X-Nico

96 unusual facts about Austrian Netherlands


Achel Abbey

The community would flourish until 1789 when they were expelled from their convent after the French revolutionary army invaded the Austrian Netherlands.

Alexandre de Laborde

At first stationed at Olmuz (Moravia), he was named captain in a regiment of light cavalry in October 1791, and saw action against the Revolutionary French forces the following year along the frontiers of the Austrian Netherlands and Luxembourg, where he distinguished himself by his generosity towards his compatriots who had been taken prisoner or wounded.

Anselm Franz, 2nd Prince of Thurn and Taxis

In 1725, he was able to lease the postal system of the Austrian Netherlands as a Habsburg fief.

Antoine Brice

Antoine Brice (26 May 1752, Brussels, then in the Austrian Netherlands - 23 January 1817, Brussels) was a Belgian painter.

Antoniotto Botta Adorno

After the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, he became plenipotentiary of the Austrian Netherlands under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine.

Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen

In this year he became Statthalter in Belgium and received the army rank of lieutenant field marshal.

Austrian colonial policy

Ostend Company was a merchants' company made to trade with the Indies, chartered by 1722 in the Austrian Netherlands.

Barrier town

The barrier towns were present-day Belgian towns, heavily fortified by the Dutch, on the Austrian Netherlands's border with France, and as such were particularly important in the wars between the Dutch Republic and Ancien Régime France.

Barrier Treaty

The result of the Barrier Treaty was that the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI did not have a lot to say about "his" Austrian Netherlands.

Basilica of Our Lady of Scherpenheuvel

The Oratorians took care of the sanctuary until the French Republic annexed the Austrian Netherlands and dissolved all monasteries.

Battle of Jemappes

Dumouriez, intent on invading the Austrian Netherlands, advanced late in the season and attacked the Austrians with greatly superior forces.

Battle of Pfaffenhofen

The Battle of Pfaffenhofen eliminated Bavaria-Bohemia as one of the four theaters of War the Austrians had to fight on, releasing troops for the war in Silesia, Italy and the Austrian Netherlands.

Battle of Sprimont

It occurred on 17 and 18 September 1794 and was a French Republican victory put a final end to the Ancien Régime in what is now Belgium (then essentially the Austrian Netherlands, Principality of Liège and the Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy).

Brabant Revolution

The Brabant Revolution (January 1789 – December 1790) was a populist revolt which broke out in the Austrian Netherlands against the radical reforms of Emperor Joseph II.

Brecht Abbey

For five centuries the abbey flourished, until 1797, when it was closed in the aftermath of the French Revolution, when the French Revolutionary Army occupied the Austrian Netherlands.

Campaigns of 1797 in the French Revolutionary Wars

Austria later signed the Treaty of Campo Formio, ceding the Austrian Netherlands to France and recognizing the French border at the Rhine.

Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken

Charles Theodore's preferred the Palatinate and therefore tried to exchange parts of the Bavarian inheritance with Emperor Joseph in return for parts of the Austrian Netherlands.

Charles Theodore, Elector of Bavaria

He attempted without success to exchange the ducal lands of Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands and a royal crown, and he never managed to control the mounting social tensions in Bavaria.

So, on 3 January 1778, shortly after the death of Max Joseph, Charles Theodore signed an agreement with Emperor Joseph II to exchange southern Bavaria for part of the Austrian Netherlands.

Château de Seneffe

In 1758 the 'Seigneurie de Seneffe' was bought by Joseph Depestre, a Walloon merchant who earned a fortune by selling goods to the Imperial Austrian troops stationed in the Austrian Netherlands.

After the French revolution and the subsequent occupation of the Austrian Netherlands by the French republic the château was confiscated (1799).

Claude Lamoral, 6th Prince of Ligne

A state councilor, he reorganized the army in the newly conquered Austrian Netherlands, and in 1720 took possession in the name of the Emperor of the fortified cities of Tournai, Ieper and Menen.

Coinage of the United States of Belgium

In 1789, Brabant Revolution took place in reaction to liberal reforms made by Joseph II and the Austrian occupation of Belgium.

Count Friedrich August von Harrach-Rohrau

Count Friedrich August von Harrach-Rohrau, (Vienna, June 8, 1696 – Vienna, June 4, 1749), was plenipotentiary minister of the Austrian Netherlands (1732–1741) and became Governor-General ad interim in 1741–1744.

County of Hainaut

The northern area, around Mons, remained under Spanish Habsburgs, and was then part of the Austrian Netherlands after the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.

Dominik von Königsegg-Rothenfels

In 1744 he took arms one more time and became supreme commander of the troops in the Austrian Netherlands.

Douwe Sirtema van Grovestins

Nevertheless, he was made a lieutenant-general in the army of the Dutch Republic, and served as governor of the Barrier Fortress Ieper in the Austrian Netherlands in 1774.

Duchess Therese of Mecklenburg-Strelitz

In 1790 Anne-César, Chevalier de la Luzerne, the French ambassador to Great Britain, reported that Therese's husband was being considered for the new throne of the Austrian Netherlands and that Therese's aunt Queen Charlotte would support this; these turned out to be unfounded rumors, as Charlotte and her husband George III believed Karl Alexander of insufficient rank for kingship.

Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

In spite of this Ferdinand still posed an insignificant threat and it was believed he was poised to attack the Austrian Netherlands or even northern Italy.

Duke of Burgundy

They often used the term Burgundy to refer to it (e.g. in the name of the Imperial Circle it was grouped into), until the late 18th century, when the Austrian Netherlands were lost to French Republic.

Dutch Patriot Revolt, 1787

The Dutch Patriot Revolt was part of a series of revolutionary actions that took place from 1787 through 1789 in the Dutch Republic, Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), Poland, and France.

Dutch Republic

In 1815 it was rejoined with the Austrian Netherlands, Luxembourg and Liège (the 'Southern provinces') to become the Kingdom of the Netherlands, informally known as the Kingdom of the United Netherlands, to create a strong buffer state north of France.

Eugène-Guillaume Argenteau

Born at Huy in the Austrian Netherlands in 1743, Argenteau joined the Mercy d'Argenteau Infantry Regiment Nr. 56 in 1760.

Eupen-Malmedy

The Northern part around Eupen was originally part of the Duchy of Limburg, a dependency of the Duchy of Brabant, and was latterly owned by the Austrian Habsburgs, as part of the Austrian Netherlands.

Fall of Ghent

The Fall of Ghent occurred on 15 July 1745 during the War of the Austrian Succession when a 5,000 strong French force under Ulrich Frédéric Woldemar, Comte de Lowendal surprised and captured the town of Ghent in the Austrian Netherlands.

Florimond Claude, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau

In 1792 he became governor-general of the Austrian Netherlands, which had just been reduced to obedience by Austria, and here his ability and experience made him a very successful ruler.

Fortress of Louisbourg

In 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which ended the War of the Austrian Succession, restored Louisbourg to France in return for territory gained in the Austrian Netherlands and the British trading post at Madras in India.

Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor

If something were to go wrong, Francis would become governor of the Austrian Netherlands.

François-Joseph Gossec

The son of a small farmer, Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, then a French exclave in the Austrian Netherlands, now in Belgium.

Frans Anneessens

He was decapitated on the Grand Place in Brussels, because of his involvement with uprisings within the Austrian Netherlands.

Habsburg Monarchy

Hereditary Lands (Erblande or Erbländer; mostly used Österreichische Erblande) or German Hereditary Lands (in the Austrian monarchy) or Austrian Hereditary Lands (Middle Ages – 1849/1918): In a narrower sense these were the "original" Habsburg Austrian territories, i.e. basically the Austrian lands and Carniola (not Galicia, Italian territories or the Austrian Netherlands).

Habsburg Netherlands

After the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs and the War of the Spanish Succession, the southern provinces were also known as the Austrian Netherlands from 1715 onwards.

Henriette Amelie de Nerha

Henriette Amelie de Nerha (Brussels, Austrian Netherlands, 1754 - Amsterdam, 19 June 1818), was a Dutch memoir writer, known for her relationship with Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau.

History of Freemasonry in Belgium

In the 18th century, Belgium was made up of 2 states - the Austrian Netherlands and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.

History of the Jews in Luxembourg

After the Napoleonic conquest of the Austrian Netherlands in 1794, Jews were allowed back into Luxembourg, and the community flourished.

House of Mérode

During the French Revolution the Austrian Netherlands were invaded by French republican troops and were incorporated into the French Republic.

Hus family

The Frères Hus were two family members who collaborated between 1720 and 1750 to direct an acting company touring France and the Austrian Netherlands.

Ignaz Vitzthumb

Ignaz or Ignace Vitzthumb (also Witzthumb; 14 September 1724 - 23 March 1816) was an Austrian musician, composer and conductor active in the Austrian Netherlands.

Jean Rousset de Missy

After having spent a few years there, apparently in the service of the government of the Austrian Netherlands, he returned to the Dutch Republic in 1752, where he retired to the village of Maarssen till his death on 13 August 1762 (which may have taken place in the village of Uithoorn).

Jean-Baptiste Wicar

Wicar headed the commission set up by Napoleon I of France to loot artworks from the Austrian Netherlands to enrich museums in France - an initial convoy left Antwerp on 11 August 1794, notably with paintings by Rubens, for the Louvre.

Jean-Joseph Fiocco

Jean-Joseph was active in the Austrian Netherlands and - during his time as choirmaster of Maria Elisabeth of Austria's chapel-royal in Brussels - he trained the composer Ignaz Vitzthumb and the violinist Pierre van Maldere.

Jean-Nicolas Bassenge

In 1792 Bassenge returned to Liège with Charles François Dumouriez's French troops, which had captured the principality of Liège and the Austrian Netherlands from the Austrians, but the French defeat at the battle of Neerwinden forced him back into exile in France until 1795.

Johann Peter Beaulieu

Born in Lathuy Castle, Jodoigne in the Austrian Netherlands (now Walloon Brabant, Belgium) in 1725, Beaulieu joined the Austrian army in 1743 and fought in the War of the Austrian Succession.

Joseph Hyacinthe François de Paule de Rigaud, Comte de Vaudreuil

Following the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789, which marked the beginning of the French Revolution, Vaudreuil, in the company of his old royal comrade, the comte d'Artois, left Versailles on horseback for the Austrian Netherlands.

Joyous Entry of 1356

This Joyous Entry charter was declared null and void when the Revolutionary French forces took possession of the Austrian Netherlands in 1794.

József Alvinczi

Feldmarschalleutnant, he was transferred to the Austrian Netherlands in 1790 to suppress the United States of Belgium, until a fall from his horse forced him to retire.

Julie Alix de la Fay

Born as Léonne-Julie Bournonville in Brussels, (then the Austrian Netherlands), in 1746 or 1748 as the child of the French actors Louis-Amable Bournonville and Jeanne Evrard, members of the theatre truope of Charles-Simon Favart, she accompanied her parents to Lyon in the troup of Noverre in 1759-1760 and debuted in La Ciaconne by Jean Dupré in Vienne in 1765.

Karl Anselm, 4th Prince of Thurn and Taxis

The Austrian Netherlands and Tyrol were added to the Thurn and Taxis postal system.

During the invasion of French troops in the Austrian Netherlands in 1794, the local properties of the Thurn und Taxis family were seized.

Konstantin Ghilian Karl d'Aspré

Born at Ghent in the Austrian Netherlands on 27 December 1754, d'Aspré made his career in the army.

Laurent Delvaux

Like Antoine Cardon and Antoine Brice, he was a protégé of Charles de Lorraine, governor general of the Austrian Netherlands.

Laurent-Benoît Dewez

In 1767 he was appointed court architect to the Goveror of the Austrian Netherlands, Charles-Alexandre de Lorraine for whom he built the Castle of Mariemont which was demolished in the aftermath of the French revolution.

He is considered the most influential architect in the Austrian Netherlands (present-day Belgium) from the second half of the 18th-century.

Leonard Neale

Father Neale was teaching in the Jesuit college of Bruges when that institution was seized by the Austrian imperial government (area of modern Belgium then called Austrian Netherlands), and along with the other Jesuits was expelled.

Louis Joseph Lahure

Louis Joseph Lahure (Mons, Austrian Netherlands, 29 December 1767 - château de Wavrechain-sous-Faulx, near Bouchain, Valenciennes, 24 October 1853) was a general from the Southern Netherlands in the service of the First French Republic and First French Empire.

Louis Montoyer

Louis Montoyer (1749, Mariemont, Austrian Netherlands, now Belgium – 5 June 1811, Vienna) was an 18th-century Belgian-Austrian architect, principally active in Brussels and Vienna.

Low Countries

In 1713, under the Treaty of Utrecht following the War of the Spanish Succession, what was left of the Spanish Netherlands was ceded to Austria and thus became known as the Austrian Netherlands.

Mademoiselle Fleury

Her father (Louis-Joseph Nones, known as Fleury) and mother (Marie-Anne-Denise Bernardy, daughter of Charles Bernardy) were comic actors in the provinces who often appeared in the Austrian Netherlands.

Mademoiselle Montansier

She and 85 artistes and employees of her theatre followed the armies of Charles François Dumouriez into the Austrian Netherlands, helping at the battle of Jemmapes and then taking over the leadership of the troop at the Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels in January 1793 (renaming that company "Comédiens de la République française").

Madonna of Bruges

The first was in 1794, after French Revolutionaries had conquered the Austrian Netherlands; the citizens of Bruges were ordered to ship it and several other valuable works of art to Paris.

Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony

In exchange for Lower Bavaria, Charles Theodore was to receive the Austrian Netherlands (close to his ancestral domains), the Palatinate (already his patrimony), Jülich and Berg.

Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen

In 1780, the couple was appointed joint governors of the Austrian Netherlands.

In 1780, after the death of Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Maria Christina and her spouse Prince Albert of Saxony, were appointed joint governors of the Austrian Netherlands.

Maximilian Anton Karl, Count Baillet de Latour

Born at Latour Castle near Virton in the Austrian Netherlands (present-day Belgium), he joined the Austrian Army in 1755 and distinguished himself in the Seven Years' War.

Melbourne Hall

Coke travelled in the Netherlands and he turned to Nost, the famous statuary born in the Austrian Netherlands, with premises in Haymarket, London, who provided lead figures of amorini, vases, baskets of flowers and mythological figures, still identifiable at Melbourne, and most notably the lead "Vase of the Seasons" (1705), that is one of the finest examples of Baroque sculpture in lead in an English garden.

Nathaniel Kent

During his time there he studied the husbandry of the Austrian Netherlands, at that time thought to be the best in Europe.

Ostend Company

The success of the Dutch, British and French East India Companies led the merchants and shipowners of Ostend in the Austrian Netherlands to desire to establish direct commercial relations with the Indies.

Palatinate-Birkenfeld-Zweibrücken

In 1778/9 the Potato War was fought on Charles' behalf by Prussia and Saxony to prevent Charles Theodore, Duke of Bavaria, exchanging the Duchy of Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands as Charles was the heir of Bavaria.

Philippe Ambroise Eugène Ghislain d'Olmen de Poederlé

Philippe Ambroise Eugène Ghislain d'Olmen de Poederlé (7 December 1773, Brussels - 2 October 1815, Brussels) was a soldier and politician of the Austrian Netherlands.

Pierre Henri Hélène Marie Lebrun-Tondu

Increasingly critical of the Prince-Bishop, he, in July 1786, installed the presses in the Austrian Netherlands, in Herve (Limburg), near Liege.

Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine

Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine (Charles Alexandre Emanuel de Lorraine) (12 December 1712 in Lunéville – 4 July 1780 in Tervuren) was a Lorraine-born Austrian general and soldier, governor and de facto sovereign of the Austrian Netherlands, and sometime duke of Lorraine.

Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern

Louise was born in Mons, Hainaut, in the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), the eldest daughter of Prince Gustav Adolf of Stolberg-Gedern and of his wife Princess Elisabeth of Hornes, the daughter of Maximilian, Prince of Hornes.

Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis

She grew up in the Austrian Netherlands and later moved to Frankfurt, where her family's wealth and economic interests were based.

Rochefort Abbey

In 1789 the French revolutionary army invaded the Austrian Netherlands, and in 1797 the abbey was closed and sold to Lucien-Joseph Poncelet.

Siege of Brussels

A French army under the overall command of Maurice de Saxe, in a bold and innovative winter campaign besieged and captured the city of Brussels, which was then the capital of the Austrian Netherlands, from its Austrian garrison.

Sir Joseph Murray, 3rd Baronet

Count Murray was commander-in-chief of the Austrian army in the Austrian Netherlands from 1781 to 1787, being created Count Murray de Melgum in the Austrian Netherlands on 19 March 1783.

Suzette Defoye

On June 30, 1766, she was one of fifteen actors granted exclusive right by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria to perform in Brussels, known as the Ordinary Actors to H.R.H. Prince Charles of Lorraine, governor of the Austrian Netherlands.

Swedish East India Company

The reaction from the Swedish government was reluctant: the closing of the Ostend Company in 1731, based in Ostend in the Austrian Netherlands and closed down in 1731 following British pressure as part of the Treaty of Vienna boded ill for the Swedes' competition against the main powers, where trade and politics were so intimately associated.

Théâtre du Palais-Royal

Later that year when the French invaded the Austrian Netherlands, under the command of General Charles François Dumouriez, Montansier convinced Dumouriez to allow her and her troupe to accompany the army.

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin

He was then sent as envoy-extraordinary in Brussels until the conquest of the Austrian Netherlands by France.

United Kingdom of the Netherlands

This state, a large part of which still exists today as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, was made up of the former Dutch Republic (Republic of the Seven United Netherlands) to the north, the former Austrian Netherlands to the south, and the former Prince-Bishopric of Liège.

United States of Belgium

Influenced by the Enlightenment, Emperor Joseph II, who became sole ruler of the Habsburg lands after Maria Theresa’s death in 1780, decreed a series of large-scale reforms in the Austrian Netherlands designed to radically modernize and centralize the political, judicial and administrative system.

Walloon Guards

Until the Austrian Netherlands were overrun and annexed by the First French Republic in 1794, the region continued to supply 400 to 500 recruits per year to the Walloon Guards through a recruitment office in Liège.

War of the First Coalition

These powers initiated a series of invasions of France by land and sea, with Prussia and Austria attacking from the Austrian Netherlands and the Rhine, and Great Britain supporting revolts in provincial France and laying siege to Toulon.

Willem Anne Lestevenon

In July 1785, the States designated him on a special mission to Marie-Christine von Habsburg-Lorraine, governor of the Austrian Netherlands to solve the problems which had started with the Kettle War, resulting in the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1785).

Willem Bentinck van Rhoon

He was unsuccessful in his attempt to renew the full recognition of the Barrier Treaty by Austria, though the Dutch Republic was allowed to resume possession of the Barrier Fortresses in the Austrian Netherlands.