But instead of delivering the ration -- either in actual commodities or in cash -- at intervals of perhaps two weeks or a month, the Belgians felt obliged to dole it out more often.

Not only was his Belgian nationality interesting because of Belgium's occupation by Germany ( which provided a valid explanation of why such a skilled detective would be out of work and available to solve mysteries at an English country house ), but also at the time of Christie's writing, it was considered patriotic to express sympathy with the Belgians, since the invasion of their country had constituted Britain's casus belli for entering World War I, and British wartime propaganda emphasized the " Rape of Belgium ".

People gathered in the forest, at the passage of the steamboat “ Roi des Belges ” (“ King of the Belgians ”) in 1888.

Like the majority of Belgians at that time, his family belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, though were not particularly devout.

All three would prove crushing German victories, at Liege and Namur against the Belgians, at Maubeuge against the French and at Antwerp against a combined Anglo-Belgian force.

Its meaning narrowed yet again during the French and Dutch periods and at Belgian independence the term designated only Belgians speaking a Romance language ( French, Walloon, Picard, etc.

Following the scandal, on October 26, 1996, about 300, 000 Belgians marched in Brussels to protest at the failures of the police force and judicial system in this affair.

On 16 October the Belgians with some French reinforcements began the defence of the French channel ports and what remained of unoccupied Belgium at the Battle of the Yser.

Wounded and derelict British and French soldiers and Belgians and French of military age were hidden from the Germans and provided with false papers by Prince Reginald de Croy at his château of Bellignie near Mons.

Though unpopular at the end of his reign — his funeral cortege was booed — Leopold II is remembered today by many Belgians as the " Builder King " ( Koning-Bouwer in Dutch, le Roi-Bâtisseur in French ) because he commissioned a great number of buildings and urban projects, mainly in Brussels, Ostend and Antwerp.

* Baudouin, Duke of Brabant, Count of Hainaut, Prince of Belgium, who became the fifth King of the Belgians as Baudouin, born at Stuyvenberg on the outskirts of Brussels on 7 September 1930, and died at Motril, Spain on 31 July 1993.

* Léopold Philippe Charles Albert Meinrad Hubertus Marie Miguel, Duke of Brabant, Prince of Belgium, who became later the fourth king of the Belgians as Leopold III ( born 3 November 1901, and died at Woluwe-Saint-Lambert on 25 September 1983 ).

Died of fever on the 9 June 1892 at Chinde on the Zambesi whilst in command of the Katanga Expedition sent out by the King of the Belgians.

The hereditary monarch, at present Albert II, is the head of state and is officially called King of the Belgians (,, ).

As a result of their strengthened position on the lake, the Allies started advancing towards Kigoma by land, and the Belgians established an airbase on the western shore at Albertville.

The only daughter of Leopold I, King of the Belgians ( 1790 – 1865 ) by his second wife, Louise of Orléans, Princess of Orléans ( 1812 – 1850 ), Charlotte was born at the Royal Castle of Laeken in Laeken, Brussels, Belgium.

In Vienna, on 10 May 1881, he married Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, a daughter of King Leopold II of the Belgians, in a state wedding at the Augustinian's Church in Vienna.

The Belgians operated a regular service by a paddle steamer, the Charles Lemaire, between Kasenga on the Luapula and Pweto at the outlet of the Luvua River, a distance of nearly 300 km if a stop at Kilwa was included.

Following that decision, the Belgians decided to alternate their Grand Prix between Zolder and a circuit at Nivelles-Baulers near Brussels.

In his commentaries on the Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar wrote that the Belgians were the bravest of all Gauls, because " merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind ".

Since many Belgians are at least bilingual, or even trilingual, it is common for business, social and family networks to include members of the various ethnic groups composing Belgium.

Amongst the visitors and window shoppers to Matongé are many who appreciate African fashion and the life-style, not least Belgians who have returned home after having spent time in the colony that once was the Belgian Congo.

As a result, the amount of French-speaking people in these regions ( mostly around Brussels ) didn't decline, and contain a growing majority of French-speaking Belgians, even though they reside in the officially monolingual Flanders.

They range from the Soviet Embassy on Sixteenth Street, a gray shuttered pile suggesting a funeral-accessories display house, to what Congressman Rooney has called `` that monstrosity on Thirty-fourth Street '', the modern cement-and-glass chancery of the Belgians.

The colony was administered from Brussels, with neither the Congolese nor the resident Belgians having any vote.

* National Day, celebrates the inauguration of Léopold I, the first king of the Belgians, after its independence from the Netherlands on October 4, 1830.

Only a few Belgians managed to profit from the economic growth.

The UN Security Council was called into session on 7 December 1960 to consider Soviet demands that the UN seek Lumumba's immediate release, the immediate restoration of Lumumba as head of the Congo government, the disarming of the forces of Mobutu, and the immediate evacuation of Belgians from the Congo.

The region's ethnic diversity has been affected by repeated waves of immigrant workers from abroad: Belgians before 1910 ; Poles and Italians in the 1920s and 1930s ; Italians and Germans since 1945 and North Africans and Portuguese since 1960 ; and large cities like Lille, Calais, and Boulogne are home to sizable communities of British, Dutch, Scandinavian, Sub-Saharan African, and Latin American immigrants and their descendants.

Leopold I ( Leopold Georges Chrétien Frederic ; ; Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, later Prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke of Saxony ; 16 December 1790 – 10 December 1865 ) was from 21 July 1831 the first King of the Belgians, following Belgium's independence from the Netherlands.

Leopold III ( born as Léopold Philippe Charles Albert Meinrad Hubertus Marie Miguel ( French ) or Leopold Filips Karel Albert Meinrad Hubertus Maria Miguel ( Dutch ) or Leopold Philipp Karl Albert Meinrad Hubertus Maria Miguel ( German ); 3 November 1901 – 25 September 1983 ) reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the heir apparent, his son Baudouin.

Albert I ( April 8, 1875 – February 17, 1934 ) reigned as King of the Belgians from 1909 through 1934.

Baudouin (, ; 7 September 1930 – 31 July 1993 ) reigned as King of the Belgians, following his father's abdication, from 1951 until his death in 1993.

Of these ' New Belgians ', 1, 200, 00 ( 49 %) are of European ancestry and 1, 350, 000 ( 51 %) are allochtonen i. e. from non-Western countries ( Morocco, Turkey, Congo, Pakistan, Algeria ).

In addition to the original French and English, later settlers included Germans, Belgians and others who came directly from Europe.

Belgians emigrated from there between 1850 and 1860.

A discussion of Belgian culture requires discussing both those aspects of cultural life shared by the Belgians, regardless of what language they speak, and the differences between the main cultural communities: the Flemish people from Flanders and the French-speakers from Brussels and Wallonia — although the grouping of Brussels and Wallonia as one cultural community is sometimes rejected, for instance by the Manifesto for Walloon culture as well as certain regionalists from Brussels.

Henriette and her friends, through bartering and guile, came to travel along Elbe River in a small boat from Waldfield to Coswig, where they were accosted by Russian soldiers and taken to a displaced persons camp populated by Belgians, Dutch, and Italians.

Leopold II of Belgium | Leopold II, King of the Belgians and de facto owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908

In it, a competition between the Belgians and the Gauls from Armorica takes place to decide who was the bravest under the unlikely adjudication of Julius Caesar.

In modern times, from 1831 onwards the substantive title Count of Flanders has been given to younger sons of the Kings of the Belgians ().

As a result, almost all feminine adjectives are phonetically distinct from their masculine counterparts for Belgians.

As early as 1825 his name was mentioned as a possible candidate for the throne of Greece, and in February 1831 he was nominated king of the Belgians, but international considerations deterred Louis-Philippe from accepting the honour for his son, who was accompanying the French army that entered Belgium to support the new kingdom in its separation from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands ; there he took part in the siege of Antwerp.