it was in 1862 , as King of the Belgians , that he made a confession to the Archduke John : the Prince of Prussia has also written to tell me that you regret I have tied myself to Belgium . I too sometimes regret that my part in the east was taken from me . I fancy that I could have done much good there , and though I know the disadvantages of the situation , it very often gives me a kind of nostalgia . how strange my fate has been since we were together in Brighton with the Regent ! if I had taken command of things in England in 1830 , many things would have happened differently , and what was bound to happen would have been more wisely controlled . in his old age , for personal and political reasons , Leopold declared that only Greek interests had inspired his refusal of Greece ; and this was understandable , for when he corrected Gervinus , the throne of Greece was again on the market and he was considering it for a Coburg nephew . besides , since William 4 had lived to 1837 , it was a little ridiculous to admit that in 1830 they had quarrelled over his corpse . on May 21st , 1830 , Leopold declined the throne of Greece . Leopold , snapped Mme de Lieven , has played us a pretty trick . it is a bad business &amp;hellip; . who is going to take what Leopold has refused ? Leopold &apos;s hesitations and problems and his final rejection had created considerable ill-feeling ; and Count Matuszewicz , writing to Stockmar , declared that Prince Leopold has shown so many arri&amp;egrave;re-pens&amp;eacute;es , so much bad faith , so much irresolution , that I rejoice not to see him entrusted with the government of a country in which he would have betrayed the confidence of the three courts &amp;hellip; . there is no difficulty which does not alarm him , no obstacle which does not stop him , no gesture which does not prove that he would have brought to Greece disgust , pusillanimity , and the perpetual regret of having abandoned his so-called chances of the eminent position of Regent of England . it is this regency that he will never obtain , above all now that he has crowned his shame like this &amp;hellip; . such a sovereign would have done damage to royalty . and this scorn and anger were echoed by the correspondent , quoted in the memoirs of Baron Stockmar , who wrote to the Archbishop of Cologne : what does your eminence say to the behaviour of Prince Leopold ? it is quite in the character of the Marquis Peu-&amp;agrave;-Peu , as King George 4 christened him ; instead of conquering difficulties , instead of completing the work he had undertaken , he withdraws like a coward , and calculates the possible chances which the approaching death of King George 4 may throw in his way . a man of this weak character is totally unfit to play a bold part in life . 13 . the Coburg coalition . by May 1830 it was sadly evident that George 4 was dying . his private excesses had largely damaged his reputation among his contemporaries , but after all , his excesses had been those of virility , and his virtues , though less blatant , were very many . he was the most civilized monarch that England had known since Charles 2 : perhaps , indeed , since Elizabeth . he had accepted the dedication of Emma , he had patronized Hoppner and Lawrence , he had added widely to the royal collections . he had inspired Nash to create the classical splendour of Regent &apos;s Park . he had conjured up the Coleridgean fantasies of Brighton ; he had made ( with his architect , Wyattville ) the alterations to Windsor that had turned it into the epitome of castles ; and he had built his own nonesuch , Carlton House . he had been the arbiter of fashion and of taste ; and in all he did he had been a superlative figure , larger than life . he was a born king , and the Marquis Peu-&amp;agrave;-Peu would be a king by training and ambition , not by nature . in May 1830 the jackals were impatient for the bulky , pathetic recluse to die at Windsor ; and Mme de Lieven , of course , was among the foremost . the most delicate question , so she wrote in eager anticipation , will be raised by the death of the King . it will be necessary to make provision for a regency in the case of the Princess Victoria &apos;s minority . the Duke of Cumberland is caballing for it , and Prince Leopold desires it . most probably it will be assigned to the Duchess of Kent , the Princess &apos;s mother , in which case it will be Leopold who will rule . and , since the Russian ambassador &apos;s wife was always sharp about Leopold , she continued briskly : he has given us every reason for dissatisfaction and complaint on account of his conduct in the matter of Greece , and the English government would be glad to follow our lead and to oppose the Prince &apos;s pretensions . this is a line , however , which prudence warns us not to take . he will be powerful some day , and indeed he is so already by the number of his supporters . Mr Creevey likewise shot a barb which touched the truth : I suppose Mrs Kent thinks her daughter &apos;s reign is coming on apace , and that her brother may be of use to her as versus Cumberland &amp;hellip; . George 4 was still clinging to life , William 4 ( almost mad with excitement ) was still waiting in the wings , but the preparations continued gaily for the next reign but one . Lord Durham , added Creevey , is now Prime Minister to the Duchess of Kent and Queen Victoria , and they are getting up all their arrangements together in the Isle of Wight for a new reign . at last , on June 26th , 1830 , the reign of George 4 came to an end , and there began the reign of the simple , genial Grand Admiral - the most remarkable contrast to his brother that could be imagined . England changed her allegiance overnight from a splendid sovereign to an excited , bourgeois little king who could not get over the fact of his accession . the gold-and-lacquer days of the Brighton Pavilion were ended . there are , wrote Croly , the historian , few more regular or temperate men in their habits than the present King . he rises early , sometimes at six &amp;hellip; . at dinner he restricts himself generally to one dish of plain boiled or roasted meat , drinking only sherry , and that in moderation - never exceeding a pint . a quaint King indeed ! was Mme de Lieven &apos;s acid contribution . a bon enfant - with a weak head ! William 4 was sixty-four , he suffered from chronic asthma , and it was quite possible that he might die before May 24th , 1837 ; if he did , if Queen Victoria ( the title sounded well ) - if Queen Victoria came to the throne before her eighteenth birthday , there would have to be a regency . there was only one move to be made now on the chess-board , and Leopold of Coburg would be Prince Regent of the United Kingdom : Regent , that is , in everything but name . the accession to the regency now became quite as important as Victoria &apos;s accession to the throne , and the candidates canvassed for it almost as if they were canvassing in a general election . Prince Leopold and his sister , the Duchess of Kent , are getting popularity in the provinces , snapped Dorothea de Lieven in September . he is much interested in the regency question , and had a long talk with me about it . naturally , he wants it to be given to his sister , but the ministry wish it to pass to the Queen &amp;hellip; . after the King &apos;s death , the Queen , so far as England is concerned , is only a foreigner . as for the Duke of Cumberland , finished Dorothea , he has no illusions and puts forward no claim , clearly seeing that it would be useless . and for once Dorothea de Lieven did not exaggerate . the Duke of Cumberland knew quite well that he was by far the most unpopular royal brother . the others might be more or less eccentric , but he was credited with murder , incest and homosexuality . cartoons ( and they were rough and ribald ) did not spare him : Cumberland was the villain of the age . besides , if his niece became Queen of England , he would receive a crown of his own , for she could not succeed to the kingdom of Hanover . so Queen Adelaide patiently continued her carpet-work at Windsor , and the sailor King , understandably disconcerted to find his death discussed before his coronation , continued to rule the country and propose the Duke of Wellington for the regency . Mrs Kent ( the Swiss governess , George 4 had called her ) , buxom and domineering , with the little Leiningen regency behind her , was courted and sought after as much as if she were already Regent , and Prince Leopold , noted Mme de Lieven , takes a gloomy view of all that is going on . all the royal princes are opposed to the Duke of Wellington . the King is alone in his determination to support him . the combination of the King and the victor of Waterloo was enough , however , to alarm the most spirited opponents ; and the Coburgs needed to keep up a constant campaign . Prince Leopold and his sister , wrote the usual observer , late in September , are exploring the provinces in pursuit of popularity . the prince assumes the air of a presumptive heir . the regency question will in all probability be decided in favour of the Duchess of Kent &amp;hellip; . and since Dorothea never took her piercing eyes off the Coburg coalition , she reported again on October 25th : the Duchess of Kent and her brother hold themselves very high , as if the throne is to be theirs tomorrow - and this is most unpleasant to the King . Leopold does not show himself , but works silently underground . the regency act of 1830 settled , finally , that if the Queen were to have a child and the King died before its majority , she should act as its guardian and as regent ; but that if she were childless and Victoria ascended the throne at her uncle &apos;s death , the Duchess of Kent should be her daughter &apos;s guardian and act as regent during her minority . most fortunately , at this moment fate took a hand with the chess game . in September 1830 revolution broke out in Brussels . 14 . Leopold of the Belgians . on July 29th , revolution had burst out in Paris , Charles 10 had fled , and Louis-Philippe , the ex-Duc d&apos;Orl&amp;eacute;ans , the exile of Twickenham , had accepted the crown from the hands of the people . events in France had had immediate repercussions on Belgium : the repercussions which Leopold , and indeed every student of history , had expected . in 1792 the victory of Jemappes had put Belgium into French hands ; and French ideas had been imposed with effect . division into departments , centralization of government , the introduction of the Code Napol&amp;eacute;on , the freedom of the Scheldt , had done much to help the development of Belgium ; and freedom of worship and civic equality replaced the old principle of the nobles &apos; supremacy . it was not surprising that a considerable French party formed in Belgium ; and its influence only weakened when the continental blockade began to weigh heavily on the country . in 1815 , when the congress of Vienna united the Belgians with the Dutch ( whom they detested ) , the memory of France grew strong again ; and when William 1 of Holland attempted to amalgamate his two peoples , Belgium thought only of separating from Holland and rejoining France . the effect of the French revolution in July 1830 was therefore immediate ; the July days in Paris were followed by the August days in Brussels . on August 24th , at the Brussels opera House , Auber &apos;s Masaniello was being performed . it dealt with the Neapolitan rising against Spain ; it was a work of revolution . and when the tenor began to sing his famous aria , des armes , des flambeaux ! the audience swept out , drunk with the message , into the summer night . Brussels was pillaged , and the Belgian revolution had begun . the spontaneous movement spread across the Belgian provinces , and it took King William some time to organize forces to crush the rebellion . late in September , the Belgian national congress voted the separation of Belgium from Holland , and in October it declared Belgium to be an independent state . 