Baudouin was born in the Château du Stuyvenberg, near Laeken, Brussels, in Belgium, in 1930, the elder son and second child of Prince Leopold, then Duke of Brabant, and his first wife, Princess Astrid of Sweden. In 1934, Baudouin's grandfather King Albert I of Belgium was killed in a rock climbing accident; Leopold became king and the three-year-old Baudouin became Duke of Brabant as heir apparent to the throne. Baudouin's mother died in 1935 in an automobile accident, when Baudouin was nearly five. His education began at the age of seven, his tutors taught him half his lessons in French and half in Flemish. He frequently accompanied his father to parades and ceremonies and became well known to the public.