here? Is there a risk of death attached to it? Is it permanently disabling? Is it permanently disfiguring? Lastly, is it excruciating?” If it doesn’t fit one of those five categories, then it isn’t important.”
—Rhonda Cornum, United States Army Major. As quoted in Newsweek magazine, “Perspectives” page (July 13, 1992)