Louise-Marie Thérèse Charlotte Isabelle of Orléans (3 April 1812 – 11 October 1850) was the first queen of the Belgians as the second wife of King Leopold I from their marriage on 9 August 1832 until her death in 1850. She was the second child and eldest daughter of the French king Louis Philippe I and his wife, Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies. Louise rarely participated in public representation, but acted as the political adviser of her spouse. Her large correspondence is a valuable historical source of the period and has been published. Life Born in Palermo, Sicily, on 3 April 1812, she was the eldest daughter of the future Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, and of his wife Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies. As a child, she had a religious and bourgeoisie education thanks to the part played by her mother and her aunt, Princess Adélaïde of Orléans, to whom she was very close. She was given a strict religious upbringing by her aunt. She also learned to speak English, German, Dutch and Italian. As a member of the reigning House of Orléans, she was entitled to the rank of a Princess of the Blood Royal. Marriage In 1830, her father became King of the French. Her position thus changed and her status was raised to that of the eldest daughter of a king. On 9 August 1832, the twenty-year-old Louise married King Leopold I of the Belgians, who was twenty-two years her senior, at the Compiègne Palace. Leopold had been widowed after the death of his first wife, Princess Charlotte of Wales, in childbirth in 1817. Since Leopold was a Protestant, The marriage had been suggested already when Leopold was considered for the throne of Greece, and was repeated when he was elected king of the Belgians instead of Louise's brother the duke of Nemours. The marriage created an alliance between two newly elected and less established monarchs, her father and spouse, and was thus seen suitable. Louise's mother disliked the marriage because Leopold was a Protestant, but since Louise's father was a new monarch and his position weak in the eyes of other monarchs, the marriage was considered favorable for the new French Orléans dynasty, as it might then become easier for Louise's siblings to marry members of established dynasties. While the marriage was arranged against Louise's will, and she was unhappy to leave