Charles of Flanders

The "Famed Four" among European Princes are:

Edward of Wales (Britain) Umberto of Piedmont (Italy) Alfonso of the Asturias (Spain) Leopold of Brabant (Belgium)

Each of these youths is heir to a Throne. Each has been mooned at and photographed ad nauseam. Therefore smart folk hailed with relief, last week, the definitive emergence of a fifth and little known prince: Charles of Flanders. Though he is not a Crown Prince, but the second son of King Albert of the Belgians, he officiated with the grace and freshness of youth, last week, at ceremonies which marked a pilgrimage to Belgium of 15,000 British Legionairies.

Edward of Wales had crossed the Channel for the occasion, but, though he was welcomed cordially, louder Belgian cheers rang out for Charles of Flanders. Even Britons were glad that this keen, upstanding Prince had been pushed to the fore by the fact that King Albert and Queen Elizabeth are now returning from Africa, after touring the Belgian Congo (TIME, Aug. 6).

Many of the Legionairies, while en route to Belgium, stopped off to visit and some to picnic at Vimy Ridge, in France. Thence they proceeded to Ypres, Belgium, and assembled around the famed Menin Gate, an imposing War memorial almost covered by the inscribed names of more than 55,000 British Dead. Into a radio microphone, set up in the roadway before Menin Gate, spoke Charles of Flanders, Edward of Wales, and finally the Archbishop of York.

So tense grew religious and patriotic fervor, that Belgian papers reported the fainting of numerous grief-stricken British War-mothers, War-widows, and War-sisters, who were quickly revived in first aid stations provided for that purpose. Solemn and inspirational was the chanting of 0 Valiant Hearts Who to Your Glory Came! Finally, when soft, repressed sobbing had become general, the Primate of England cried, referring to the War: "Was it all worth while? Here at this gate let there be no faltering in the answer, 'Yes, a thousand times yes.' . . .

"Let the 'last post' sound our message of remembrance to the dead; let the 'reveille' sound Christ's summons to service of the living."

Soon buglers sounded the calls requested by the Archbishop; but most touching of all was the playing by Scotch bagpipers of an old lament which was the favorite of Britain's greatest War hero, the late Field Marshal Earl Haig, Laird of Bemersyde (TIME, Feb. 6, 13). Softly the pipers played "The Flowers of the Forest"; and British lips repeated afterwards the motto of the House of Haig: What e're betide, What e're betide, Haig shall be Haig of Bemersyde!

Charles of Flanders, who was but a lad when the War came, stood silent with modestly bowed head during the British singing, beside Edward of Wales, 34, his senior by exactly a decade. Later the two princes, chatting affably, walked together the gauntlet of clicking cameras, mooning women.

Men mooned at Her Royal Highness, the Princess Marie Jose of Belgium, last week, craning their necks and peering Moonward, as she ascended for the first time in an airplane--favorite vehicle of Their Belgian Majesties who often fly cross-Channel.