Karel de Croese
Karel Aeneas de Croeser, burgemeester van Brugge
Born
Karel Aeneas Jacobus de Croese

14 July 1746
Bruges, Austrian Netherlands
Died22 January 1828
Bruges, United Netherlands
Alma materUniversity of Leuven
OccupationsDepartmental Council chairman
Mayor of Bruges
Poet
Genealogist
SpouseAnna de Carnin de Staden (1747-1803)
Children
  • Charles Joseph Ange de Croeser (1778 — 1857)
    * Jean Louis Enée de Croeser (1780 — 1849)
    * Louis-Vincent de Croeser (1783 -)
    and at least one other son

Karel Aeneas Jacobus de Croeser (Charles-Enée-Jacques de Croeser) (14 July 1746 — 22 January 1828) served as the Mayor of Bruges (Brugge) between 1803 and 1813, and then for a second ten-year term from 1817 to 1827.

Biography

He was the first man to be elected the post after the contentious establishment of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815. By that time, he had already achieved a wider source of notability as a poet and genealogist.[1][2]

Provenance

Karel Aeneas de Croeser was born in Bruges at a time when almost the entire southern part of the Netherlands was flourishing economically as a semi-detached Austrian province. His father, Karel Jozef de Croeser (1701-1775), was an army officer. Both his father and his mother, born Marie Charlotte Stochove (1724-1774), came from prominent Flemish families.[1]

Early Years

His secondary schooling was with the Augustinians in Bruges, after which he moved on to study successfully for a degree in Law at the (not yet split) University of Leuven, on the far side of Brussels. By January 1792 he was back in Bruges. He embarked on a career in public administration, working as a municipal "Schepen" (sometimes translated as "magistrate") in the second to last city administration to be appointed before the entire region was over-run by French revolutionary "citizen armies". In 1794, as far as surviving sources disclosed, he disappeared for three years. He resurfaced in 1797, still based in Bruges, as a member of the departmental council for the recently created department of Lys, in a by now greatly enlarged version of France. The departmental council quickly became indistinguishable, in terms of its membership and principal activities, from its Ancien Régime precursor. 1802 marked the start of his lengthy incumbency as chairman of the departmental council.[1]

Mayor of Bruges

In addition, de Croeser was appointed Mayor of Bruges in 1803, remaining in the post without a break until 1813. He was succeeded by Jean-Jacques van Zuylen van Nyevelt who after 1815 combined his civic responsibilities with membership of the Dutch parliament ("Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal"). However, in 1817 van Nyevelt abruptly withdrew from both national and city politics, probably in order to spend more time with his young second wife and their expanding family.[lower-alpha 1] Karel Aeneas de Croeser then returned to office as the city's mayor, serving between 1817 and his resignation in 1827.[1]

There was much that de Croeser did for the city. The arrival of French revolutionary invaders in 1794 marked the start of a new age of government-mandated secularism, and in 1800 he organised the removal of the great bell from the Church of Our Lady ("Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk") and had it rehung in the city's belfry. In its new position the bell was first rung in order to celebrate the Treaty of Amiens, celebrated by politicians and historians on both sides as an important (if rather short-lived) triumph.[1] As regards the bell tower, this would not be the last time that de Croeser provided for additions and enhancements to the bells that regulated business and life in the city.[4] On the front of the belfry he had a large replacement statue of the Virgin Mary placed in the empty niche above the entrance, to replace the one that had been destroyed in the French Revolution a few years earlier.[4] He had the Boeveriepoort (city gate) rebuilt in 1811. He also, in 1819, reinvigorated the "Noble Fraternity of the Holy Blood" after two decades during which it had been repressed and subsequently become terminally dormant.

One out-of town project to which he devoted his energies was the development of the city's "Central Cemetery", a short distance outside the walls, along the route towards Oostkamp. The first burial there had taken place in 1787. But citizens had been reluctant to bury their deceased relatives outside the confines of the city; and it was only in 1804, under Mayor de Croeser, that burials within the city walls were ended. Prominent families were encouraged to set the right example, and he had a special mausoleum constructed at the cemetery for the bodies of leading citizens. His own was one of the first bodies to end up in it.[1][5]

De Croeser and Napoleon

On 11 July 1803 de Croeser welcomed First Consul Napoleon to Bruges. He wasn't a fan of the new ruler, and was later reprimanded by the prefect for having had the flag on the belfry lowered before Bonaparte had even left the city.[1][6] The visit was subsequently celebrated with a painting by the establishment portraitist Joseph Denis Odevaere showing de Croeser and Napoleon. Completed in 1807, the painting still (in 2020) hangs in the city hall.[6] When the artist embarked on his commission there was already available a portrait of de Croeser, possibly originally created as a preliminary study for another work. For his portrait of the two men together Odevaere carefully cut out the existing available portrait and had it carefully sewn in an appropriate position on his new canvas, with the result that keen eyed viewers may gain the initial impression that the portrait of the men together has at some stage been badly damaged and thereafter repaired.[6] By the time of Napoleon's next visit to Bruges, an arguably more impressive portrait of Karel Aeneas de Croeser had been produced, by van der Donckt,[7] which in 2020 was reportedly hanging in the city hall near the earlier.

In 1804 Napoleon crowned himself emperor, and by the time of his second visit to Bruges, in 1810, had divorced his first wife. He arrived, instead, with his new wife, Marie Louise I. The second visit was very much more cordial than the first, and Karel Aeneas de Croeser found himself awarded the prestigious Legion of Honour. The double portrait of the two men in the city hall was hastily amended to show the relevant insignia attached to the mayor's coat, which had also at some point found their way onto the Van der Donckt portrait.[6]

Homes

De Croeser owned a substantial house in the Gouden-Handstraat (literally "Golden Hand street"). But for much of each year he lived out of town at Ten Berge, a large castellated manor house a short distance outside the city, to the north.[1][8] He owned an extensive library and family archive which included much written material from the sixteenth century historian Nicolaas Despars, some of which was later re-published during the nineteenth century.[9] The archive also included the De Hooghe manuscript and the important Gruuthuse manuscript.[10] There was a large collection of ancestral portraits as well.

Family

Karel-Aeneas de Croeser married Anna de Carnin de Staden (1747-1803) in 1777. The marriage was followed by the births of four sons. Two of the four married and became patriarchs in their own right, but the family line is believed to have died out with the death of Alexandre de Croeser (1839 - 1903). He had married Euphémie de Ruysscher (1835-1911), but their only child was stillborn.[11]

Publications (selection)

Besides being a Latin-language poet, de Creuser produced a number of extensive works on genealogy, which he published independently:

  • Abrégé généalogique de la parenté de messire Michel Drieux, dit Driutus, Brugge, 1785
  • Généalogie de la très noble et très ancienne famille de Stochove, originaire de la Province de Gueldres (…), Brugge, 1790
  • Epitaphes, memoires et inscriptions sepulcrales de la famille de Croeser, originaire de la province de Zélande, anciennement comprise dans la noblesse chevalereuse de l’Isle de Walcheren, Brugge 1790, groot folio, 30 p.
  • Histoire généalogique de la famille De Croeser et de plusieurs autres familles nobles qui lui sont alliées, Brugge, z.d. (a compilation of a number of separate studies)[2]
  • Généalogie ascendante de Jeanne de Marivoorde, dame de Berges, deuxième épouse de Jean de Croeser, Bruuge, z.d.

Notes

  1. ↑ Van Zuylen van Nyevelt's first marriage was childless. Following the death in 1815 of his first wife, born Marie-Elisabeth de Wijkerslooth, he remarried in 1817, at which point he was already over seventy. This marriage, to his kinswoman Julienne van Zuylen van Nyevelt, was followed by the recorded births of thirteen children over the course of the next seventeen years. Jean-Jacques van Zuylen van Nyevelt was 93 when he died.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Andries Van den Abeele. "Karel Aeneas Jacobus de Croeser". De burgemeesters van Brugge van 1800 tot 1977. Retrieved 1 September 2020.
  2. 1 2 Charles De Croeser de Berges (1790). Histoire généalogique de la famille De Croeser, et de plusieurs autres familles nobles, qui lui sont alliées: rédigée d'après un grand nombre de chartres ... ; suivi des preuves et pièces justificatives ... de l'imprimerie de la veuve De Moor et fils.
  3. ↑ Cécile Randaxhe. "M Jean-Jacques van ZUYLEN van NYEVELT". Born 11 October 1752 (Wednesday) - Brugge, 8000, West-Vlaanderen, Belgique: Deceased 23 January 1846 (Friday) - Brugge, 8000, West-Vlaanderen, Belgique, aged 93 years old: Bourgmestre de Bruges. Geneanet. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  4. 1 2 Linda Dawn Hammond (photographer-compiler. "Great Bell mechanism, Belfort Belfry of Bruges, Grote Markt, popular tourist tower 1240". "The 'Bell Maria' had been cast in 1680 by the Antwerp bell founder, Melchlor de Haze. The bell weighs approximately 6 tons, has a diameter of 2.06 metres and is 2.13 metres tall. In 1809 a new bell was built for the great bell, meaning it could be used again. The inscription on the bell reads: De Croeser Maire Fit Construire ce Beffroi. 1809' (Mayor De Croeser built this belfry). De Croeser was the mayor of Bruges at the time.". Alamy Ltd. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  5. ↑ Stefanie Hap (2007). "Aanleg Brugse begraafplaats" (PDF). De Brugse Bregraafsplaats: een stille getuige .... Een doorgedreven archiefstudie. Universiteit Gent. p. 16. Retrieved 2 September 2020.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "De bestekkoffer van Napoleon". Een leren koffer met de gekroonde initialen N.E., bekleed met blauw fluweel waarin een negendelig zilveren servies ligt, zou wel eens een geschenk van keizer Napoleon Bonaparte aan Brugge kunnen zijn... Musea Brugge. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  7. ↑ Joseph Octave Van der Donckt. "Portret van burggraaf Karel Aeneas de Croeser burgemeester van Brugge". Art in Flanders. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  8. ↑ "Castle ten Berghe". Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  9. ↑ Nicolaes Despars (1837). Cronijcke van den lande ende graefscepe van Vlaenderen, van de jaeren 405 tot 1492. De Jonghe.
  10. ↑ Andries Van den Abeele. "Van Gruuthuse tot Van Borsselen". Zes eeuwen Gruuthusehandschrift en zijn mogelijke eigenaars. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
  11. ↑ Richard Remmé (compiler). "Charles Aenée Jacques baron de (Charles Aenée Jacques, baron de) Croeser de Berges Baron, Seigneur de Berges, Ryne, Cnocke, Ten Torr (1746-1828)". Baron , Seigneur de Berges, Ryne, Cnocke, Ten Torre et Ter Walle. Coret Genealogy. Retrieved 3 September 2020.
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