Baroness Vaughn's House (Former)

Blanche Zélia Joséphine Delacroix, better known as Caroline Lacroix was a French-Romanian prostitute well-noted in her lifetime for being the most prominent and notorious of Leopold II of Belgium's mistresses.

She met the king in Paris as a young girl, when she was only 16 and he was 65. They soon embarked upon a relationship that was to last until his death in 1909. Leopold lavished upon her large sums of money, estates, gifts, and a noble title, Baroness Vaughan. Because of these presents, Caroline was deeply unpopular both among the Belgian people and internationally, as Leopold became increasingly criticized for his greed-induced actions in the Congo Free State, his own personal colony. As Caroline largely profited off the income from the colony, she became known as la reine du Congo.