An Evil King, His Teenage Prostitute & the Most Expensive Villas in the World

Questa è la storia dietro due delle ville più grandi e costose del mondo, acquistate con denaro insanguinato, come dono a una prostituta diventata amante:

Il re malvagio

King Leopold II was the evil Belgian King who exploited the Congo. A pedophile and white supremacist extraordinaire, he was once dubbed “Satan and Mammon in one person.” The ambitious and greedy king kick-started Europe’s so-called “Scramble for Africa” in the 1880s.

He shrewdly convinced the world that his bloody and enormously lucrative land-grab in the Congo was for humanitarian reasons. Instead, it was pure greed and approximately 1.1 billion he stole from the Congo went to financing his lavish lifestyle and spoiling his mistresses with gifts. The atrocities he oversaw were unknown to the outside world for years. Leopold told European and American powers that he was only in Africa to save the natives from the Arab slavers and bring Christianity to what Stanley dubbed the “Dark Continent.”

Grazie agli armamenti e alla tecnologia britannica, “qualche migliaio di uomini bianchi che lavoravano per il re furono in grado di dominare circa venti milioni di africani”, secondoIl fantasma di re Leopoldo. They turned the Congo into a massive forced labor camp, mainly involving the harvesting of wild rubber. Whomever resisted was either murdered or had their hands and feet chopped off with a machete — including women and children.

Leopold chiamò la sua colonia Stato Libero del Congo, anche se era tutt'altro.

Ma hanno fatto di più che dominare. La loro crudeltà – bruciare villaggi, sparare agli africani per sport, torturarli, amputare arti, costringerli a lavorare finché non crollavano o venivano frustati a morte – era più che sadica. Una delle armi preferite era la chicotte, una feroce frusta fatta di pelle di ippopotamo che lasciava cicatrici permanenti. Venti colpi mandavano le vittime in stato di incoscienza e 100 o più colpi erano spesso fatali.

If all that wasn’t bad enough, Leopold had a Jeffrey Epstein-like penchant for underage, preferably ‘virginal’ girls….

La prostituta adolescente

Il re incontrò la sua amante, Blanche Zélie Joséphine Delacroix (later known as Caroline Lacroix), when she was a 16-year-old Romanian-born prostitute 1899 (the King was 65 at the time). And as an even younger girl, instead of being in school, she was the mistress of Antoine-Emmanuel Durrieux, a former officer in the French army, who supported the two of them by betting on horse races. When his luck soured, he became a form of pimp, prostituting her to well-born clients to pay his gambling debts.

Un giorno del 1900, mentre risiedeva a Parigi, Leopoldo II del Belgio stava facendo acquisti per un'altra amante e sentì parlare delle sue "attrazioni". Fu fissato un incontro per il giorno successivo; Blanche si recò in una stanza appartata, dove Leopold arrivò con due assistenti che la intervistarono. Leopold ne fu contento e invitò Blanche in Austria con lui; il giorno dopo arrivò regolarmente una grossa somma di denaro, insieme ad alcuni bauli vuoti, poiché Leopold sapeva che le piaceva comprare vestiti.

All'età di soli sedici anni (rispetto ai 65 di Leopoldo), la relazione di Carolina con il vecchio re divenne rapidamente di pubblico dominio, facendo sì che Leopoldo fosse etichettato come lascivo e infatuato. Sebbene Leopoldo avesse precedentemente intrapreso relazioni con altre amanti (guadagnandosi il soprannome di "Re dei Belgi e delle Bellezze"), la sua relazione con Caroline fu unica, e la stampa belga in particolare si divertì a pubblicizzare la loro relazione per anni.

Leopoldo le elargì ingenti somme di denaro, possedimenti, doni e un titolo nobiliare,baronne de Vaughan (Baroness Vaughan), as well as gifting her Villa Leopolda in 1902. She frequently traveled to Paris to visit her dress- and hat-maker, once bragging that she spent three million francs on dresses at a single store on one occasion. Because of these presents, she was deeply unpopular both among the Belgian people and internationally.

In questo periodo, Leopoldo fu sempre più criticato per le sue azioni indotte dall'avidità nello Stato libero del Congo, che trattava come la sua colonia personale. La sua impopolarità in Belgio aumentò drammaticamente quando la sua gente cominciò a rendersi conto che tutte le ricchezze di Leopoldo provenienti dal Congo non andavano a beneficio del suo paese, ma piuttosto di lui e della sua giovane amante. Poiché traeva in gran parte profitto dalle entrate del re dalla colonia, divenne nota comeLa regina del Congo("La regina del Congo").

She later gave birth to the King’s two illegitimate sons (one birth happened at the villa Les Cèdres).

She and Leopold married in a religious ceremony when he was 74-years-old. He died just five days later.

Their failure to perform a civil ceremony rendered the marriage void under Belgian law. After the King’s death, it was soon discovered that he had left her numerous properties, items of high material value, Congolese bonds, and other valuable sources of income – all of which turned her into a multimillionaire.

Sette mesi dopo la morte di Leopold, sposò Durrieux, l'uomo che l'aveva sfruttata quando era adolescente e con il quale aveva tradito Leopold durante tutta la loro relazione. Durrieux l'ha aiutata a rubare i documenti necessari per proteggere la sua fortuna ereditata e tenerla protetta dagli altri membri della famiglia di Leopold.

For years, the Belgian government and Leopold’s three estranged daughters attempted to recover some of this wealth, with varying success. Since most of Leopold’s wealth was hidden, his offspring from previous marriages received very little in the end, and she and Durrieux got the last laugh.

Caroline e Durrieux divorziarono subito dopo e lei riuscì a mantenere intatta la maggior parte della sua ricchezza (anche se si stabilì con Durrieux e gli diede una somma di un milione di dollari per mantenere la custodia dei suoi due figli). Si dice che vari corteggiatori come il conte Boni de Castellane e Gaston Bonnefoy fossero fidanzati o interessati a lei, in particolare dopo il suo divorzio.

Le stravaganti ville della Costa Azzurra

Even before becoming King of the Belgians, Leopold II discovered the breathtaking beauty of the Côte d’Azur. In 1895, the king stayed at the Grand Hôtel de Nice, and purchased a big property in Villefranche.

Léopold II first became interested in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat in 1899. He initially bought a small villa (which today is called Ibéria) close to the Passable area, with a private port which allowed him to moor his yacht Clementine during his trips to the Cote d’Azur.

From this time, his purchases became gigantic. He paid people to investigate the area and to find pieces of land for sale and the king used an intermediary to obtain the lowest price. To hide his extravagance from the citizens of Belgium, his purchases were not done in his name, but under companies.

After a few years, the king of Belgium found himself the owner of the whole of the west side of the Cap Ferrat — more than 50 hectares. Fortunately, Leopold is only a footnote on today’s Cap Ferrat, where his legacy is buried in the past and where the beauty of the villas live on despite their provenance. Here are the stories behind the two most significant villas:

La Leopolda a Villefranche Sur Mer

Purchased by King Leopold II of Belgium in 1902, it Villa Leopolda stands on a 50-acre estate on some of the most expensive land on the French Riviera. Described as the third-largest home in the world, the sprawling property has 19 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, multiple swimming pools, a bowling alley, a movie theater and an twenty-acre orchard of olive and fruit trees that require a team of 50 full-time gardeners just to care for it. The villa is not only known to have the best sea views in the south of France, but it also sits on 10 acres of immaculate grounds that run right down to the resort of Villefranche-sur-Mer.

Later, the villa was owned by a woman who made her money through inheritance from two husbands who were murdered under very suspicious circumstances, leaving many to believe that she killed them. She went from living in poverty in Brazil, to living in Monaco as one of the world’s wealthiest women.

Here’s the incredible story behind this villa: Villa Leopolda and Murder in a Monaco Penthouse.

Les Cèdres in Cap Ferrat

Despite turning Les Cèdres into a paradise, King Leopold II chose to live in Monaco instead, and Cap Ferrat became home to his teenage mistress. Cap Ferrat was the ideal spot for an illicit love affair, well-hidden from prying eyes. The King set Blanche up at the ex-villa Vial at Passable, renamed the “Radiana” until his expansion and renovation project was completed and it was renamed to “Les Cèdres”. A golden prison with panoramic sea views lost in the midst of luxuriant vegetation. Blanche spent her days at Les Cèdres alone, waiting for her royal lover who forbade her to go out or to receive other visitors.

Later, the villa was sold for €200 million (it had been on the market for €1 billion) to the Ukraine’s most wealthy oligarch.

Here’s the whole story behind this villa: Villa les Cèdres, a Controversial Oligarch, and a Cruel King.

Want more? Here’s a list of famous villas, the celebrities who owned them, and the crazy things that happened there.