Charles de Brouckère (1757–1850)

Charles de Brouckère (6 October 1757 – 29 April 1850) was a Belgian, Flemish politician who was a lawyer, high official and statesman during the Austrian rule, under the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and later in the Kingdom of Belgium. He was knighted in 1817 and became a nobleman.

Charles de Brouckère married with Charlotte-Marie-Anne-Colette de Stoop (1767–1846) in Bruges in 1793.

They had five children:

• Charles de Brouckère (1796–1860), later Mayor of Brussels
• Marie-Pauline de Brouckère (1797–1844)
• Pauline de Brouckère (1798–1854)
• Henri de Brouckère (1801–1891), later Prime Minister of Belgium
• Édouard de Brouckère (1802–1836)

In his life, he achieved a number of political goals under different rulers.

Ancien Regime

Charles de Brouckère got his decree in law in Leuven in 1782, and he became a lawyer in the Flemish Council a year later.

In 1789, he became schepen of the Brugse Vrije and in 1796, he became chairman of the district bank in Bruges.

French rule

• In 1800, he became a counsellor in the Court of Appeal in Brussels.
• In 1807, he returned to Bruges as chairman of the Criminal Court for the Leiedepartment.
• In 1811, he became chamber president in the imperial court in Brussels.
• In 1813, he was elected member of the imperial executive body for the district of Bruges.
• In February 1814, he was appointed by the Allied as Commissioner General on Home Affairs, taking responsibility for the police force within the temporary government.

United Kingdom of the Netherlands

• On 1 May 1815, he was appointed as royal commissioner for the organisation of the provinces of Namur and Henegouwen.
• On 16 September 1815, he was appointed as Governor of Limburg.
• In 1821, he was appointed as State Councillor of Extraordinary Service.
• In 1828, he became a member of the First Room of Representatives of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Kingdom of Belgium

• In 1836, he became member of the Noble Brotherhood of the Holy Blood.
• In 1841, he started working as a lawyer in Bruges again, although he didn't have many cases to run considering his age at the time.

He died as a nobleman, aged 92, having had a great political career, but he was quickly forgotten. He is often confused with his son, who bears the same name and became Mayor of Brussels. In 1908, the last of his descendants died childless, meaning his family tree stopped completely.