Une Paix royale
On September 22, 1995, after two lawsuits, Princess Lilian and Prince Alexandre of Belgium obtained that the novel Une paix royale by Pierre Mertens should be expurgated of those passages they judged to be libellous and offensive.
The books written by this well-known author are often constructed around an ‘interlacing’ of biographical elements and history.
In this case, he treats the controversial life of King Leopold III. The book’s great success incited his widow, Lilian, to denounce the use of living people ‘in the guise of fiction’.
Before the hearing, Le Seuil ordered reprints to be made, which irritated the judge in charge of the case.
During the scandal, some Belgian journalists wondered why the Princess was bringing a lawsuit against Mertens, because his book had rather reinstated Léopold III ‘by making the king a tragic hero’. (La Libre Belgique, 19 December, 1996).