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Prince Michel, 14th Prince of Ligne

b. 1951

Born
26 May 1951, Château de Belœil
Country of birth
Belgium

Living person. The family sees only the name, dates and photo; everything else stays private unless they choose to share it.

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Facts and their sources

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A life in time

  1. Born · Château de Belœil

    Birth, Château de Belœil

What was it like?

The world around Château de Belœil, 1951: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Prince was born the same year as Robin Williams, Sting, and Phil Collins.

Born the same year

  • Robin Williams

    American actor and comedian (1951–2014)

  • Sting

    British musician (born 1951)

  • Phil Collins

    English drummer, singer, and songwriter (born 1951)

  • Anatoly Karpov

    Russian chess player

  • Michelle Bachelet

    president of Chile from (2006–2010; 2014–2018)

  • Mohamed Morsi

    president of Egypt from 2012 to 2013

Fashion

Women's fashion and daily wear evolution

Women in the 1950s often wore wide skirts supported by stiff petticoats to create a floral-like silhouette, while housewives commonly wore practical cotton aprons with pockets for daily tasks. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, trends shifted toward narrower, more geometric styles influenced by designers like Courrèges.

Belgian boys' clothing in the 1950s-1960s

In the 1950s and early 1960s, Belgian boys frequently wore short pants until they were 12 or 13 years old, sometimes even until age 16 for school uniforms. By the 1960s, American-style casual wear like T-shirts began to gain popularity among the youth.

Music

Traditional Flemish Instruments and Community Music

Traditional Flemish folk music featured instruments such as the doedelzak (bagpipe), the hommel (stringed zither), and the diatonic accordion. These instruments were often hand-crafted and played at local community gatherings and festivals.

Traditional Social Dances and Community Events

Common social dances in Belgium during this period included the polka, wals (waltz), schottische, and the linear branle. These dances were staples at local village celebrations and community events.

Getting around

Car travel changes perception of distance

By the 1950s, affluent citizens began shifting their perception of distance, measuring travel not by kilometers, but by the duration of the journey in their private cars.

Average train journey distance in Belgium

Between 1950 and 1967, the average distance traveled by a train passenger remained stable at approximately 32.5 kilometers.

Daily life

Heating, water, and cooking in the 1950s

In the 1950s, many homes relied on a coal stove (Leuvense stoof) in the kitchen for heating and cooking, as other rooms were often unheated. Running water was not common in more than half of all Belgian households until late in the decade.

Classroom life and strict discipline

Children often used a slate and stylus to write in school, and teachers sometimes tied the left hands of left-handed students to their desks to force them to write with their right hands. Class sizes were large, often reaching 30 students, and the school week included Saturday mornings.

Food
Around 1940–1944

Coffee prices rose massively under occupation

Coffee prices skyrocketed during the occupation, jumping from 28 francs per kilogram in May 1940 to 2,320 francs by June 1944.

Around 1940–1943

Wartime bread was sticky and gray

During the 1940s, wartime bread contained additives like pea or bean flour and straw, resulting in a sticky, gray loaf that had to be left for 24 hours before it could be sliced.

Prices and wages
Around 1956–1957

Meat prices for miners

Miners had to work nearly half a day to afford one kilogram of expensive meat in the late 1950s.

Around 1958–1958

Cost of appliances in 1958

For a new radio in 1958, a miner had to work 15 days, and a new washing machine cost nearly a full month of labor.

Work

Early morning energy food for laborers

In the 1950s, farmers and workers often ate a strip of fat bacon at five in the morning for energy before milking cows or starting heavy labor. This high-fat diet was seen as necessary strength food due to limited mechanization at the time.

Around 1957–1957

Lower meat consumption in the 1950s

Belgians consumed significantly less meat in the late 1950s compared to today, averaging 55 kilograms per person annually. Poultry was extremely rare on the daily menu, with annual consumption at less than 4 kilograms per person.

News and letters

Making calls required a telegraph office visit

In the early 1950s, private home telephones were rare, so people often went to the telegraph office at the train station, where they had to request a connection from an official and wait in a cabin for their call to be set up.

Postal helicopters sped up mail delivery

Between 1950 and 1959, Belgium operated a unique postal helicopter service that delivered mail to regions like Libramont, Hasselt, and Beringen, allowing a letter posted before noon to arrive in Brussels by 5 p.m. the same day.

During their lifetime

  1. 1956

    First nuclear chain reaction achieved in Belgium

    Belgium successfully achieved its first controlled nuclear chain reaction at the BR 1 research reactor in Mol.

  2. 1958

    Brussels hosts World Fair Expo 58

    The World Fair in Brussels, Expo 58, modernized the country and introduced citizens to a new era of global possibilities.

  3. 1962

    First nuclear electricity connected to grid

    The BR 3 reactor, Belgium's first electricity-producing nuclear reactor, was connected to the power grid.

  4. 1974

    Ban on non-EEC labour immigration imposed

    Following the oil crisis, the Belgian government imposed a ban on unskilled labour immigration from non-EEC countries.

  5. 1999

    Dioxin contamination scandal hits food exports

    A major dioxin contamination scandal led to widespread bans on Belgian food exports and forced the government to resign.

Family

Parents

Spouses

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.