1-152-120 - Ann Ronan Picture Library/Heritage-Images

Albert I (1875-1934), King of the Belgians from 1909, with his consort, Queen Elisabeth (1876-1965). Albert and Elisabeth, a Bavarian princess, were married in 1900. After the Germans invaded Belgium at the outset of World War I in 1914, the royal couple refused to flee the country. Albert commanded the Belgian army, which held up the Germans for long enough to allow the British and French to halt the German advance at the Marne, as well as ensuring that some Belgian territory remained unconquered. Elisabeth, meanwhile, opened a field hospital in which she worked as a nurse. At the end of the war, Albert and Elisabeth rode into Brussels to a hero's welcome from their subjects. Albert was tragically killed in a mountaineering accident in the Ardennes in 1934 and was succeeded by their eldest son, Leopold III.