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Securing the Nation

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The Belgian Army and Society from Independence to the Great War

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Abstract

The period from 1830 to 1839 was one of uncertainty for the nascent Belgian state. Not only did it have to contend with an external foe, in the form of the Dutch Army, but also with the internal threat of the Orangist counterrevolution, which sought to restore King William I to the throne. This chapter’s analysis of the events places the armed forces firmly at the centre of the stabilisation process. It argues that, despite defeat during the Ten Days’ Campaign in 1831, and certain elements of the officer corps dabbling in Orangism, both the Army and the Civic Guard—Belgium’s part-time bourgeois force—remained loyal to the new monarch Leopold I and, in so doing, played a key role in securing the nation.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A. R. Zolberg, ‘The making of Flemings and Walloons: Belgium, 1830–1914’, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 5, no. 2 (1974), pp. 194–195.

  2. 2.

    S. Clark, ‘Nobility, bourgeoisie and the industrial revolution in Belgium’, Past and Present, no. 105 (1994), pp. 162–163.

  3. 3.

    J. Stengers, ‘Sentiment national, sentiment orangiste et sentiment français à l’aube de notre indépendence’, Revue belge de philology et d’histoire, vol. 28, no. 3 (1950), pp. 993–1029; and vol. 29, no. 1 (1951), pp. 61–92.

  4. 4.

    E. Witte, ‘The formation of a centre in Belgium: The role of Brussels in the formative stage of the Belgian State (1830–40)’, European History Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 4 (1989), p. 436.

  5. 5.

    For more on the spacial, architectural, and sonorous construction of Belgian nationality, see J. Hoegaerts, Masculinity and Nationhood, 1830–1910: Constructions of Identity and Citizenship in Belgium (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2014).

  6. 6.

    V. Viaene, Belgium and the Holy See from Gregory XVI to Pius IX (1831–1859) Catholic Revival, Society and Politics in 19th-Century Europe (Institut Historique Belge de Rome, Brussels & Rome, 2001), p. 10.

  7. 7.

    Witte, ‘The formation’, p. 442; Viaene, Belgium, pp. 150–153.

  8. 8.

    C. Terlinden, Documents inédits sur la participation de la garde civique de Bruxelles à la campagne des “Dix jours” (2–12 août 1831) (Palais des Académies, Brussels, 1963), p. 69.

  9. 9.

    J. R. Leconte, Le Général Daine a-t-il trahi en 1831? (L’Avenier, Brussels, 1938), pp. 46–47.

  10. 10.

    For more on the Dutch Army, see H. Amersfoort, ‘De strijd om het leger (1813–1840)’, in C. A. Tamse and E. Witte (eds.), Staats- en Natievorming in Willem I’s Koninkrijk (1815–1830) (Vubpress, Brussels, 1992), pp. 186–206.

  11. 11.

    L.A. Leclier, L’Infanterie: Filiations et Traditions (Brussels, 1973), pp. 30–31; E. Witte, La Construction de la Belgique, 1828–1847 (Éditions Complexe, Brussels, 2005), p. 65; Leconte, Le Général Daine, pp. 38–40. This established the 12th LIR as well as the 2nd and 3rd Chasseurs à Pied.

  12. 12.

    E. Witte, Le Royaume perdu: Les orangistes belges contre la revolution 1828–1850 (Samsa s.p.r.l, Brussels, 2014), pp. 197–198.

  13. 13.

    É. Wanty, Le Milieu Militaire Belge de 1831 à 1914 (Palais des Académies, Brussels, 1957), p. 32.

  14. 14.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, p. 181.

  15. 15.

    Stengers suggested that ‘[t]he September days founded national independence. The bombardment of Antwerp would condemn the Nassau dynasty’. See, ‘Sentiment national’, vol. 28, no. 3 (1950), p. 1003.

  16. 16.

    G. Newton, The Netherlands: An Historical and Cultural Survey 1795–1977 (Ernest Benn, London, 1978), p. 56.

  17. 17.

    AER POS. 2116/9, Vander Linden Papers, Dedobbelaert to Goblet d’Alviella, 2 February 1831.

  18. 18.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, p. 213.

  19. 19.

    Seraing’s population soared from 2,000 to 40,000 during the nineteenth century. I. Devos and T. Van Rossem, ‘Urban health penalties: Estimates of life expectancies in Belgian cities, 1846–1910’, Journal of Belgian History, vol. 45, no. 4 (2015), p. 79.

  20. 20.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, pp. 45–46 and 214–217.

  21. 21.

    Ibid., pp. 223–224.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., pp. 219–223.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., pp. 230–231.

  24. 24.

    Stengers, ‘Sentiment national’, vol. 28, no. 3 (1950), p. 995.

  25. 25.

    AER POS. 2116/9, Vander Linden Papers, Minister of Justice, Barthélémy to Surlet de Chockier, 7 April 1831.

  26. 26.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, p. 303.

  27. 27.

    E. Witte, Le Moniteur Belge, Le Gouvernement et le Parlement Pendant l’Unionisme (1831–1845) (Ministère de la Justice. Moniteur Belge, Brussels, 1985), p. 21; Viaene, Belgium, pp. 153–155.

  28. 28.

    Newton, The Netherlands, pp. 56–57.

  29. 29.

    Terlinden, Documents inédits, p. 68.

  30. 30.

    Ibid., 69; Leconte, Le Général Daine, p. 43.

  31. 31.

    MRA Fonds Belgique en Période 1830–1839 (hereafter Belgium 1830–1839), 11/2/13; Report by Tiecken de Terhove to De Failly, 4 August 1831; Leconte, Le Général Daine, pp. 48–50.

  32. 32.

    MRA 11/2/14, Daine to De Failly, 3 August 1831 and 5 August 1831; L’Indépendant, 8 August 1831.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., Daine to De Failly, 5 August 1831; MRA 11/2/8, Orders given to the Army of the Meuse commanded by General Daine during the Campaign of August 1831; Leconte, Le Général Daine, pp. 57–65; Terlinden, Documents inédits, p. 69.

  34. 34.

    MRA 11/2/10, Daine to Goethals, 9 August 1831; Leconte, Le Général Daine, pp. 66–68.

  35. 35.

    Terlinden, Documents inédits, p. 70; Leconte, Le Général Daine, pp. 69–70.

  36. 36.

    Witte, La Construction de la Belgique, p. 66.

  37. 37.

    MRA 11/2/10, Goethals to d’Hane-Steenhuyse, 8 August 1831; RA, Archives du Cabinet du Roi, Leopold I 221, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Report concerning the Financial Reimbursement of the French Expeditions in 1831 and 1832.

  38. 38.

    For more on British opposition to French influence in Belgium and the related issue of the barrier fortresses in peace negotiations, see D. H. Thomas, The Guarantee of Belgian Independence and Neutrality in European Diplomacy, 1830s–1930s (Thomas Publishing, Kingston, RI, 1983), pp. 27–29.

  39. 39.

    AER POS.2407/104, Van de Weyer Papers, Van de Weyer to Leopold I, 8 September 1831.

  40. 40.

    Witte, Le Moniteur Belge, p. 68.

  41. 41.

    RA Archives du Cabinet du Roi, Leopold I 167, General Correspondence. Report from General Desprez, 12 August 1832.

  42. 42.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, pp. 330–336.

  43. 43.

    J. R. Leconte, ‘Notes sur l’épilogue du siege de la citadelle d’Anvers. Le sort des prisonniers hollandaise (1832–1833)’, Revue internationale d’histoire militaire, vol. 20 (1959), pp. 592–594.

  44. 44.

    Leconte, Le Général Daine, pp. 118–139.

  45. 45.

    L’Indépendant, 17 August 1831.

  46. 46.

    Leconte, Le Général Daine, p. 102.

  47. 47.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, pp. 326–327.

  48. 48.

    MRA 11/1/5, Notes by Colonel Pletinckx on the August Campaign and the Role of the 1st Lancers, 1831.

  49. 49.

    MRA 11/2/7, General Du Marnesse to De Brouckère, 20 August 1831.

  50. 50.

    Ibid.; MRA 11/2/9, Reports by Civic Guard Officers to De Brouckère about the August Campaign of 1831; MRA 11/2/10, Daine to Goethals, 9 August 1831; MRA 11/2/14, Daine to De Failly, 5 August 1831.

  51. 51.

    MRA 11/2/14, Daine to De Brouckère, 9 August 1831.

  52. 52.

    E. J. Coss, All for the King’s Shilling: The British Soldier under Wellington, 1808–1814 (University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2010), pp. 163–173.

  53. 53.

    G. Wawro, ‘An “Army of Pigs”: The Technical, Social, and Political Bases of Austrian Shock Tactics, 1859–1866’, Journal of Military History, vol. 59, no. 3 (1995), pp. 413–414, & 421.

  54. 54.

    Historique IRSD, L’Institut Royak Supérieur de Défence: un Longue et Magnifique Histoire, 1830–1995 (Brussels, 1995), pp. 5–6.

  55. 55.

    Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, pp. 19 and 24.

  56. 56.

    L’Indépendant, 8 May 1832. A counterargument by an anonymous officer in the same issue argued that the artillery only required 151 officers (17 senior officers, 21 captains en premier, 11 captains en second, 31 first lieutenants, and 71 second-lieutenants). Moreover, he claimed that there was plenty of experience among those already commissioned, with three of the 17 high-ranking officers having been captains in 1813 in the Imperial Army, and nine others also serving as officers at this time. Four others had been officers since 1815 and another one since 1816. All 17 had served under William I, and only two could be said to have had their careers interfered with. As for the captains en premier, all had been in Dutch service, save for two who arrived from France recently. Indeed, most of them had been officers for 15 or 16 years. Similarly, many captains en second, and first lieutenants had been commissioned before the Revolution. In all, the article stated that 43 officers in the artillery in 1832 had served under the Dutch.

  57. 57.

    J. R. Leconte, La Formation Historique de l’Armée Belge: Les Officiers Étrangers au Service de la Belgique (1830–1853) (Imprimerie des papeteries de Genval, Paris & Brussels, 1949), pp. 142–147; Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, in which he claims there were 104 French officers in 1833, p. 42.

  58. 58.

    AER POS.2314/261, Rogier Papers, Evain to Rogier, 16 April 1834.

  59. 59.

    Reunionisme was largely restricted to Verviers, Liège and wider Hainaut, with some interest amongst selected industries in Luxembourg. Following the consolidation of the state after 1832, talk of reunification with France largely ceased—though some members continued to fight for the same commercial interests under the Orangist banner. See, Stengers, ‘Sentiment national’, vol. 28, no. 3 (1950), pp. 1008–1029.

  60. 60.

    Messager de Gand, 20 April 1835.

  61. 61.

    Leconte, La Formation Historique de l’Armée Belge, pp. 145–180; Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, pp. 42–43; Witte, Royaume perdu, p. 303.

  62. 62.

    J. Lukaszewski, ‘Les révolutions belge et polonaise (1830–1831)’, in I. Goddeeris and P. Lierneux (eds.), 1830 Insurrection polonaise – Indépendence belge (Academia-Bruylant, Louvain-la-Neuve, 2001), p. 33. For more on Polish links to the Belgian revolution, see other chapters in this volume.

  63. 63.

    P. S. Wandycz, A History of East Central Europe, Vol. VII: The Lands of Partitioned Poland 1795–1918 (University of Washington Press, Seattle & London, 1974), p. 118.

  64. 64.

    MRA Officer File, von Brochowski 2596/67, Memorandum to King Leopold I, 24 November 1846.

  65. 65.

    MRA Officer File, Prószynski 2545/8, Letter to Evain, May 1832.

  66. 66.

    Wandycz, A History of East Central Europe, p. 118.

  67. 67.

    C. Duffy, The Military Experience in the Age of Reason (Routledge & Keegan Paul, London & New York, 1987); S. Conway, ‘The British Army, “Military Europe,” and the American War of Independence’, The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 67, no. 1 (2010), pp. 69–100.

  68. 68.

    D. Porch, The French Foreign Legion: A Complete History (Macmillan London Ltd., London & Basingstoke, 1991), pp. 1–21.

  69. 69.

    J. R. Leconte, ‘Les débuts de l’Armée belge après la Révolution de 1830 et ses corollaires coloniaux’, Carnet de la Fourragère, vol. 14, no. 4 (1962), p. 283; Wanty, Milieu Militaire Belge, pp. 44–45.

  70. 70.

    One surviving recruitment list of 974 suggests that 27.6% were taken from these companies, with the rest comprised of 18.8% voluntary enlistments from the army, 42.2% of non-nationals from ‘foreigner depots’, 3.3% of convicts from the Aalst prison, and 7.9% partisans. MRA, Belgian Military Abroad, Portugal II/69, Enlistment of personnel for service in Portugal [undated, probably 1832–1833]. For more, see J. Lorette, ‘Les expéditions militaires belges au Portugal en 1832 et 1833’, Carnet de la Fourragère, vol. 8, no. 8 (1948), pp. 427–473, and vol. 9, no. 2 (1950), pp. 95–140.

  71. 71.

    G. Best, War and Society in Revolutionary Europe, 1770–1870 (Leicester University Press, Leicester, 1982), p. 256. See also several contributions in S. Aprile, J-C. Caron, and E. Fureix (eds.), La Liberté Guidant les Peuples: Les Révolutions de 1830 en Europe (Champ Vallon, Seyssel, 2013).

  72. 72.

    M. Lawrence, Spain’s First Carlist War, 1833–1840 (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2014), pp. 99–100.

  73. 73.

    MRA Officer File, von Brochowski 2596/149, Letter from Don Antonio Guiroga, 15 September 1837.

  74. 74.

    Ibid., 2569/8, Report from Spain, 11 December 1837; 2569/24, von Brochowski to Willmar, 16 June 1838.

  75. 75.

    Ibid., 2569/71, von Brochowski to Prisse, 28 February 1847.

  76. 76.

    MRA Officer File, Grabowski 2587, Grabowski to Willmar, 5 May 1837; Grabowski to Commandant of the Brigade of Cuirassiers, 28 July 1837; Gordaszewski 3999/13, Proposition of Corps Transfer, September 1841.

  77. 77.

    MRA Officer File, Prószynski 2545/20, Prószynski to Buzen, March 1841.

  78. 78.

    MRA Officer File, Kruszewski 2586/10, Inquiry concerning the appointment of Kruszewski to the 2nd Chasseurs à Cheval. Hostility of Officers, 11 May 1832.

  79. 79.

    L’Indépendence Belge, 6 June 1842.

  80. 80.

    C. Merzbach, ‘Les Officiers Polonais dans l’Armée Belge après 1830’, Le Flambeau (1931), pp. 9–11; Leconte, ‘Les débuts’, p. 282; Thomas, The Guarantee, pp. 60–61.

  81. 81.

    L’Indépendence Belge, 5 April 1853.

  82. 82.

    T. Panecki, ‘Les Officiers Polonais dans l’Armée Belge 1839–1853’, in Goddeeris and Lierneux (eds.), 1830 Insurrection Polonaise, p. 94; Leconte, La Formation Historique de l’Armée Belge, pp. 169–170.

  83. 83.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, pp. 302–303.

  84. 84.

    F. Judo, ‘De lange aanloop naar de aprilrellen van 1834: Een bijdrage to de geschiedenis van het orangisme te Brussel, 1832–1834’, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis, vol. 26, no. 1–2 (1996), pp. 92–93.

  85. 85.

    Clark, ‘Nobility’, pp. 151–165.

  86. 86.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, p. 355.

  87. 87.

    G. Deneckere, ‘De plundering van de orangistische adel in April 1834: de komplottheorie voorbij’, Belgisch Tijdschrift voor Nieuwste Geschiedenis, vol. 26, no. 3–4 (1996), p. 35.

  88. 88.

    Ibid.; AER POS.2314/261, Rogier Papers, Lebeau to Rogier, 10 March 1834; Governor of East Flanders to Rogier, 8 April 1834.

  89. 89.

    Deneckere, ‘De plundering van de orangistische adel’, pp. 43–44.

  90. 90.

    AER POS.2314/261, Rogier Papers, Circular by Lebeau to Provincial Authorities, 6 April 1834.

  91. 91.

    Ibid., Commander in Chief, the Inspector General of the Civic Guard to Rogier, 10 April 1834.

  92. 92.

    Ibid., Auditeur Général to Rogier, 21 April 1834; AER POS.2314/263, Rogier Papers, Report by Evain, [undated] April 1834. For the illegality of this action, see Deneckere, ‘De plundering van de orangistische adel’, p. 49.

  93. 93.

    Ibid., Auditeur Général to Rogier, 21 April 1834.

  94. 94.

    Deneckere, ‘De plundering van de orangistische adel’, p. 48.

  95. 95.

    Ibid., pp. 36 and 40–41.

  96. 96.

    F. Van Kalken, Commotions Populaires en Belgique, 1834–1902 (Office de Publicité, Brussels, 1936), pp. 16–20.

  97. 97.

    Deneckere, ‘De plundering van de orangistische adel’, p. 43.

  98. 98.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, pp. 356–358.

  99. 99.

    Witte, Le Moniteur Belge, p. 10; Deneckere, ‘De plundering van de orangistische adel’, pp. 51–52.

  100. 100.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, p. 354.

  101. 101.

    Witte, ‘The Formation’, p. 439.

  102. 102.

    Ibid., pp. 373–374.

  103. 103.

    E. A. Jacobs, ‘Contribution à l’étude du milieu militaire belge. Les officiers au parlement (1831–1848)’, Revue Internationale d’Histoire Militaire, vol. 24 (1965), pp. 415–416. Intermediary figures for March 1832 suggest that the Army of Observation alone accounted for 72,305 men of which 64,004 were present under arms. This was broken down into 15,008 Civic Guard, 47,880 infantrymen, 4,136 cavalry, 2,542 artillery, and 2,739 ancillary service personnel. RA, Archives du Cabinet du Roi, Leopold I 255, Situation of the Army of Observation: Report, 15 March 1832.

  104. 104.

    Ibid., p. 423; H. Strachan, The Politics of the British Army (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1997), p. 27.

  105. 105.

    B. Dierckx and J. Hoegaerts, ‘Exercising neutrality: The practice of manoeuvres in the Belgian Army before the Great War’, Journal of Belgian History, vol. 46, no. 2 (2016), pp. 23–33.

  106. 106.

    Thomas, The Guarantee, pp. 61–62.

  107. 107.

    Ibid., p. 62.

  108. 108.

    Viaene, Belgium, p. 145.

  109. 109.

    Thomas, The Guarantee, pp. 64–71.

  110. 110.

    V. Viaene, ‘King Leopold’s imperialism and the origins of the Belgian Colonial Party, 1860–1905’, Journal of Modern History, vol. 80, no. 4 (2008), pp. 753–754.

  111. 111.

    D. Stevenson, ‘Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Defence of Western Europe, 1914–1920’, International History Review, vol. 4, no. 4 (1982), pp. 506–514.

  112. 112.

    Witte, Royaume perdu, pp. 362–374.

  113. 113.

    Ibid., pp. 485–487.

  114. 114.

    Ibid., pp. 488–489.

  115. 115.

    Ibid., pp. 490–493.

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    Mario Draper

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Draper, M. (2018). Securing the Nation. In: The Belgian Army and Society from Independence to the Great War. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70386-2_2

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