Prince Leopold was the uncle of both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. His first marriage in 1816 was to Princess Charlotte, Victoria’s cousin, who died in childbirth in 1817. In 1830 he accepted the invitation from the newly independent Belgians to be their king. He was very close to Queen Victoria, had supported the Queen and her mother in the difficult days before her accession, and ‘looked very sharp after the poor little baby’ when her father, the Duke of Kent, died in 1820. He also played an important role in negotiating her marriage to Prince Albert, his nephew.

The Royal Collection also has a landscape etching by Leopold I (RCIN 814410), and three impressions of his etching of trees (RCIN 816332, 816415, 816800). This painted landscape depicts a rocks, cliffs and outcrops at the water's edge; in the foreground are three rowing boats, a fisherman's hut and nets draped over a wooden pole structure; on the left a flight of steps leads to a stone building and a path.