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Charles de Broqueville

Belgian politician

Summary

Belgian politician

Field	Value
name	Comte Charles de Broqueville
image	Comte de Broqueville.jpg
office	Prime Minister of Belgium
monarch	Albert I
Leopold III
term_start	22 October 1932
term_end	20 November 1934
predecessor	Jules Renkin
successor	Georges Theunis
monarch2	Albert I
term_start2	17 June 1911
term_end2	1 June 1918
predecessor2	Frans Schollaert
successor2	Gérard Cooreman
birth_date
birth_place	Postel, Belgium
death_date
death_place	Brussels, Belgium
party	Catholic Party
birth_name	Charles Marie Pierre Albert de Broqueville

Leopold III

Comte Charles de Broqueville (; 4 December 1860 – 5 September 1940) was the prime minister of Belgium from 1911 to 1918 and again from 1932 to 1934, serving during the majority of World War I.

Before 1914

Charles de Broqueville was born into an old noble family with its roots in French Gascony. He was the son of Count Stanislas de Broqueville (1830–1919) and Claire de Briey (1832–1876). He received a private education from Catholic priest Charles Simon, from which he also learned Dutch. He married Berthe d'Huart (1864–1937), a granddaughter of Catholic statesman Jules Malou, through whom he gained further connections to politics.

First elected to the Chamber of Representatives in the 1892 election, he represented the arrondissement of Turnhout until June 1919. He was seen as part of de jonge rechterzijde (the young right-wing), and was politically a midway between Christian democracy and more traditional forms of conservatism.

The leader of Belgium's Catholic Party, he served as prime minister between 1911 and 1918 and headed the de Broqueville government.

Once it became clear that Germany intended to violate Belgian neutrality in August 1914, he oversaw Belgium's mobilization for war. Despite the mobilization, de Broqueville opposed King Albert I's proposal to deploy the Belgian Army along the German frontier in 1914 but strategically placed them throughout the country. He recognized that wartime support for Belgium depended upon its continued status as a nonprovocative neutral power.

During the war, de Broqueville was more willing to make concessions to the Flemish Movement than King Albert, in order to secure Belgian unity in the long term. He made several promises to the movements after the war, such as the Dutchification of Ghent University and better conditions for the Dutch language in standard education.

First World War

The German invasion of 1914 forced the Belgian government into exile at Le Havre. De Broqueville fought the King on the neutrality issue and so denied Belgium a full alliance with the Allied forces.

The opposition of the King critically weakened de Broqueville's stance among members of his cabinet. Consequently, he resigned as Foreign Secretary in January 1918 and as Prime Minister in May when he lost the support of his own party.

De Broqueville also served as minister in various departments:

Minister of Railways and PTT (Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones) 1910–1912
Minister of War 1912–1917
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1917
Minister of Reconstruction 1917–1918
Minister of the Interior 1918–1919
Minister of National Defence 1926–1930

Postwar

Later, Charles de Broqueville became Prime Minister a second time, serving from 22 October 1932 to 20 November 1934. He died on 5 September 1940, during the second German occupation of Belgium.

Titles, honours and arms

Titles

1867 – 1919: Baron Charles de Broqueville
1919 – 1920: Charles, Baron de Broqueville
After 1920: Charles, Count de Broqueville

National honours

Ribbon bar	Honour	Date
[[File:BEL Croix de Guerre WW1 ribbon.svg	80px]]	Croix de Guerre
[[File:BEL - Order of Leopold - Grand Cordon bar.svg	80px]]	Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold	1919
	Minister of State

Foreign honours

Ribbon bar	Country	Honour	Date
[[File:BAD Order of the Lion of Zaeringen ribbon.svg	80px]]	Baden	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Zähringer Lion
[[File:Order of the Dannebrog R.svg	80px]]	Denmark	Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog
[[File:Legion Honneur GC ribbon.svg	80px]]	France	Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur
[[File:Croix de Guerre 1914-1918 ribbon.svg	80px]]	France	Croix de Guerre
[[File:GRE Order Redeemer 1Class.svg	80px]]	Greece	Grand Cross of the Order of the Redeemer
[[File:VAT Order of Pope Pius IX Collar BAR.svg	80px]]	Holy See	Knight with the Collar of the Order of Pius IX
[[File:Cavaliere di gran Croce Regno SSML BAR.svg	80px]]	Kingdom of Italy	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus
[[File:JPN Kyokujitsu-sho 1Class BAR.svg	80px]]	Empire of Japan	1st class in the Order of the Rising Sun
[[File:Ordre de la couronne de Chene GC ribbon.svg	80px]]	Luxembourg	Grand Cross of the Order of the Oak Crown
[[File:Order of the Netherlands Lion ribbon - Knight Grand Cross.svg	80px]]	Netherlands	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Netherlands Lion
[[File:PRT Order of Christ - Grand Cross BAR.svg	80px]]	Portugal	Knight Grand Cross of the Portuguese Order of Christ (Portugal)	GCC
[[File:Order of the Crown of Romania-Ribbon 1881-1932.jpg	80px]]	Romania	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Romania
[[File:RUS Order White Eagle BAR.png	80px]]	Russian Empire	Knight of the Order of the White Eagle
[[File:UK Order St-Michael St-George ribbon.svg	80px]]	UK	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George	GCMG

Arms

Notes

Sources

Louis DE LICHTERVELDE, Charles de Broqueville, in: Biographie Nationale de Belgique, t. XXIX, 1956–1957, p. 369-377.
Paul VAN MOLLE, La parlement belge, 1894-1972, Antwerp, 1972
Luc SCHEPENS, Albert Ier et le gouvernement Broqueville, 1914–1918 : aux origines de la question communautaire. Paris 1983,
Thierry DENOËL, Le nouveau dictionnaire des Belges, 2e éd. revue et augm., Brussels, Le Cri, 1992, p. 167.
Maria DE WAELE, Charles de Broqueville, in: Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging, Tielt, 1998
Paul VOS, Charles de Broqueville op de kering der tijden, in: Vlaamse Stam, 2012, blz. 122-142.
Frans RENAERS, De opvoeding van Charles de Broqueville, in: Vlaamse Stam, blz 142-145.

References

Royal Decree of 1919/-Mémorial du centenaire de l'Ordre de Léopold. 1832-1932. Bruxelles, J. Rozez, 1933.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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