“There is nothing that adds more lustre to a prince than having efficient officers.”
Stefano Guazzo (1530–1593) Italian writer
De' Magistrati, p. 117.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 380.
“There is nothing that adds more lustre to a prince than having efficient officers.”
Stefano Guazzo (1530–1593) Italian writer
De' Magistrati, p. 117.
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 380.
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
Jesus, as portrayed in Preface, Difference Between Reader And Spectator
1930s, On the Rocks (1933)
Context: Law is blind without counsel. The counsel men agree with is vain: it is only the echo of their own voices. A million echoes will not help you to rule righteously. But he who does not fear you and shews you the other side is a pearl of the greatest price. Slay me and you go blind to your damnation. The greatest of God's names is Counsellor; and when your Empire is dust and your name a byword among the nations the temples of the living God shall still ring with his praise as Wonderful! Counsellor! the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
“The poorest ploughman is in Christ equal with the greatest prince that is.”
Hugh Latimer (1485–1555) British bishop
Sermons (1844) Cambridge University Press
Context: The poorest ploughman is in Christ equal with the greatest prince that is. Let them therefore have sufficient to maintain them…
Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 17
Context: Still, a prince should make himself feared in such a way that if he does not gain love, he at any rate avoids hatred; for fear and the absence of hatred may well go together, and will be always attained by one who abstains from interfering with the property of his citizens and subjects or with their women. And when he is obliged to take the life of any one, to do so when there is a proper justification and manifest reason for it; but above all he must abstain from taking the property of others, for men forget more easily the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony. Then also pretexts for seizing property are never wanting, and one who begins to live by rapine will always find some reason for taking the goods of others, whereas causes for taking life are rarer and more quickly destroyed.
“5698. Who draws his Sword against his Prince, must throw away the Scabbard.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Joyce Kilmer Trees and Other Poems
"Memorial Day"; this poem was later published in The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920)
Trees and Other Poems (1914)
Context: The bugle echoes shrill and sweet,
But not of war it sings to-day.
The road is rhythmic with the feet
Of men-at-arms who come to pray. The roses blossom white and red
On tombs where weary soldiers lie;
Flags wave above the honored dead
And martial music cleaves the sky. Above their wreath-strewn graves we kneel,
They kept the faith and fought the fight.
Through flying lead and crimson steel
They plunged for Freedom and the Right. May we, their grateful children, learn
Their strength, who lie beneath this sod,
Who went through fire and death to earn
At last the accolade of God.In shining rank on rank arrayed
They march, the legions of the Lord;
He is their Captain unafraid,
The Prince of Peace... Who brought a sword.</p
Morris West (1916–1999) Australian writer
The Heretic (1968)
Context: No man — prince, peasant, pope, — has all the light, who says else is a mountebank. I claim no private lien on truth, only a liberty to seek it, prove it in debate, and to be wrong a thousand times to reach a single rightness. It is that liberty they fear. They want us to be driven to God like sheep, not running to him like lovers, shouting joy!
John Ogilby (1600–1676) Scottish academic
Fab. IX: Of the Lyon and the Mouse, Moral
The Fables of Aesop (2nd ed. 1668)
G. K. Chesterton book What I Saw in America
"The Future of Democracy" http://www.online-literature.com/chesterton/what-i-saw-in-america/19/ <br class="br">What I Saw in America (1922) <br class="br">Context: The last hundred years has seen a general decline in the democratic idea. If there be anybody left to whom this historical truth appears a paradox, it is only because during that period nobody has been taught history, least of all the history of ideas. If a sort of intellectual inquisition had been established, for the definition and differentiation of heresies, it would have been found that the original republican orthodoxy had suffered more and more from secessions, schisms, and backslidings. The highest point of democratic idealism and conviction was towards the end of the eighteenth century, when the American Republic was 'dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal.' It was then that the largest number of men had the most serious sort of conviction that the political problem could be solved by the vote of peoples instead of the arbitrary power of princes and privileged orders.
William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer
Jim Dandy : Fat Man in a Famine (1947)
Context: Somewhere among every man's ancestors is a prince or a lord, a priest or a saint, and don't forget it. Wake up! Inherit the wealth of your ancestors!.. Stop living like a mouse, live like the rich people do.
“Song for Prince Charles, performed with Robin Williams on We Are Most Amused”
Bill Bailey (1965) English comedian, musician, actor, TV and radio presenter and author
2008
Lyrics
Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 19: 'That one should avoid being despised and hated'
Context: The prince must consider, as has been in part said before, how to avoid those things which will make him hated or contemptible; and as often as he shall have succeeded he will have fulfilled his part, and he need not fear any danger in other reproaches. It makes him hated above all things, as I have said, to be rapacious, and to be a violator of the property and women of his subjects, from both of which he must abstain. And when neither their property nor honour is touched, the majority of men live content, and he has only to contend with the ambition of a few, whom he can curb with ease in many ways. It makes him contemptible to be considered fickle, frivolous, effeminate, mean-spirited, irresolute, from all of which a prince should guard himself as from a rock; and he should endeavour to show in his actions greatness, courage, gravity, and fortitude; and in his private dealings with his subjects let him show that his judgments are irrevocable, and maintain himself in such reputation that no one can hope either to deceive him or to get round him. That prince is highly esteemed who conveys this impression of himself, and he who is highly esteemed is not easily conspired against; for, provided it is well known that he is an excellent man and revered by his people, he can only be attacked with difficulty.
Walter M. Miller, Jr. book A Canticle for Leibowitz
Ch 6
A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959), Fiat Homo
Context: It was said that God, in order to test mankind which had become swelled with pride as in the time of Noah, had commanded the wise men of that age, among them the Blessed Leibowitz, to devise great engines of war such as had never before been upon the Earth, weapons of such might that they contained the very fires of Hell, and that God had suffered these magi to place the weapons in the hands of princes, and to say to each prince: "Only because the enemies have such a thing have we devised this for thee, in order that they may know that thou hast it also, and fear to strike. See to it, m'Lord, that thou fearest them as much as they shall now fear thee, that none may unleash this dread thing which we have wrought." But the princes, putting the words of their wise men to naught, thought each to himself: If I but strike quickly enough, and in secret, I shall destroy these others in their sleep, and there will be none to fight back; the earth shall be mine.
Such was the folly of princes, and there followed the Flame Deluge.
David Lipscomb (1831–1917) Leader, American Restoration Movement
Source: Civil Government : Its Origin, Mission, and Destiny (1889), p. 73
Context: Human government, the embodied effort of man to rule the world without God, ruled over by "the prince of this world," the devil. Its mission is to execute wrath and vengeance here on earth. Human government bears the same relation to hell as the church bears to heaven.
“We are not princes of the earth, we are the descendants of worms, and any nobility must be earned.”
PZ Myers (1957) American scientist and associate professor of biology
Context: Look at the bible as a pastiche, a collection of mutually and often internally inconsistent fragments slapped together for crude reasons of politics and art and priestly self-promotion and sometimes beauty and a lot of chest-thumping tribalism, and through that lens, it makes a lot of sense. It does tell us something important…about us, not some fantastic mythological being. It tells us that we are fractious, arrogant, scrappy people who sometimes accomplish great things and more often cause grief and pain to one another. We want to be special in a universe that is uncaring and cold, and in which the nature of our existence is a transient flicker, so we invent these strange stories of grand beginnings, like every orphan dreaming that they are the children of kings who will one day ride up on a white horse and take them away to a beautiful palace and a rich and healthy family that will love them forever. We are not princes of the earth, we are the descendants of worms, and any nobility must be earned.
Julian (emperor) (331–363) Roman Emperor, philosopher and writer
The Caesars (c. 361)
Context: The trial that begins
Awards to him who wins
The fairest prize to-day.
And lo, the hour is here
And summons you. Appear!
Ye may no more delay.
Come hear the herald's call
Ye princes one and all.
Many tribes of men
Submissive to you then!
How keen in war your swords!
But now 'tis wisdom's turn;
Now let your rivals learn
How keen can be your words.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States
1930s, Speech to the Democratic National Convention (1936)
Context: It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.
“A prince is just
a conceit until he does something with generosity.”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
"The Far Mosque" in Ch. 17 : Solomon Poems, p. 191
The Essential Rumi (1995)
Context: This heart sanctuary does
exist, but it can't be described. Why try! Solomon goes there every morning and gives guidance
with words, with musical harmonies, and in actions,
which are the deepest teaching. A prince is just
a conceit until he does something with generosity.
Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 14; Variant: A prince should therefore have no other aim or thought, nor take up any other thing for his study but war and it organization and discipline, for that is the only art that is necessary to one who commands.
Context: A prince ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank. And, on the contrary, it is seen that when princes have thought more of ease than of arms they have lost their states. And the first cause of your losing it is to neglect this art; and what enables you to acquire a state is to be master of the art.
Algernon Sidney (1623–1683) British politician and political theorist
Source: Discourses Concerning Government (1689), Ch. 3, Sect. 3.
Context: If these rules have not been well observed in the first constitution, or from the changes of times, corruption of manners, insensible encroachments, or violent usurpations of princes, have been rendered ineffectual, and the people exposed to all the calamities that may be brought upon them by the weakness, vices, and malice of the prince, or those who govern him, I confess the remedies are more difficult and dangerous; but even in those cases they must be tried. Nothing can be feared that is worse than what is suffered, or must in a short time fall upon those who are in this condition. They who are already fallen into all that is odious, shameful, and miserable, cannot justly fear. When things are brought to such a pass, the boldest counsels are the most safe; and if they must perish who lie still, and they can but perish who are most active, the choice is easily made. Let the danger be never so great, there is a possibility of safety, whilst men have life, hands, arms, and courage to use them; but that people must certainly perish, who tamely suffer themselves to be oppressed, either by the injustice, cruelty, and malice of an ill magistrate, or by those who prevail upon the vices and infirmities of weak princes. It is in vain to say, that this may give occasion to men of raising tumults, or civil war; for tho' these are evils, yet they are not the greatest of evils. Civil war, in Macchiavel's account, is a disease; but tyranny is the death of a state. Gentle ways are first to be used, and it is best if the work can be done by them; but it must not be left undone, if they fail. It is good to use supplications, advices, and remonstrances; but those who have no regard to justice, and will not hearken to counsel, must be constrained. It is folly to deal otherwise with a man who will not be guided by reason, and a magistrate who despises the law; or rather, to think him a man, who rejects the essential principle of a man; or to account him a magistrate, who overthrows the law by which he is a magistrate. This is the last result; but those nations must come to it, which cannot otherwise be preserved.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States
1930s, Quarantine Speech (1937)
Context: If civilization is to survive, the principles of the Prince of Peace must be restored. Shattered trust between nations must be revived. Most important of all, the will for peace on the part of peace-loving nations must express itself to the end that nations that may be tempted to violate their agreements and the rights of others will desist from such a cause. There must be positive endeavors to preserve peace. America hates war. America hopes for peace. Therefore, America actively engages in the search for peace.
Henry George (1839–1897) American economist
Introduction : The Reason for the Examination
A Perplexed Philosopher (1892)
Context: The respect for authority, the presumption in favor of those who have won intellectual reputation, is within reasonable limits, both prudent and becoming. But it should not be carried too far, and there are some things especially as to which it behooves us all to use our own judgment and to maintain free minds. For not only does the history of the world show that undue deference to authority has been the potent agency through which errors have been enthroned and superstitions perpetuated, but there are regions of thought in which the largest powers and the greatest acquirements cannot guard against aberrations or assure deeper insight. One may stand on a box and look over the heads of his fellows, but he no better sees the stars. The telescope and the microscope reveal depths which to the unassisted vision are closed. Yet not merely do they bring us no nearer to the cause of suns and animal-cula, but in looking through them the observer must shut his eyes to what lies about him. That intension is at the expense of extension is seen in the mental as in the physical sphere. A man of special learning may be a fool as to common relations. And that he who passes for an intellectual prince may be a moral pauper there are examples enough to show.
“A princelier-looking man never stept thro' a prince's hall.”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) British poet laureate
The Wreck, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)
Joel Barlow (1754–1812) American diplomat
The Conspiracy of Kings (1792)
Context: See the long pomp in gorgeous glare display'd,
The tinsel'd guards, the squadron'd horse parade;
See heralds gay, with emblems on their vest,
In tissu'd robes, tall, beauteous pages drest;
Amid superior ranks of splendid slaves,
Lords, Dukes and Princes, titulary knaves,
Confus'dly shine their crosses, gems and stars,
Sceptres and globes and crowns and spoils of wars.
Devdutt Pattanaik (1970) Indian physician; leadership consultant, mythologist and author
Source: The Book of Ram, p. 3
Iltutmish (1210–1236) Sultan of Mamluk Sultanate
Tãrîkh-i-Firishta by Firishta. Sultãn Shamsu’d-Dîn Iltutmish (AD 1210-1236) Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh)
Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament
Vol. 1, Chap. 10.
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire: Volume 1 (1776)
Alessandro Cagliostro (1743–1795) Italian occultist
Balsamo the Magician (or The Memoirs of a Physician) by Alex. Dumas (1891)
Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793) politician and journalist during the French Revolution
THE CHAINS OF SLAVERY
Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor
Inscription on Mosque at Bodhan, Andhra Pradesh, Epigraphia Indo-Moslemica, 1919-1920 quoted from Shourie, A., & Goel, S. R. (1993). Hindu temples: What happened to them. Vol. II.
Quotes from late medieval histories
Giannina Braschi book United States of Banana
United States of Banana (2011)
Claude Louis Hector de Villars (1653–1734) Marshal General of France
Also quoted by Voltaire ("Voulez-vous que je vous dise où sont les vrais ennemis du Prince Eugene? Ils sont à Vienne, et les miens à Versailles.")
Source: https://www.bartleby.com/344/391.html
Mahmud of Ghazni (971–1030) Sultan of Ghazni
AH 416. He ordered the upper part to be broken and the remainder to be transported to his residence, Ghaznin, with all its coverings and trappings of gold, jewels, and embroidered garments. Part of it has been thrown into the hippodrome of the town, together with the Cakrasvamin, an idol of bronze, that had been brought from Taneshar. Another part of the idol from Somanath lies before the door of the mosque of Ghaznin, on which people rub their feet to clean them from dirt and wet.
E.C. Sachau (tr.), Alberuni's India, New Delhi Reprint, 1983, p. 102-103
Sack of Somnath (1025 CE)
Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic
Book 2 “Esbern Snare: The Northern Werewolf,” Chapter 1 “Consequences of Ill-Considered Dealings With the Supernatural” (p. 218)
The Elric Cycle, The Revenge of the Rose (1991)
Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic
Book 3, Chapter 7 “The Irony of It” (p. 413)
The Elric Cycle, The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)
Alfred von Waldersee (1832–1904) Prussian Field Marshal
Waldersee in his diary, 6 December 1883, quoted in Walter R. Pierce, Herr und Heer: The German Social Democrats and the Officer Corps, A Reappraisal
Dharma Raja (1724–1798) Maharaja of Travancore
A History of Travancore from the Earliest Times" by P.S. Menon. 1878. https://archive.org/stream/ahistorytravanc00menogoog/ahistorytravanc00menogoog_djvu.txt
Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786) king of Prussia
Historie vom Jahre 1746, quoted in W. W. Coole (ed.), Thus Spake Germany (London: George Routledge & Sons, 1941), p. 82
Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Original: (it) E però un principe savio deve pensare un modo per il quale i suoi cittadini sempre ed in ogni modo e qualità di tempo abbiano bisogno dello Stato di lui, e sempre poi gli saranno fedeli.
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 9; translated by W. K. Marriot
Ahmad Sirhindi (1564–1624) Indian philosopher
Javed Ansari:India: The World’s ‘Largest Democracy’, in Arabia: The Islamic Review, December 1981.
Norodom Ranariddh (1944) Cambodian politician
by Sam Rainsy, President of Sam Rainsy Party in November 2006.
[Vong Sokheng and Charles McDermid, http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/funcinpec-prince-hails-royalist-cpp, Funcinpec prince hails 'Royalist' CPP, 3 November 2006, 28 August 2015, Phnom Penh Post]
Norodom Ranariddh (1944) Cambodian politician
by Sisowath Thomico, President of the Sangkum Jatiniyum Front Party in November 2006
[Vong Sokheng and Charles McDermid, http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/funcinpec-prince-hails-royalist-cpp, Funcinpec prince hails 'Royalist' CPP, 3 November 2006, 28 August 2015, Phnom Penh Post]
Norodom Ranariddh (1944) Cambodian politician
by Ung Huot, Ranariddh's successor as First Prime Minister of Cambodia in August 1997
[Conflict and Change in Cambodia, Kiernan, Ben and Hughes, Caroline, 2007, Routledge, 9780415385923], p. 36.
“You are the elayaraja (crown prince) of Travancore?”
Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma (1922–2013) Maharaja of Travancore
She then recollected our first meeting years back in England. I was amazed when she asked if Travancore was in the southern tip of India?
After exchanging pleasantries with the Queen, quoted in "When 'Maharaja of Travancore' met Queen Elizabeth II (8 July 2012)".
Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866–1915) social and political leader during the Indian Independence Movement
B.G.Tilak in "Guru and Chela".
Rufus Wainwright (1973) American-Canadian singer-songwriter and composer
Gavin Friday, [July 16, 2012, http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/everybody-loves-rufus-3168433.html, everybody loves rufus]
Al-Biruni book Alberuni's India
AH 416. He ordered the upper part to be broken and the remainder to be transported to his residence, Ghaznin, with all its coverings and trappings of gold, jewels, and embroidered garments. Part of it has been thrown into the hippodrome of the town, together with the Cakrasvamin, an idol of bronze, that had been brought from Taneshar. Another part of the idol from Somanath lies before the door of the mosque of Ghaznin, on which people rub their feet to clean them from dirt and wet.
Source: E.C. Sachau (tr.), Alberuni's India, New Delhi Reprint, 1983
Peter Beckford (1643–1710) Governor of Jamaica
"I would have you to know Mr. Doctor" replied Salvator, " that I can more easily instruct you in the cure of your tickt than you can me in the art I profess, being a much better Painter than you are a Physician.'
Ignatius Sancho (1729–1780) British composer, writer and grocer
thou wantest nothing- more than, what's in thy possession, or in thy power to possess:- I would neither give thee Money, nor Territory, Women, nor Horses, nor Camels, nor the height of Asiatic pride, Elephants;- I would give thee Books
(from vol 2, letter 60: 5 Jan 1780, to Mr J. W___e [still in India] ).
Arthur C. Clarke book Patent Pending
Patent Pending, p. 508
2000s and posthumous publications, The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001)
Imru' al-Qais (501–544) Arabic Poet
Diwan of Imru' al-Qays, Poem 2, quoted in Dictionary of Literary Biography, p. 213
The Poem of Imru' al-Qais
Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) German statesman, Chancellor of Germany
He undertook to be the protector of the poor, and this principle has been followed by our later kings. At their throne suffering has always found a refuge and a hearing. ... Our kings have secured the emancipation of the serfs, they have created a thriving peasantry, and they may possibly be successful—the earnest endeavour exists, at any rate—in improving the condition of the working classes somewhat. To have refused access to the throne to the complaints of these operatives would not have been the right course to pursue, and it was, moreover, not my business to do it. The question would afterwards have been asked: “How rich must a deputation be in order to its reception by the King?”
Speech to the Prussian United Diet in answer to the petition of Wüstegiersdorf weavers (1865), quoted in W. H. Dawson, Bismarck and State Socialism: An Exposition of the Social and Economic Legislation of Germany since 1870 (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1891), p. 31
1860s
Niccolo Machiavelli book The Prince
Source: The Prince (1513), Ch. 18; translated by Peter Bondanella
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author
The Essays Or Counsels, Civil And Moral, Of Francis Ld. Verulam Viscount St. Albans (1857), Of Empire
Aurangzeb (1618–1707) Sixth Mughal Emperor
(Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 232.) The Bombay Gazetteer, vol. I. pt, I. p. 280, adds that he slaughtered a cow in the temple, but Shah Jahan ordered the building to be restored to the Hindus.
Quotes from late medieval histories, 1660s
Source: Sarkar, Jadunath (1972). History of Aurangzib: Volume III. App. V.
James K. Morrow (1947) (1947-) science fiction author
Source: Blameless in Abaddon (1996), Chapter 15 (p. 402; spoken by the Devil)
James K. Morrow (1947) (1947-) science fiction author
Source: Blameless in Abaddon (1996), Chapter 11 (p. 253; spoken by the Devil)
Joyce Kilmer Trees and Other Poems
"Memorial Day"; this poem was later published in The Army and Navy Hymnal (1920)
Trees and Other Poems (1914)
Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858–1947) America born English businessman
The Romance of Commerce (1918), A Representative Business of the Twentieth Century
“Those who touch the sceptres of princes deserve no pity.”
Elizabeth I of England (1533–1603) Queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until 1603
Remarks to the French ambassador on Charles de Gontaut, duc de Biron's rebellion against Henry IV of France (c. July 1602), quoted in J. E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth [1934] (1942), p. 364
Charles Wesley (1707–1788) English Methodist and hymn writer
"Hymn for Christmas-Day"
Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739)
Pierre Emmanuel Félix Chazal (1808–1892) Belgian politician (1808-1892)
Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The Importance of General Chazal in Colonial Politics. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 KMLKG, Papiers Chazal, 65/1, Chazal aan de hertog van Brabant, 28 juni 1859.
Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) King of the Belgians
Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), 5. A prospectus by the military Chazal and Brialmont, The Importance of General Chazal in Colonial Politics. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 KMLKG, Papiers Chazal, 65/1, Chazal aan de hertog van Brabant, 28 juni 1859.
Louis Philippe I (1773–1850) King of the French
Source: Belgium since the Revolution of 1830, Page 226. https://be1830.be/onewebmedia/Belgi%C3%AB_sedert_de_omwenteling_in_1830%20I.pdf The French King Rejects 'Duke August van Leuchtenberg' as possible canidate for the Belgian throne.