Een kwaadaardige koning, zijn tienerprostituee en de duurste villa's ter wereld

This is the story behind two of the largest and most expensive villas in the world — bought with blood money, as gifts to a prostitute-turn-mistress:

The Evil King

Koning Leopold II was de kwaadaardige Belgische koning die Congo uitbuitte. Een pedofiel en blanke supremacist bij uitstek, die ooit werd omschreven als "Satan en Mammon in één persoon". De ambitieuze en hebzuchtige koning gaf in de jaren 1880 het startschot voor de zogenaamde "Wedloop om Afrika" in Europa.

Hij overtuigde de wereld er op sluwe wijze van dat zijn bloedige en enorm lucratieve landroof in Congo humanitaire redenen had. In plaats daarvan was het pure hebzucht en ongeveer 1,1 miljard dollar die hij uit Congo stal, ging op aan de financiering van zijn weelderige levensstijl en het verwennen van zijn minnaressen met geschenken. De wreedheden die hij aanrichtte, bleven jarenlang onbekend voor de buitenwereld. Leopold vertelde de Europese en Amerikaanse mogendheden dat hij alleen in Afrika was om de inheemse bevolking te redden van de Arabische slavenhandelaren en het christendom te brengen naar wat Stanley het "Donkere Continent" noemde.

Because of British weaponry and technology, “a few thousand white men working for the king were able to dominate some twenty million Africans,” according to King Leopold’s GhostZe veranderden Congo in een enorm werkkamp, waar voornamelijk wilde rubber werd geoogst. Iedereen die zich verzette, werd vermoord of kreeg met een machete de handen en voeten afgehakt – inclusief vrouwen en kinderen.

Leopold named his colony Congo Free State, although it was anything but.

But they did more than dominate. Their cruelty—casually burning down villages, shooting Africans for sport, torturing them, amputating limbs, forcing them to work until they keeled over or were lashed to death—was beyond sadistic. One of the weapons of choice was the chicotte, a vicious whip made out of hippopotamus hide that left permanent scars. Twenty strokes of it sent victims into unconsciousness, and a 100 or more strokes were often fatal.

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

The Teenage Prostitute

The King met his mistress, Blanche Zélie Joséphine Delacroix (later bekend als Caroline Lacroix), toen ze een 16-jarige, in Roemenië geboren prostituee was in 1899 (de koning was toen 65). En als nog jonger meisje was ze, in plaats van op school te zitten, de maîtresse van Antoine-Emmanuel Durrieux, een voormalig officier in het Franse leger, die hen beiden onderhield door te wedden op paardenraces. Toen zijn geluk verslechterde, werd hij een soort pooier en prostitueerde hij haar aan welgestelde klanten om zijn gokschulden af te lossen.

One day in 1900, while residing in Paris, Leopold II of Belgium was shopping for yet another mistress and heard of her “attractions”. A meeting was arranged for the following day; Blanche went to a secluded room, where Leopold arrived with two aides who interviewed her. Leopold was pleased and invited Blanche to Austria with him; a large sum of money duly arrived the next day, along with some empty trunks, as Leopold was aware that she loved to buy clothes.

As a mere sixteen-year-old (compared with Leopold’s age of 65), Caroline’s relationship with the old king quickly became public knowledge, causing Leopold to be labeled lecherous and besotted. Though Leopold had previously embarked upon affairs with other mistresses (earning him the nickname ‘The King of Belgians and Beauties’), his affair with Caroline was unique, and the Belgian press in particular enjoyed publicizing their affair for years.

Leopold lavished upon her large sums of money, estates, gifts, and a noble title, 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.

Around this time, Leopold became increasingly criticized for his greed-induced actions in the Congo Free State, which he treated as his own personal colony. Her unpopularity in Belgium increased dramatically once its people began to realize that all of Leopold’s riches from the Congo were not benefiting his country, but rather himself and his young mistress. As she largely profited from the King’s income from the colony, she became known as La reine du Congo (“The Queen of the 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.

Hun verzuim om een burgerlijke huwelijksceremonie te voltrekken, maakte het huwelijk nietig volgens de Belgische wet. Na de dood van de koning werd al snel duidelijk dat hij haar talloze bezittingen, waardevolle bezittingen, Congolese obligaties en andere waardevolle inkomstenbronnen had nagelaten – wat haar allemaal multimiljonair maakte.

Seven short months after Leopold’s death, she married Durrieux, the man who had been pimping her when she was a teenager, and whom she had been cheating on Leopold with throughout their relationship. Durrieux helped her steal the necessary papers to secure her inherited fortune and keep it shielded from Leopold’s other family members.

Jarenlang probeerden de Belgische regering en Leopolds drie vervreemde dochters een deel van deze rijkdom terug te krijgen, met wisselend succes. Omdat het grootste deel van Leopolds rijkdom verborgen bleef, kregen zijn nakomelingen uit eerdere huwelijken uiteindelijk weinig, en zij en Durrieux lachten het laatst.

Caroline and Durrieux divorced soon after, and she was able to keep the bulk of her wealth intact (though she settled with Durrieux and gave him a sum of one million dollars in order to retain custody of her two sons). Various suitors such as Count Boni de Castellane and Gaston Bonnefoy, were reported to be engaged or interested in her, particularly after her divorce.

The Extravagant French Riviera Villas

Nog vóór hij koning der Belgen werd, ontdekte Leopold II de adembenemende schoonheid van de Côte d'Azur. In 1895 verbleef de koning in het Grand Hôtel de Nice en kocht een groot landgoed 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.

Vanaf dat moment werden zijn aankopen gigantisch. Hij betaalde mensen om de omgeving te onderzoeken en stukken grond te koop aan te bieden, en de koning schakelde een tussenpersoon in om de laagste prijs te krijgen. Om zijn extravagantie voor de Belgische burgers te verbergen, deed hij zijn aankopen niet in zijn naam, maar via bedrijven.

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 in 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 werd de villa voor 200 miljoen euro verkocht (voorheen stond het te koop voor 1 miljard euro) aan de rijkste oligarch van Oekraïne.

Here’s the whole story behind this villa: Villa les Cèdres, een controversiële oligarch en een wrede koning.

Want more? Here’s a lijst met beroemde villa's, de beroemdheden die ze bezaten en de gekke dingen die daar gebeurden.