Um rei malvado, sua prostituta adolescente e as vilas mais caras do mundo

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

O Rei Leopoldo II foi o malvado Rei Belga que explorou o Congo. Um pedófilo e supremacista branco extraordinário, ele já foi apelidado de “Satanás e Mamom em uma pessoa”. O rei ambicioso e ganancioso deu início à chamada “Corrida pela África” da Europa na década de 1880.

Ele astutamente convenceu o mundo de que sua sangrenta e enormemente lucrativa apropriação de terras no Congo era por razões humanitárias. Em vez disso, era pura ganância e aproximadamente 1,1 bilhão que ele roubou do Congo foi para financiar seu estilo de vida luxuoso e mimar suas amantes com presentes. As atrocidades que ele supervisionou foram desconhecidas do mundo exterior por anos. Leopold disse às potências europeias e americanas que ele estava na África apenas para salvar os nativos dos traficantes de escravos árabes e levar o cristianismo ao que Stanley apelidou de "Continente Negro".

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 Ghost. Eles transformaram o Congo em um enorme campo de trabalho forçado, envolvendo principalmente a coleta de borracha selvagem. Quem resistisse era assassinado ou tinha as mãos e os pés cortados com um facão — incluindo mulheres e crianças.

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 (mais tarde conhecida como Caroline Lacroix), quando ela era uma prostituta romena de 16 anos em 1899 (o rei tinha 65 anos na época). E como uma garota ainda mais jovem, em vez de estar na escola, ela era amante de Antoine-Emmanuel Durrieux, um ex-oficial do exército francês, que sustentava os dois apostando em corridas de cavalos. Quando sua sorte azedou, ele se tornou uma espécie de cafetão, prostituindo-a para clientes bem-nascidos para pagar suas dívidas de jogo.

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, barona 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.

A falha deles em realizar uma cerimônia civil tornou o casamento nulo sob a lei belga. Após a morte do rei, logo foi descoberto que ele havia deixado para ela inúmeras propriedades, itens de alto valor material, títulos congoleses e outras fontes valiosas de renda – tudo isso a transformou em uma multimilionária.

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.

Durante anos, o governo belga e as três filhas afastadas de Leopold tentaram recuperar parte dessa riqueza, com sucesso variável. Como a maior parte da riqueza de Leopold estava escondida, seus descendentes de casamentos anteriores receberam muito pouco no final, e ela e Durrieux riram por último.

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

Mesmo antes de se tornar Rei dos Belgas, Leopoldo II descobriu a beleza de tirar o fôlego da Côte d'Azur. Em 1895, o rei ficou no Grand Hôtel de Nice, e comprou uma grande propriedade em 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.

A partir dessa época, suas compras se tornaram gigantescas. Ele pagava pessoas para investigar a área e encontrar pedaços de terra para vender e o rei usava um intermediário para obter o menor preço. Para esconder sua extravagância dos cidadãos da Bélgica, suas compras não eram feitas em seu nome, mas sob empresas.

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 Mônaco 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.

Mais tarde, a vila foi vendida por € 200 milhões (estava no mercado por € 1 bilhão) para o oligarca mais rico da Ucrânia.

Here’s the whole story behind this villa: Villa les Cèdres, um oligarca controverso e um rei cruel.

Want more? Here’s a lista de vilas famosas, as celebridades que os possuíam e as coisas malucas que aconteceram lá.